Ebooks
Ebooks offer many advantages to people who want to read books in English in Israel. You can get a wider variety of reading material faster and cheaper than buying it in print. To date, ebooks are not as common in Israel as they are abroad, and libraries rarely stock them. While this situation may change in the future, for now, those seeking English-language ebooks have to find them online.
The most common way of obtaining ebooks is to purchase them from commercial vendors such as Amazon and Barnes and Noble. However, there are some options for accessing ebooks for free.
1. Ebooks from AACI's Sharon Woodrow Memorial Elibrary
If you are a member of AACI, you can download 50,000 fiction and non-fiction ebooks for all ages from more than 1,000 trade publishers to read on your computer, tablet or smartphone. The library has recently added titles from Harper Collins.
2. Ebooks from libraries abroad
If you still own a library card from a library abroad, you should be able to download ebooks from their collection, even while you're in Israel.
3. Free ebooks on commercial sites
Commercial vendors offer some ebooks, even ones that are still within copyright protection, for free.
Amazon's site here explains a bit about what they have to offer. In some cases, you actually have to have a Kindle to read the titles. In other cases, you can read the books using the free Kindle app on a tablet or other device. Amazon also provides a list of its best selling free ebooks. Here's a list of the free ebooks they offer on the Kindle. However, getting at complete lists of what they offer for free is somewhat difficult. Jungle-search.com is a search engine that allows you to tailor your search. It defaults to the American Amazon site, but you can change the setting to search in other Amazon sites.
Amazon has also introduced an ebook lending library. However, as of now, you have to own a Kindle (not just have a Kindle app) and be an Amazon Prime member in the U.S to take advantage of it. The library allows such people to choose from thousands of books to borrow for free -- including more than 100 current and former New York Times Bestsellers -- as frequently as a book a month, with no due dates. The good news is that Amazon seems to be expanding this option. In October 2012, it made its lending ebook library available to Prime members in Europe.
If you are a mystery fan, you may want to follow the Omnimystery News. Their blog has frequent postings of free mystery ebooks on Amazon.
Barnes and Noble also offers free ebooks for their Nook reader.
4. Free ebooks on non-commercial sites
There are also non-commercial sites that offer free ebooks, many of which are out of copyright protection. Four of the largest are Project Gutenberg, The Internet Archive, The Open Library and Manybooks.net. Amazon offers detailed explanations for downloading books from these sites onto the Kindle or the Kindle app.
Google Books has also scanned a huge number of books that can be downloaded for free.
John Mark Ockerbloom at the University of Pennsylvania maintains an extensive list of sources for ebooks on his Online Books Page.
The most common way of obtaining ebooks is to purchase them from commercial vendors such as Amazon and Barnes and Noble. However, there are some options for accessing ebooks for free.
1. Ebooks from AACI's Sharon Woodrow Memorial Elibrary
If you are a member of AACI, you can download 50,000 fiction and non-fiction ebooks for all ages from more than 1,000 trade publishers to read on your computer, tablet or smartphone. The library has recently added titles from Harper Collins.
2. Ebooks from libraries abroad
If you still own a library card from a library abroad, you should be able to download ebooks from their collection, even while you're in Israel.
3. Free ebooks on commercial sites
Commercial vendors offer some ebooks, even ones that are still within copyright protection, for free.
Amazon's site here explains a bit about what they have to offer. In some cases, you actually have to have a Kindle to read the titles. In other cases, you can read the books using the free Kindle app on a tablet or other device. Amazon also provides a list of its best selling free ebooks. Here's a list of the free ebooks they offer on the Kindle. However, getting at complete lists of what they offer for free is somewhat difficult. Jungle-search.com is a search engine that allows you to tailor your search. It defaults to the American Amazon site, but you can change the setting to search in other Amazon sites.
Amazon has also introduced an ebook lending library. However, as of now, you have to own a Kindle (not just have a Kindle app) and be an Amazon Prime member in the U.S to take advantage of it. The library allows such people to choose from thousands of books to borrow for free -- including more than 100 current and former New York Times Bestsellers -- as frequently as a book a month, with no due dates. The good news is that Amazon seems to be expanding this option. In October 2012, it made its lending ebook library available to Prime members in Europe.
If you are a mystery fan, you may want to follow the Omnimystery News. Their blog has frequent postings of free mystery ebooks on Amazon.
Barnes and Noble also offers free ebooks for their Nook reader.
4. Free ebooks on non-commercial sites
There are also non-commercial sites that offer free ebooks, many of which are out of copyright protection. Four of the largest are Project Gutenberg, The Internet Archive, The Open Library and Manybooks.net. Amazon offers detailed explanations for downloading books from these sites onto the Kindle or the Kindle app.
Google Books has also scanned a huge number of books that can be downloaded for free.
John Mark Ockerbloom at the University of Pennsylvania maintains an extensive list of sources for ebooks on his Online Books Page.
