Updated on: September 3, 2024
Short on time? Here’s the best book torrenting site in 2024:
- The Internet Archive. It has a massive collection of legal books thanks to its collaboration with libraries worldwide, new uploads to the collection are quickly verified, and its torrents usually have a good number of seeders. It also offers the most available works in various ebook formats.
Book torrenting sites are often shut down because of copyright issues and replaced with fake sites that can harm your computer or harvest your data — torrenting sites, in general, can be loaded with malware posing as legitimate torrents.
I’ve compiled this list of legit book torrenting sites, which includes some of my long-time favorites for downloading legally accessible books. However, even legitimate sites can be targeted by copyright trolls, who intrude on user’s privacy and may even attempt to blackmail users.
That’s why I cover how to remain safe on book torrenting sites and what precautions you can take — read on to find out more.
Pro Tip: Using a VPN can protect your privacy while you’re torrenting. I recommend ExpressVPN — it supports torrenting on all its servers and has industry-leading security and privacy features. Good VPNs like ExpressVPN don’t keep logs of what you do online, so you’re responsible for your actions. While torrenting is legal in most places, torrenting copyrighted books without permission is illegal in many countries and constitutes copyright infringement. Please be responsible and make sure the books you’re torrenting aren’t pirated.
Editors' Note: ExpressVPN and this site are in the same ownership group.
7 Best Book Torrent Sites in 2024
1. The Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is my #1 recommendation for a legal book torrenting site. It was conceived as a digital library, with one of its goals being to provide universal access to books — its collection contains well over 40 million books and assorted texts.
It lets you download any public domain book from its collection either via torrent or directly, and it offers several different ebook formats, making it super convenient for readers with different devices.
In my tests, I torrented 20+ books in 3–4 minutes. This is because every book I looked at had at least 2 active seeders at any given time and because ebook formats usually have very small file sizes, in the range of only a few megabytes. If you use ExpressVPN to protect your privacy while torrenting, you’ll maintain those fast speeds because it has the fastest speeds of any VPN.
Another thing I really like about the Internet Archive is that it doesn’t have any ads on the site, because the organization is funded through other means, such as grants and donations.
2. TorrentGalaxy
TorrentGalaxy has a very large library of verified ebook torrents. I like how you can easily see if the file’s uploader is an admin, a moderator, or a trusted user. When I launched the torrents, I was glad to see the number of seeders and leechers matched up with the numbers declared on the site, since many torrenting sites deceive users about that. A good balance of seeders and leechers, which TorrentGalaxy has, adds credibility to a torrenting site.
The site’s interface is easy to navigate, but I don’t like the number of ads I got, with multiple banners on every page and even a few pop-ups. Even though the ads weren’t explicit (as they often are on torrenting sites), some of the pop-ups led to shady sites, so I recommend using a good VPN like Private Internet Access, which has an excellent ad blocker to keep you safe.
TorrentGalaxy also has copyrighted content available, so please make sure you only download files that are legal under your local laws. Also, from my research, it appears that TorrentGalaxy is blocked in Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, China, Denmark, Finland, Greece, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, Portugal, the UK, and the US.
3. TorLock
TorLock is a torrenting site that verifies its ebook torrents very quickly, so you can be sure the torrents you get from there are legit. The site’s interface is clean, and I like how TorLock’s torrents are neatly sorted into categories for easy browsing.
When I downloaded torrents from TorLock, the seeder and leecher numbers were usually accurate, except for some older torrents for more obscure titles. I also like the little health bar next to each torrent because it’s a great way to gauge the torrent’s availability.
However, every page triggered a pop-up ad, usually an explicit one, so I’d only use the site with a VPN that includes a good ad blocker.
Please make sure that the ebooks you download from TorLock comply with your local copyright restrictions. In my research, I found that TorLock is blocked in Australia, Denmark, Finland, India, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, and the UK; please be aware that accessing blocked sites could lead to legal trouble.
4. 1337x
1337x is a long-standing torrent site with plenty of verified, healthy torrents for ebooks. It marks torrents uploaded by trustworthy users with a blue or yellow bar, so you can avoid unverified torrents. The site shows all the essential info you need for torrenting, like seeders, leechers, the number of downloads, and the time since the torrent was last checked.
I only saw a few banner ads while browsing the site, but I like that you can make a donation in Bitcoin to remove all ads. However, there are a lot of 1337x copycat sites that are rife with malware or try to harvest your data, so I recommend using a VPN to protect your data just in case.
1337x appears to be blocked in 25+ countries, including the UK, Brazil, China, and India. Please make sure you remain in line with local laws and regulations and be sure to not download copyrighted content.
5. MyAnonaMouse
MyAnonaMouse is an invitation-only torrenting community, whose vetting process ensures the ebooks you torrent are safe and verified. It has strict rules and regulations to prevent malicious activities in the community, and its forum is a friendly, well-moderated environment.
However, everything I wanted to torrent was available on many other legitimate torrenting sites with large libraries that don’t require any registration. That said, it’s worth a shot if you’re looking for a dedicated torrenting community since I found mostly positive reviews and first-hand experiences by its users.
6. The Pirate Bay
The Pirate Bay is among the most popular torrenting sites, and it has a lot of ebooks. Although there’s a lot of verified torrents (which are marked with pink or green icons), there are also a lot of unverified, potentially malicious torrents.
I could usually find several torrents for each book I searched for, but some of them had no seeders, which is a red flag. Also, I like how users often leave useful comments, such as warning you if a book is badly formatted or converted into ebook formats, so I could avoid low-quality files like that.
The Pirate Bay has several ads here and there (mostly banners), but I was super annoyed by how often explicit ads appeared.
Please ensure that you don’t download copyrighted content from The Pirate Bay and don’t try to access the site if it’s blocked in your country. Since it’s one of the oldest torrenting sites out there, many countries have blocked access to it.
7. Nyaa
Nyaa is a great torrenting website with a focus on Japanese books and other media, including many ebooks of classic Japanese literature. The website’s interface is super clean and simple, so it’s really easy to find whatever you’re looking for.
I really like the community on Nyaa, since it leaves useful comments on practically every torrent, so you can easily determine if there are missing or corrupted files and if the translation is good or bad. However, the displayed seeder/leecher numbers are sometimes inaccurate, because when I loaded some torrents marked as dead, I saw that there were still active seeders.
I also really appreciate how Nyaa doesn’t have any ads, so the site is pretty safe to use and there aren’t any annoying explicit pop-ups to bother you.
Please check the copyright status of every book you want to download and be aware of local laws and regulations.
Are Book Torrenting Sites Safe?
Generally speaking, not all book torrenting sites are safe. First of all, dedicated book torrenting sites are rare, with most torrenting sites having dedicated sections for ebooks rather than being exclusively focused on them.
Most torrenting sites out there are unsafe, because many of them have malware disguised as legitimate downloads, and there are also fake sites that exist solely to harvest your data, putting your personal information at risk. Additionally, torrenting sites usually have a lot of incredibly annoying and sometimes explicit ads. Another issue is that torrenting sites often have copyrighted ebooks, which are illegal to download without permission from the copyright holders in most countries and could land you in some legal trouble.
This is why I recommend using a top-notch VPN to enhance your safety on torrenting sites. A VPN masks your real IP address and encrypts your internet traffic, which helps protect you against data harvesting. Also, many high-quality VPNs have an ad blocker feature, which I think is a must-have for torrenting.
Furthermore, some good habits can further protect you when using book torrenting sites. For example, you should always check user reviews and ratings of a torrent and its uploader. Also, be sure that the URL for the download button isn’t a redirect or goes to an ad. I recommend getting a high-quality antivirus program to scan downloaded files for malware in real time.
Editors' Note: ExpressVPN and this site are in the same ownership group.
Here’s a Quick Guide to Torrenting Books Safely:
- Choose a trustworthy torrenting site. Avoid putting your computer at risk by choosing a safe, verified site. My personal favorite is the Internet Archive, because it has an incredibly large library, and it’s 100% legal.
- Download and install a VPN that supports torrenting. A quality VPN will protect your torrenting traffic and maintain your privacy. I recommend ExpressVPN, because it’s super secure, it has lightning-fast speeds that are great for torrenting, it supports torrenting on all its servers, and it works with all popular torrenting clients.
- Download and install an antivirus to scan your torrented files. My #1 choice is Norton because it has great ransomware protection (which is needed on many torrenting sites) and real-time protection against malware.
- Start torrenting. You’re all set to torrent and read books without risk!
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I get into legal trouble for downloading books from torrenting sites?
Depending on where you live, torrenting copyrighted ebooks without permission could be illegal and result in legal consequences. I recommend the Internet Archive as my #1 book torrenting site because it’s dedicated to remaining legal and collaborates with libraries worldwide to give you access to its large ebook library. If you’re using any of the other sites on my list, please be careful and only download books that are legally available in your location.
How can I identify a fake book torrent?
In my experience, the most obvious sign of a fake book torrent is the wrong file extension. The most popular ebook formats are .epub, .pdf, .mobi, and .azw, so if you see a file that claims to be an ebook, but has .exe or some other extension, you can safely assume it’s a fake and could contain malware. You should only download verified torrents from sites like the Internet Archive or TorrentGalaxy, which diligently verify files uploaded to their collections.
Why do some book torrenting sites change their URLs frequently?
Torrenting sites often change URLs to evade copyright takedowns and to remain accessible despite being blocked by internet service providers (ISPs) in various countries. Using proxies or mirrors can help access these sites, but there are a lot of fake sites that pretend to be mirrors of a book torrenting site to try and harvest your data. That’s why I recommend using a high-quality VPN to protect your data while browsing for ebook torrents.
How can I identify a fake book torrenting site?
Fake book torrenting sites often have a large number of ads, sometimes malicious ones, and may ask for personal information or upfront payments before letting you access the site’s collection. Always check the domain name (many fake sites have domain names that are just a few characters off the actual site’s name) and read some reviews and user forums to check if the site is legit before downloading anything.
Just in case, I recommend getting a good antivirus like Norton, which protects your device if you accidentally stumble on a shady site that tries to inject malware.
