(This post about how to download free books is not a sponsored post, I just love reading!)
I’ve been an avid reader my whole life – these images are basically how I spent my entire childhood:
(I know, I’m adorable.)
Now that I’m an adult and have to acquire my own literature, it turns out that books ain’t cheap folks! I find it very hard to justify paying for a book I might only read once. Which leaves me with the *free* option of visiting the good ole library.
However, as the a lazy person I am, I just don’t feel like taking the time to go to a library, browse through the selections, and then physically return books while paying the late fee I will inevitably incur.
Luckily, there’s a perfect solution for my dilemma: The Libby App.
What is the Libby App?
The Libby App is an app that lets you check out e-books and audio books from your library, right from your phone. most importantly, it’s how you can get books for fee.
To use the app, all you have to do is connect your library card, which will give you full access to your library’s e-book selections. You can immediately download any e-books that are available, or put a hold on ones that aren’t. The app will even tell you the approximate wait time for a book that’s on hold. Once you download an e-book, you can instantly send it to your kindle/reading device so you can read it there instead of squinting at the tiny screen on your phone!
The best part: You can connect as many library cards as you want. This might be cheating the system, but I have connected library cards for my own Philly library, my parent’s suburb library, my friend’s NC library, and another friend’s St. Louis library. When a book is unavailable or has a long wait list at my library, I simply browse through the other libraries I have access to until I find the book available there!
Using this app has allowed me to keep up reading and support authors without breaking the bank (or the law), or putting in any true physical effort on my part. As a bonus, the app automatically takes the book back from your device when it’s due, so it’s impossible to earn late fees. (Another secret: If you keep your kindle on airplane mode, you can keep reading the book after it’s due date, without penalty).
Here are some books I’ve recently been able to download for free using the Libby app:
- Turtles All the Way Down
- Attached
- Words in Deep Blue
- The Nest
- Touch & Go
- The Highly Sensitive Person
- The Haunting of Hill House
Download the Libby App here. Happy reading!

xo,
Liz
Thank you so much for this!