A GitHub Repo Indexes 24,000 Chinese E-Books Across 1,000 Categories
One-sentence positioning: An open-source project that aggregates download links for various Chinese e-books, aiming to make acquiring good books simple.
A friend recommends a book, you excitedly search for it on an e-commerce platform, only to find you need a paid membership to download it. Or you finally find a free digital version, but the format is incompatible and won't open on your e-reader. Or you flip through several pages before realizing the book's content doesn't meet your expectations, wasting your time.
These problems all seem to find an answer in this project.
Github:
How big is it? Let's look at the data first
The most surprising thing about this project isn't its technical architecture, but its scale:
- Total number of books: Over 24,000
- Number of categories: 1,000
- Supported languages: Primarily Chinese
- Supported formats: Three mainstream formats: EPUB, MOBI, AZW3
- Source platforms: Major reading apps like Fanshu (formerly Fandeng Reading), WeChat Reading, JD Reading, and Himalaya
To describe it in one sentence: This is a project that reorganizes e-book resources from mainstream reading apps and opens them up to everyone for free.
What does 24,000 books mean? If you read one book a day, it would take you over six years to finish. What do 1,000 categories mean? From literature to quantum physics, from WWII history to coffee culture, it covers almost every reading interest you can think of.
How was this treasure chest built?
Although the author hasn't publicly disclosed the detailed automation process, we can infer the general approach from the project structure:
Automated scripts handle data collection — The project has a scripts/ folder, which typically stores scripts for automatically scraping, organizing, and categorizing e-book information. This means this library of 24,000 books wasn't entered manually one by one, but was formed through automated program collection, cleaning, and categorization.
Markdown files handle categorical organization — Each category (Literature, History, Popular Science…) is an independent Markdown file listing all books under that category. Each book includes its title, author, download link, and three formats. The advantage of this structure is that the files themselves serve as the database, making modifications and updates easy.
GitHub Pages provides online search — The project deploys an online search page supporting real-time search and multi-keyword search. You don't need to flip through pages; just type in a book title or author name, and the results appear instantly.
This combination of "programmatic collection + manual proofreading + online display" is a typical approach for many high-quality open-source resource libraries.
Why is it worth your attention?
Reason 1: Full format coverage, no device discrimination
The three formats provided by this project correspond exactly to different reading habits:
- EPUB suits most e-readers and is currently the most mainstream e-book format, with flexible layout and support for dictionary lookup and bookmark annotations.
- MOBI is the traditional Kindle format. If you use a Kindle, this is the most direct choice.
- AZW3 is also a Kindle format, but supports better layout effects and finer font rendering.
Whether you use a dedicated e-reader, tablet, phone, or computer, you can basically find a suitable format.
Reason 2: Fine-grained categories, easy to find books
A thousand categories sounds like a lot, but breaking it down, it addresses two types of needs:
By content: Literature, History, Popular Science, Management, Psychology, Mystery, Biography… This follows the traditional library classification logic. You search by topic and can easily locate your area of interest.
By region: China, USA, UK, France, Japan… This is divided by country or region, suitable for readers looking for books from specific cultural backgrounds.
There are also subdivisions by specific themes, like "WWII", "Cold War", "Tang Dynasty", "Song Dynasty" — this shows the books in this library aren't just general overviews, but in-depth thematic collections.
Reason 3: Reliable sources, books aren't randomly found
This project labels the source platform for each book — Fanshu, WeChat Reading, JD Reading, Himalaya. These aren't obscure file-sharing sites, but the most mainstream paid knowledge platforms in China.
What does this mean? It means the quality of these books is guaranteed. They aren't pirated resources randomly grabbed from the internet, but publications from legitimate reading platforms. While copyright is a sensitive topic, in terms of book quality, clear sourcing is actually an advantage.
Who is this project for?
Avid readers — If you habitually collect favorite books for repeated reading, this project helps you build a personal digital library, completely free.
Cross-device readers — EPUB on your phone, MOBI/AZW3 on your Kindle, switching devices for different scenarios. This project covers all your reading terminals.
Thematic researchers — If you're interested in a specific field (like WWII history, Chinese philosophy, management psychology), among a thousand categories, you'll always find a niche direction to delve into.
E-book format conversion beginners — You might not know the difference between EPUB and AZW3. This project lets you choose between three formats, which itself is a great learning process.
An interesting observation: The values behind this project
In an era of rampant AI-generated content and increasingly high barriers to paid reading, this project conveys a very simple philosophy:
Good knowledge shouldn't be locked behind high walls.
The author chose to organize the download links for over 20,000 e-books and open-source them on GitHub, accessible, searchable, and downloadable by anyone. This "sharing is value" attitude is the most direct embodiment of the open-source spirit.
Of course, we must also acknowledge that e-book copyright has always been a gray area. Whether this project can maintain long-term updates or will be taken down one day is uncertain. So, if you find truly valuable books, it's wise to save them early — because this generosity may not last forever.
How to use it? Three steps
Step 1: Find the entry point
Visit the project's GitHub page, or use the online search page. The online search is more suitable for daily use, with fast response and a smooth experience.
Step 2: Search for the book you want
Enter the book title, author, or keyword in the search box. Multi-keyword search is supported; for example, entering "management thinking" will match books containing both keywords simultaneously.
Step 3: Choose the format and download
Once you find the target book, the page will display download links for three formats. Choose according to your device.
Github:
Summary
The E-book Treasure Chest is not a complex technical product. It has no flashy interface, no mind-bending architecture. But it possesses something that technical products rarely have: massive, curated content.
24,000 books, 1,000 categories, three mainstream formats, sourced from four major reading platforms — manually organizing this information would take a single person at least several years. Through automated scripts, all of this has been compressed into a manageable scope.
If you are a book lover, this repository is worth bookmarking. Because it could become your future digital library.
My understanding
What touched me most about this project isn't its scale, but its "sense of completion".
Many open-source projects are half-finished products, with well-written READMEs but empty insides. This project, however, genuinely has 24,000 books, genuinely has 1,000 categories, and genuinely has a usable search function.
The author used technology to solve a pain point in reading acquisition: too many books, too tiring to find them. He did this thing, completed it, and opened it up to everyone.
This is probably the purest form of the open-source community — one person, one idea, a dose of patience, ultimately becoming something everyone can use.
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