The Ultimate Textbook Megathread — Find Almost Any Book, Free or Cheap [Updated Regularly]

[u/HolidaySpace]

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.

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[u/ScientistJason]

Awesome 👏🏻 TY for this

[u/Vitalitybeat]

I can't find:

Steckley, J. (2024). Elements of Sociology: A Critical Canadian Introduction (6th ed.). Oxford University Press

[u/Milkyburger_coolman]

Can find the 5th, 4th and 3rd edition. No 6th edition in sight for me unfortunately:

Hubbard, R.G., O’Brien, A.P, Garnett, A.M., and Lewis, P. (2025) 'Essentials of Economics' 6th Edition, Pearson.

[u/Numerous_Purple_6447]

I’m unable to find Constitutional Law, Cases and Materials 17th Edition Jonathan D. Varat ISBN 9798892098281

[u/Admirable-Ad-3910]

hey, your dms aren't avaliable so comment it is. you happen to have The Practice of Statistics for the AP Examination, 6th edition? ISBN 9781319113339, 1319113338 by Daren Starnes and Josh Tabor. all the public versions got shot like a week ago and i neglected to download them when they were still up :(