With the extortion-esque prices of books these days, it always feels good to stick it to the Man and grab a good deal on a read. And what better deal than free?

Book lovers everywhere can enjoy “free access to 300,000 texts online” this summer, according to an article in the L.A. Times.

A third of a million e-books will be on offer for a month at the first World eBook Fair, courtesy of Project Gutenberg and World eBook Library. The downloading frenzy will begin at the fair’s website as of July 4, Project Gutenberg’s 35th anniversary.

Penny pinchers can revel in bypassing World eBook Library’s usual annual $8.95 fee, and those who cherish the oldies-but-goodies can go hogwild with Gutenberg’s selections, which are made up of “mostly [books] no longer protected by copyright, [and] include fiction, nonfiction and reference books and will be available for worldwide readers in about 100 languages.”

Related links:
Read the L.A. Times article here