What do I need to know before I download and read? When nobody owns a work, it can be offered for free. Older works of literature, essays or plays are classified as public domain, which means the creative work isn't subject to copyright laws.

If you've looked for free books before, you might've noticed that most, though not all, are classics. The Next Chapter is a multipart series that examines the changing role of libraries in a connected world. Read more: The best gifts for readers in 2019

Here are 10 good ways of getting books for free on your desktop, laptop, phone or tablet, without breaking copyright law (and we know you never would).

Today, dozens of websites and apps offer everything from contemporary indie fiction to Elizabethan classics without charging you a penny. Free-lending libraries, which are celebrating National Library Week in the US, have moved online, too, alongside brick-and-mortar libraries that are reinventing themselves to stay relevant in the digital age. With the rise of Amazon and its Kindle, the convenience of buying books to read on a device took over. It used to be that paper books lined endless shelves. Thanks to the internet, the concept of a personal library is changing. That's where free digital libraries come in. But when you're reading several books a month, getting new titles the easy way, from Amazon or the bookstore, gets to be an expensive hobby. I love finding a good story and that stays with me long after I finish the last chapter. I don't discriminate when it comes to a good story, whether on my Nook, my Pixel 3 ( $114 at Amazon) or on the paper page.

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