Non-fiction books online for free - here they are
Whether for school, university, work or hobby: non-fiction books can be helpful in every situation. In this practical tip, we will tell you where you can find these online for free.
Non-fiction books online for free - here they are
From non-fiction books to the creation of websites to specialist articles on wave field synthesis - you can get one or two reads online for practically any topic for free. You will find what you are looking for with the following sources and tips:
- Google is great for finding free textbooks and nonfiction books. Simply enter the command "filetype: pdf" in addition to your topic to limit the search results to PDF documents. You can find introductory literature with other information such as "Fundamentals" or "Basics". Terms such as "thesis" or "diploma thesis" lead to advanced theses.
- Die Zeit Online invites you to take a nostalgic journey through time: All articles from all time issues are available free of charge.
- Galileo Computing offers free e-books in German on the subject of computers for online browsing and downloading.
- Computer Literature online reading links to websites that offer free e-books on the subject of computers in English or German.
- bookboon.com finances free textbooks on various topics from all areas of life in German and English through advertising.
- Google Books occasionally provides results with the "E-Book Free" ad, which can be downloaded completely and free of charge after logging in. These are copies of books that are no longer subject to copyright. As a rule, it is the work of great scientists such as Gauß, Helmholtz or Riemann. You can find further help on refined Google Books search in another practical tip.
- From the University of Munich to the University of Hamburg to the Free University of Berlin - almost every university now offers theses free of charge. The German National Library summarizes all of them, but does not always reliably provide all results and access.
- The following tips are not only worthwhile for students. However, the free offer is significantly smaller for non-students.
Free online non-fiction for students
As a student, you get a lot of books for free, because university libraries today have contracts with many publishers and databases. Start your search from the university network:
- The NCBI scientific database primarily provides access to English-language books. Here you can either read online or download a PDF version.
- SpringerLink offers specialist literature in German and English, some of which is free of charge. Remove the tick from "Include Preview-Only content" and find free specialist books, specialist magazines and specialist articles for advanced users.
- EBSCO lists scientific and historical databases for free access.
- You can browse the websites listed above individually for the relevant literature or you can use the search function of the respective university library.
- An important tip: Students and university staff can log in locally at thousands of universities worldwide via Eduroam. Here you get access to all e-books for which the respective university has a license. If you have several universities in your area, a short trip to the neighboring university can be worthwhile.
If you would like to digitize your own books, our practical tip will help you. If you read a lot, Amazon Student could be worthwhile for you - as well as our practical tip for online shopping.