English reading online
Free English books
Table of Contents
Reading is one of the best ways to improve your English. You can read as fast or as slow as you can, you can easily re-read a section or part of the book. You can highlight, underline, easily find new vocabulary,… Plus, reading is a pleasure, it helps you relax and you might also learn something new.
Now more than ever, we need access to an online library, so we can read at home. Especially, when we have already read everything at home and we want something new. So, here are 2 amazing websites:
They both have many books and they are all FOR FREE. So, what’s stopping you now from picking up a book and start reading some English.
English-e-reader
They give you access to graded readers. This means, not the original books, but adapted/changed for a specific level. This is extremely useful for lower level students, who are not very confident in reading English. That way they have access to books which are easy to read for their level of English.
They have many different genres and 7 different reading levels:
All you need to do is SIGN UP
Create an account or join through Facebook.
Just fill in your name, an email, and your password check you’re not a robot and click REGISTER and you’re ready to go.
Once inside you can choose the level you are interested in. Just click on STUDY and click on SETTINGS.
There in the settings you can pick your level. Just select what level you want to read and save the changes.
You can also find the levels at the bottom of the page. There you can click on the level you want to have a look at.
Now you just browse through the books and select the book you want to read.
On every book you have some information, by clicking on the picture.
You get the title, the author, the level, what kind of story it is, some statistics of the book and a little summary of what the book is about.
At the bottom you find the TEXT ANALYSIS box with the amount of words, and the amount of unique words.
Underneath you have a list of the HARD WORDS: these are the difficult words for the book.
At the bottom of the page you have the options for you to read. You can:
- Read it online through your web browser
- You can download it in different formats for different e-readers
- You can download the audio and listen to someone reading the book for you
So, go SIGN UP and start reading in English again. Enjoy!
Openlibrary
This is from the internet archive, so they not only have books, they have so much more and again all for free. The only difference here is that these are originals, so for students who feel confident in English and can read books that are meant for native English speakers. Still, you could also just start with the children’s books and work your way up…
Just SIGN UP
Fill in your email, pick a username and password, select you’re not a robot and click SIGN UP.
Then just confirm your email address.
And you’re ready to go.
Now all you need to do is find a book:
- You can search for a book
- Have a look at subjects
- Have a look at some book lists from other people
Click on the picture of the book to get some more information.
You can also click on READ and start reading the book.
Or you can download the book as an Epub or a PDF.
Just not all book are available, so it might be that you click on a book and you can’t read it. Others you can only BORROW or LISTEN to. Still, you’ll have more than enough books to last you a few lifetimes.
And like I said it’s part of the internet archive, so you have also access to:
Websites, video, audio, software, Images,…
So, SIGN UP and start exploring and enjoying.
Now you don’t have any excuse anymore to start reading in English!
Spread the word
Kristof Abrath
Teacher, Trainer, Course Designer
Teaching in English on 4 different continents since 2006.
