Disclosure: I am an ebook evangelist.
Update 2: As expected, Google and HarperCollins India seems to have been alerted of the leak and the free fest is now over. I hope the early birds got their worms.
Update 1: The free ebook count is now 40 (up from 39). Thanks Amit! Also URL structure changed to point to Google Play instead of Google Books.
There are tons of free ebooks available on the online bookstores, but much of them are books that are out of copyright (and also quite a lot of erotica), but very little of quality contemporary fiction and non-fiction. Once in a while an Amazon India will give away a free ebook a day for a couple of weeks, and that’s all. Therefore when I stumbled upon this stash of free ebooks on Google Play I couldn’t hide my excitement and immediately announced the discovery in a series of tweets [1] [2] [3] [4].
Though the custodian-of-Bollywood-trivia Diptakirti Chaudhuri pointed out that the entire HarperCollins film books catalogue seemed to be up for free, but the sceptical journalist part of me took over and after the initial denial that was followed by further investigation the conclusion is the not only the film books, but almost the entire HarperCollins India ebook collection on Google Play seems to be available for free and I could dig out 39 of them (so what if 39 40 doesn’t seem to be a big number, when it is all for free it is). Interestingly, these books don’t seem to appear under the free tab on Google Play.
Not sure if this is by desire, deceit or just a benevolent bug, but whatever it is download your copy now, lest amendments are made. I checked the other websites, and these books were selling at their usual prices.
Google may ask for your credit/debit card details in case you haven’t already signed up for Google Wallet and also make an temporary authorisation charge of Rs 50, that according to Google should “automatically expire from your statement in a few days.”
List of HarperCollins India free ebooks on Google Play
(In alphabetical order)
- Amul’s India [Read my review of the book here]
- Arzee The Dwarf, Chandrahas Choudhary
- Best Indian Short Stories – Vol. I, Khushwant Singh
- Best Indian Short Stories – Vol. II, Khushwant Singh
- Black Ice, Mahmudul Haque
- Bobby: The Complete Story, KA Abbas
- Calcutta Exile, Bunny Suraiya
- Chinese Whiskers, Pallavi Aiyar
- Controversially Yours, Shoaib Akhtar
- Deewar, Vinay Lal
- Delhi Noir, Hirsh Sawhney
- Gods and Godmen of India, Khushwant Singh
- Headley And I, S Hussain Zaidi
- I, Steve – Steve Jobs In His Own Words, Steve Jobs
- India – A Traveller’s Literary Companion, Chandrahas Choudhury
- India An Introduction, Khushwant Singh
- Jaane Bhee Do Yaaro, Jai Arjun Singh
- Keep The Change, Nirupama Subramaniam
- May I Hebb Your Attention Pliss, Arnab Ray
- Mediocre But Arrogant, Abhijit Bhaduri
- More Salt Than Pepper: Dropping Anchor with Karan Thapar, Karan Thapar
- Mother Maiden Mistress, Bhawana Sommya
- Olympics – The India Story, Boria Majumdar
- Potato Chips, Anushman Mohan
- Ravan And Eddie, Kiran Nagarkar
- RD Burman: The Man, The Music, Balaji Vittal
- Sex, Scotch & Scholarship, Khushwant Singh
- Tanzeem, Mukul Deva
- The Best Advice I Ever Got, The Business Today Team
- The Double Life of Ramalinga Raju: The Story of India’s Biggest Corporate Fraud, Kingshuk Nag
- The Householder, Amitabh Bagchi
- The Impatient Optimist – Bill Gates In His Words, Bill Gates
- The Intolerant Indian – Why We Must Rediscover A Liberal Space, Gautam Adhikari
- The Maruti Story, R C Bhargava (Link courtesy: Amit Agarwal
- The Moslems Are Coming, Azad Essa
- The Other Indians: A Political And Cultural History of South Asians In America, Vinay Lal
- The Sacred Grove, Daman Singh
- The Sikhs, Khushwant Singh
- The Sufi Courtyard: Dargahs Of Delhi, Sadia Dehlvi
- Women And Men In My Life, Khushwant Singh