The Ultimate Textbook Megathread — Find Almost Any Book, Free or Cheap [Updated Regularly]
Welcome to the Ultimate Textbook Megathread.
This thread is designed to help students find almost any textbook — free, cheap, rare, old, international, or hard to find.
Instead of wasting hours jumping between sites, this megathread compiles the best resources in one place.
What you’ll find here:
• Free textbook sources
• Rare book databases
• Cheap alternatives if free copies aren’t available
• ISBN lookup tools
• Research paper resources
• Backup methods for hard-to-find books
This thread is updated regularly to remove dead links and improve sources.
STEP 1: CHECK FREE SOURCES FIRST
1. Anna’s Archive
Best overall source for textbooks, rare editions, and academic books. Check wiki of r/Annas_Archive for the currently working domains.
2. Library Genesis (LibGen)
Great for STEM, engineering, medicine, business, and law. Check wiki of r/libgen for the currently active domains.
3. OpenStax
Free legal textbooks for core undergraduate subjects.
4. LibreTexts
Excellent for science and math resources.
5. Internet Archive / Open Library
Useful for borrowing older editions.
STEP 2: USE ISBN TO VERIFY THE EXACT EDITION
Before buying or downloading, verify your book here:
• Google Books
• WorldCat
• Google Scholar
Pro tip: Searching by ISBN usually gets better results than title.
STEP 3: IF YOU STILL CAN’T FIND IT
If you’ve checked the sources above and still can’t find your book:
Send me a DM or comment below with:
• Book title
• Author name
• Edition
• ISBN (if possible)
I may be able to help you locate a cheap copy, rare edition, international version, or alternative source.
A lot of books that seem impossible to find can still be sourced.
BONUS: RESEARCH PAPERS
For journals, papers, and supplementary material:
• Sci-Hub
• ResearchGate
• arXiv
Bookmark this thread. It’s built to save students time, money, and stress.
If you know another useful source, comment below and help improve the megathread.