# Project Gutenberg 76 Hacker News commenters recommended Project Gutenberg and 8 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 11 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** A large free library of public-domain books, downloadable as EPUB and plain text and readable in any browser. Critics say many books have poor formatting and dated scanned images. ## Why people recommend it - Free legal access to classic books (5 comments): "free and legal access to all the ebooks I could ever want from Standard Ebooks, Project Gutenberg" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48509767)) "I loved when I found StandardEbooks.org and Gutenberg - all these classic books for free." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46630550)) "has more books than you will be able to read in your lifetime for no cost" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49097084)) - Easy downloads on browsers and e-readers (4 comments): "You can download books directly from the Project Gutenberg website using the web browser on most eBook readers" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48151625)) "the old one was simple enough to load and directly download books on the device's built-in browser" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48151071)) "it was fast to load, had all the data I needed and I was downloading the ePub within 5 seconds" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48738801)) - Clean, simple, no-frills layout (3 comments): "it is actually quite a clean layout, easy to use, doesn't waste screen space" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48742451)) "I absolutely love how 'no-frills' PG is compared to so much of the bloated" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48160783)) "I love how usable the site is even with JS disabled!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48151969)) - Huge varied collection to browse (4 comments): "I’ve found plenty of interesting things by randomly wandering around on Gutenberg.org, completely undirected." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49022064)) "the amount of weird/interesting stuff that one would find nowhere else" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48151639)) "Library of 75k books seems pretty valuable to have direct access to." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48150909)) ## What people warn about - Formatting and typesetting problems (2 comments): "Project Gutenberg is a treasure trove, though many technical details defy automatic typesetting of its books." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48152770)) "sometimes the formatting leaves a lot to be desired" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48150991)) - Plain-text styling feels too bare (2 comments): "Project Gutenberg had (has?) a tendency toward plaintext that always put me off." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48151054)) "No to minimal styling would be great!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48154462)) - Dated low-resolution images and covers (2 comments): "my biggest complaint about Gutenberg is that a lot of books had images added back when low resolution images were the standard" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48164450)) "I love PG... but the covers stink." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48164358)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Anna's Archive](https://hackerapproved.com/p/anna-s-archive.md): 134 recommend - [Standard Ebooks](https://hackerapproved.com/p/standard-ebooks.md): 34 recommend - [Library Genesis](https://hackerapproved.com/p/library-genesis.md): 15 recommend - [LibGen](https://hackerapproved.com/p/libgen.md): 12 recommend - [SourceLibrary](https://hackerapproved.com/p/sourcelibrary-org.md): 11 recommend ## Where to get it - [Visit the official site](https://www.gutenberg.org/) ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Project Gutenberg", https://hackerapproved.com/p/project-gutenberg/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).