Computer Help and Support

You download the item and can keep it. Google Books often only adds it to your "library" so if you are offline you have no access to it. I learned that the hard way.

Before my knee replacements, I bought a tablet in order to have a reader. Rather than buy books that I wasn't sure I would be able to read, I searched for free online options. I was excited to find a bunch of old science fiction magazines on Google Books, clicked to download, and thought I would have them to read. When I was up to reading while in the rehab hospital, I found that their WiFi was out of commission so I couldn't get on DU. But I didn't worry since I thought I had those magazines to read.

No such luck - my Google Books virtual library was full of links but not one freaking book or magazine! I did have a couple I had downloaded from Archive.org and a few from Gutenberg.org, but even after I got out of the hospital I couldn't get access to those magazines from Google Books.

So there is another recommendation - Project Gutenberg at Gutenberg.org. They have a lot of classics though they are restricted to digitizing the printed word.