Free ebooks!

These free ebooks or etexts may be read on a computer using a simple text editor or viewer. The books are in the 'public domain' in Australia and all have been prepared by volunteers. Read about the background to PG. and read about ebook readers and ways to read the free ebooks available from this site.

Browse the list of all our FREE EBOOKS!
Most are exclusive to this site. More than 1,600 titles to choose from! Or, go directly to one of our popular titles:

• Animal Farm by George Orwell
• The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald
• Lady Chatterley's Lover by D H Lawrence
• Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
• Between the Acts by Virginia Woolf

AUSTRALIA
free ebooks

• Library of Australiana. Free ebooks by Australian writers, or about Australia!
• Australia's Greatest Books. A number of Australian 'classics' which are available as free etexts.
• Dictionary of Australian Biography. Biographies of more than 1000 people prominent in the development of Australia; explorers, artists, politicians, scientists, etc. All died before the end of 1942. An online free ebook.
• Australian Explorers. A chronology of Australian exploration with links to relevant free ebooks, together with an extensive list of Australian explorers and their biographies.
• Australian Explorers Journals. A virtual library of free ebooks, written by the explorers themselves.
• Australian History. Free ebooks relating to Australian History.
• The First Fleet. Details of the First Fleet which arrived in Australia in 1788.
• Australian Discovery. The first authenticated landing on Australian soil occurred in 1606. In 2006 Australians celebrated the 400th anniversary of the event. This page covers the period from 1606-1770. Many free ebooks.
• Timeline of Australian History. A list of of significant dates in Australian History.

OTHER INFORMATION
about our free ebooks

• Past Newsletters. Read past copies and subscribe to our monthly newsletter.
• List of birth and death dates. A list of the birth and death date of a large number of authors.
• Submitting eBooks to Project Gutenberg Australia. Guidelines for the submission of ebooks.
• Project Gutenberg Australia licence details.
• LINKS to other literary sites and resources to assist Project Gutenberg volunteers.
• GUTINDEX_AUS. A list of free ebooks posted to this site.
• Help with downloading our ebooks

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SPECIAL INTEREST
free ebooks

• 'SF'.--Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Superhero Fiction, Swords Fiction, Sorcery Fiction, Spies Fiction, Supernatural Fiction and Scary Fiction. Free ebooks. Read a book today!
• Crime and Mystery. Crime and Mystery titles from our extensive collection!
• Bestsellers. A list of the top ten bestselling books in both fiction and non-fiction categories for the years 1923 through 1953. Many are available from this site as free ebooks and links are provided. Read a bestselling book today!
• The Western World's Classics. More than 500 world 'classics', most of which are available as free ebooks.
• Cookery and Home Science.--Free ebooks covering cooking the old-fashioned way.
• Dr. Widger's Library. Dr David Widger has submitted numerous ebooks to Project Gutenberg. They are all listed here, with links to enable them to be download from PG. Check out "Widger's Quotations", memorable quotes gleaned from the texts themselves.
• Children's Literature--Free ebooks of classic children's stories.
• Biography and Autobiography. Biographical and Autobiographical free ebooks at Project Gutenberg Australia and Project Gutenberg
• Voyages and Travels. Free ebooks covering Voyages and Travels in all parts of the world.
• Nobel Laureates at Project Gutenberg. A list of winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature whose books are represented at Gutenberg Australia and Project Gutenberg.
• History of wine-making in Australia. Links to resources on this site and other internet sites.

ebook readers

Ebooks are digitised versions of paper books. That is to say they are computer text files, usually with the 'txt' or 'html' file extension. The ebooks available from Project Gutenberg Australia and Project Gutenberg, all of which are free of charge, can be read on any personal computer or laptop, using a text editor such as Notepad, which comes bundled with every copy of Microsoft Windows. However, when this basic method is used to read ebooks one is not able to bookmark pages for future reference or jump to a particular chapter from the Table of Contents.

These shortcomings, have been overcome by the development of software specifically designed to read ebooks on personal computers and laptops. Outstanding examples are Tom's eTextReader from Fellnersoft and yBook and yRead from Spacejock Software. This software boasts many features to make the experience of reading ebooks more rewarding. The yRead software will even read the book back to you, using a synthesised voice. You want more, I hear you say. Well, both offerings are free of charge and can be downloaded directly from the internet sites mentioned in this paragraph.

Microsoft Reader, for both PC an PocketPC is also very popular. The meaning of words can be looked up in a dictionary, and bookmarks can be added. Check out the Microsoft Reader site. Go to the Download page for free downloads.

Of course, books are not usually read while one is sitting in front of a computer. We want to be able to carry them with us and read them while sitting on a train, or while resting in an easy chair or at the beach. This need for mobility precipitated the development of proprietary ebook reading devices. Such devices have been around for quite a few years now, with varying degrees of success. Recently we have seen the release of several new offerings, including the Sony Reader and the Amazon Kindle. The software available for use with these devices allows for ebook files to be converted into a format which makes the ebooks easier to read on the device's screen.

Many people use their personal digital assistants (PDAs) to read ebooks. The most common of these is probably the Palm. These devices were not made specifically to read ebooks, so one usually needs to convert the basic text or file, which comprises the ebook, into a file format more suitable for display on the device's screen. The software available for use with these devices usually provides for this. Furthermore, Plucker software was specifically developed for just this purpose. It may be downloaded from the Plucker site, free of charge.

We must mention here the use of HTML, which is used universally on web sites to display content. Many of the ebooks available from Project Gutenberg Australia and Project Gutenberg are now provided in html format. By using this format, it is possible to display images in the ebooks and to provide a Table of Contents from which users can jump to the start of any chapter in the ebook. The use of coloured text and different printer fonts can also be used to enhance the appearance, readability and utility of the ebook. Some of the software and devices mentioned above support html files, however images which can be seen in the html files will not be seen.

It is hoped that this article provides practical information for people who want to enjoy reading ebooks. Should you require further information please contact us. We will certainly help you if we can.

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