Download for free: 40 HarperCollins India ebooks on Google Play

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)

1. Amul’s India [Read my review of the book here]
2. Arzee The Dwarf, Chandrahas Choudhary
3. Best Indian Short Stories – Vol. I, Khushwant Singh
4. Best Indian Short Stories – Vol. II, Khushwant Singh
5. Black Ice, Mahmudul Haque
6. Bobby: The Complete Story, KA Abbas
7. Calcutta Exile, Bunny Suraiya
8. Chinese Whiskers, Pallavi Aiyar
9. Controversially Yours, Shoaib Akhtar
10. Deewar, Vinay Lal
11. Delhi Noir, Hirsh Sawhney
12. Gods and Godmen of India, Khushwant Singh
13. Headley And I, S Hussain Zaidi
14. I, Steve – Steve Jobs In His Own Words, Steve Jobs
15. India – A Traveller’s Literary Companion, Chandrahas Choudhury
16. India An Introduction, Khushwant Singh
17. Jaane Bhee Do Yaaro, Jai Arjun Singh
18. Keep The Change, Nirupama Subramaniam
19. May I Hebb Your Attention Pliss, Arnab Ray
20. Mediocre But Arrogant, Abhijit Bhaduri
21. More Salt Than Pepper: Dropping Anchor with Karan Thapar, Karan Thapar
22. Mother Maiden Mistress, Bhawana Sommya
23. Olympics – The India Story, Boria Majumdar
24. Potato Chips, Anushman Mohan
25. Ravan And Eddie, Kiran Nagarkar
26. RD Burman: The Man, The Music, Balaji Vittal
27. Sex, Scotch & Scholarship, Khushwant Singh
28. Tanzeem, Mukul Deva
29. The Best Advice I Ever Got, The Business Today Team
30. The Double Life of Ramalinga Raju: The Story of India’s Biggest Corporate Fraud, Kingshuk Nag
31. The Householder, Amitabh Bagchi
32. The Impatient Optimist – Bill Gates In His Words, Bill Gates
33. The Intolerant Indian – Why We Must Rediscover A Liberal Space, Gautam Adhikari
34. The Maruti Story, R C Bhargava (Link courtesy: Amit Agarwal
35. The Moslems Are Coming, Azad Essa
36. The Other Indians: A Political And Cultural History of South Asians In America, Vinay Lal
37. The Sacred Grove, Daman Singh
38. The Sikhs, Khushwant Singh
39. The Sufi Courtyard: Dargahs Of Delhi, Sadia Dehlvi
40. Women And Men In My Life, Khushwant Singh