Here are our favourite sites where you can freely access reading material online.
Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg, the oldest online provider of texts, has over 25,000 free books to read. The number of books can be daunting, but you can search for a specific author or title, by ‘bookshelf’ (category) or you can browse the top 100 downloads. It is a very good source of classic literature, including plays and poetry.
Bibliomania
Bibliomania has more than 2,000 classic texts with the addition of study guides, biographies of authors, articles and interviews. You can also post your questions or opinions on the messageboard. You can search by author, title, type of literature or theme, or browse the latest recommendations by the site.
Short Fiction
If reading a complete novel online is not for you, why not try reading short stories instead? This website has over 2,500 short stories which have been submitted to the site by their authors. Genres include fantasy, horror, science fiction, young adult and travel. As well as the usual search filters, you can also search for specific words or phrases, and there is a forum where you can read and leave your comments about the stories.
Story
Run by the charity Booktrust and supported by the BBC, this site promotes the short story. While the number of stories can you download are fairly limited, they are all by published authors. There are also articles on writing short stories, reviews and a list of recommended classic short stories.
Wowio
One of the only sites with a selection of comic books as well as a good range of fiction and non-fiction.
If you prefer to listen to stories, try these websites:
LibriVox
BBC Radio 4
Short Story Radio
Spoken Ink
Shortbread
Posted by EditingAngel 