Free Korean Books 🎉

Korean Reading
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I was searching for something similar to Project Gutenberg in Korean, and discovered this site where you can download out of copyright books and other works in the public domain:

공유마당

How-to

Simply select 어문 (literature) from the top menu and you’ll see the newest works that have been added to the database of over 1 million(!!!) entries. You can browse by the number of downloads (다운로드순), views (조회순), or recommendations (추천순) using the drop-down menu on the left.

View in browser by clicking the black button labelled 원문보기, or to download, click the title of the work, check the box agreeing to the conditions, and click the blue 공유저작물 다운로드 button. (The first time you download, a box with a couple of questions will appear, but once submitted it won’t ask again.) Select the file type you want (there aren’t usually many options) and click 다운로드. That’s it!

Here are a few other ways to get free Korean books:

  • Korean online retailers: Sites such as Yes24, Aladin, and Ridibooks have selections of free ebooks, and sometimes the first volume of a series is free. You usually have to sign up to the site, and most Korean sites need you to verify your identity before you can access books, even free ones (the exception being Ridi).
  • Google Play: Like Korean retailers, some ebook series offer the first volume for free. The browsing experience isn’t the best, though.
  • Librivox: There are a handful of audiobooks in Korean you can listen to and download for free.
  • Open Library: Borrow Korean books from this online library.
  • The Internet Archive: Lots of Korean books, newspapers, magazines, and historical texts.

If you have any other recommendations, feel free to share! :smiley:

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For picture books, I recommend an app/ website called 두루책방. It offers short Korean picture books based on levels and also provides audio. You can also download the books as pdf and epub files. http://두루책방.com

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This looks really useful for beginners! Thanks for sharing, what a great find! :star_struck:

@brandon These seem equivalent to the Tadoku free books in Japanese (although aimed at native speakers rather than learners) - could these be added as graded readers, since they’re already organised by level?
Here I was, so sure nothing like this existed. :joy:

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Oh wow, these look exactly like the tadoku books! I love too that the epubs are under creative commons license, just like the tadoku, so we can host them here on platform.

@Jyinra FYI your original post was flagged as it mentioned a pirating platform. If you could remove that, that’d be great :slight_smile:

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Thanks for mentioning that. I just removed the flagged content.

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@Jyinra @bibliothecary 두루책방 - Free (series) | L3 books are now on platform! :slight_smile:

The ratings are total guesswork of course… but hopefully this series will serve as a good base for the lower ratings, just like tadoku free on the Japanese side.

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Looks like all of those books need the Free tag applied to them. Are they set up so they can be separately graded as well?

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Amazing! :partying_face:

And now of course I must read ALL of them. :rofl:

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Ah, good catch… fixed.

Yep, fixed!

biblio is indeed in your name :joy:

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bibiothecary’s going to have like 5000 grades on their Korean profile after this.

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And I will enjoy every one! :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

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That’s a great find! Websites offering free public domain books are wonderful resources. For those interested in children’s literature, many childrens book publishers also offer classic stories in the public domain. These books can be a great starting point for those looking to introduce young readers to timeless tales. Additionally, exploring these sites can inspire new adaptations and even the creation of modern children’s books based on these classics. Happy reading!

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