Questia Media has released a library of over 5,000 books for free access on its Web site. You can get started browsing at http://www.questia.com/publicdomainindex .

You can look at the top ten books (which include Tarzan, Freud, and Huckleberry Finn) or browse the collection alphabetically (by title or author.) Listings include title, author, publisher, and publication date (I guess these are all public domain books.) Click on a book and you’ll get a screen that looks something like Google Reader (make sure you have JavaScript enabled.)

You can page through, read the text, and search, but if you want to do things like highlight pages, you’ll need a Questia account. Despite the fact that access to these books is free, Questia itself is not. (There is a free trial available but it’s a trial.)

Since school is starting, this would be a quick place to find and search the classics if you’ve got a paper to do. Of course you’ve also got Project Gutenberg…