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The problem with these type of questions is that there is no general rule. You will always find exceptions. I will take a crack at a general rule, but I'm sure I will here about exceptions to this rule.
There are two general types of books, those with current copyright control and those that are now in the public domain.
The public domain books are freely available everywhere. Here at MR, Project Gutenberg, Amazon, Google Books, etceteras. There is no need to go to a secondary site for these books.
Then there are books that are under copyright control. These books are generally available only by web sites that are specifically authorized by the copyright holder. Usually, these fall into three categories. Commercial web sites, like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, smash words, fiction wise. Publishers web sites. And, the authors own web sites.
As a result there are very few web sites that have any value that allow random community members to upload books and to make them available. In general, I would concentrate on books uploaded directly by authors.
As an interesting side note, consider the community here on MR. If you are not part of MR, then this might sound exactly like those no-value, and web sites that just duplicates books that are available elsewhere. Actually, this is not true and MR is the exception that proves the rule. Generally, MR are available everywhere that you can find public domain books. The difference is that MR up loaders spend significant time proofreading and re-formatting existing public domain books in order to provide clean books. These are not existing books that are just Rey loaded.
As mentioned earlier, another exception is Baen books and the fifthimperium web site.
However, as a bottom line, if you find a web site that lets random visitors upload books your first inclination should be that either they are pirated or that the books are no different than those that are available elsewhere. If you want to investigate further, then look for a reason/mission like that at MR that leads you to believe that books that are not uploaded by copyright owners have any value.
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