How to Find and Download a Project Gutenberg Book in Guten

If you know roughly what you want to read, Guten can take you from a title or author name to an offline book in a few taps.

Search from Browse

Open Browse and enter a title or author keyword.

You do not need perfect bibliographic information. If you are looking for Middlemarch, search the title. If you want something by George Eliot but have not chosen a book yet, search the author.

Tap a result to open its book-details screen.

Check that you have the book you meant to choose

The details screen shows the title and author and, when Project Gutenberg supplies the information, other metadata such as language and subjects.

That quick check is worth doing when several similarly named works or editions appear. Guten is reading Project Gutenberg catalog data; it is not guessing which result you intended.

Tap Download Book

If the book is not already on the device, tap Download Book.

Guten shows download progress while the file is being retrieved. A network connection is required for the download itself.

When it finishes, the book becomes available in your Library and the main action changes to Start Reading.

Read it offline afterward

The downloaded book can be opened without a network connection. Your reading position is saved as you read.

This is the useful boundary to remember: browsing and downloading require access to Project Gutenberg, but reading a book you have already downloaded does not.

If you already have a Gutenberg link

You do not need to search the catalog again.

From the Browse area, Import from Gutenberg can accept a Gutenberg URL or ebook number. Android sharing can also hand a Gutenberg ebook link to Guten directly.

That is a different route to the same destination: the book in your Guten Library, ready to read.