Help and Instructions
Book-bot.com is simple. Here's all you need to know to get the most out of it.What is book-bot.com?
Book-bot.com is a website that lets your read over 14,000 books online, for free. From Aristotle to Émile Zola, there's sure to be something for you.
How do I get started?
It's simple - there's no signup required (but we recommend it to use some of the features), just browse for a book you want by Author or Title, by looking at the Featured Books, or by using the search box in the upper right corner of the page.
How do I get Book-bot to remember what page I'm on?
First, you need to sign up. To sign up we require an email address and a password. Just click the "Sign Up" link at the top of the page to sign up.
Why do you need my email address?
We won't ever spam you - we just want to be able to contact you in case you forget your password. Although the site allows anonymous users, that makes it a lot harder for us to keep track of what page of what book you are reading - so the advantage of signing up is that once you log in, we'll remember where you were, from any computer!
I signed up, so why can't I use the site?
Once you've signed up, you'll need to confirm that you provided a valid email address. During the signup process, we will send you an email. To confirm you got it, just check your email, open it, and click on the link inside. This tells us that you are in fact a real person with a valid email address.
I've confirmed my email address, now what?
Next, pick a book to read. With over 14,000 books, you're sure to find something that interests you. Our featured books on the front page probably contains a few books you've always wanted to read. Or you can search for a book using our search box at the upper right.
How does the search box work?
You can search by author or title. The search limits results to 100, so if your search is too vague you might not find what you want. If you know the exact title, try putting it in quotes, like "Great Expectations" - this should narrow down the results better. For author searches, try last name, comma, first name, in quotes, like this: "Dickens, Charles" Sometimes an author has accented characters in their name like Emily Brontë - in that case, try searching by title - "Wuthering Heights"
Why don't you have this particular book?
In keeping with copyright laws in the USA, we can only provide books that are no longer under copyright. Basically what that means is that we don't have any books written within the last 75 years - but don't worry, there's still THOUSANDS of great books that we do have!
How do I start reading a book?
Once you see a book you want to read, just click on the title of the book. This will take you to our reading interface, which allows you to go to the next page, go to the previous page, and tells you what page you're currently reading.
What if I want to take a break?
Just close your browser, or turn your computer off, or browse to a different website. You don't have to bookmark anything, or even remember anything, for that matter! Part of our appeal is that we keep track of what page you're on, so you don't have to. When you come back to the website and login, you'll be whisked to the very same page of the very same book that you were reading when you left.
Where's the dictionary?
If you're reading a book and you come across an unfamiliar word, try double-clicking it. A small, draggable window will appear and we'll try to define the word for you.
How can you provide so many books for free?
The books were all free for us, so we pass those savings on to you! Actually, the only books you'll find here are no longer under copyright in the USA (you should check your country's copyright laws if you're outside the USA). We got them from Project Gutenberg, an awesome project where volunteers donate thousands of hours to type/scan, proofread, and distribute classic books across the internet. We went ahead and removed all the Project Gutenberg boilerplate to make the books easier to read - but if you ever want to download entire books, or get eBooks for your PDA, you should check there first.
