Top 10 Websites to Download Free eBooks

Digital Books or eBooks as they are popularly known have become a rage ever since the influx of eBook hand readers like Amazon Kindle, Apple iPad, Sony PRS eBook reader etc. Reading eBooks was never more fun. Here are some useful websites indexing hundreds and thousands of Free eBooks. Some are simple search engines, while others host free eBooks.

Top 10 Websites to Download Free eBooks

1. Google Books – It is a web search engine by Google specially for Books. Google digitizes books from different sources and then make them available on its servers. Copyright oblige, some are only partially published. Google Books allows public-domain works and other out-of-copyright material to be downloaded in PDF format.

2. Mega PDF – Mega PDF indexes more than 379 million free downloadable eBooks in PDF format. From novels to biographies to technology books, you can find everything here.

3. Pdfgeni – It lets you find and download books, novels, manuals, articles, document templates, reports, data sheets, and pretty much any information that is stored in PDF format.

4. Project Gutenberg – Project Gutenberg is the place where you can download over 30,000 free ebooks to read on your PC, iPhone, Kindle, Sony Reader or other portable device. PG has the largest collection of public domain books. Lots of books from the world’s greatest fiction authors such as Shakespeare, Mark Twain, Dickens are present here.

5. NeoTake – Neotake is a new eBook search engine which has indexed several eBooks in various formats like ePUB, PDF, LRF, TXT, Mobipocket etc. It also has a mobile version of the site. More than 200,000 eBooks have been indexed currently.

6. Free-EBooks – Free-eBooks is an online source for free ebook downloads, ebook resources and ebook authors. Besides free ebooks, you also download free magazines or submit your own ebook. A bit of a downside is that you need to register before downloading your favorite eBooks.

7. ManyBooks – ManyBooks provides free ebooks for your PDA, iPod or eBook Reader. You can randomly browse for a ebook through the most popular titles, recommendations or recent reviews for visitors. There are more than 26,658 eBooks available here and they’re all free!

8. Search PDF eBooks – It’s another cool PDF eBooks search engine with millions of books in its database. Ignore the excessive ads and just enjoy the free ebooks!

9. ReadPrint – Free online books library for students, teachers, and the classic enthusiast. Thousands of stories, poems and novels listed down here.

10. KnowFree – It is a web portal where users are able to exchange freely e-books, video training and other materials for educational purposes and self-practice. It contains loads of free technology, engineering, web development and Business skills ebooks and in addition, there are lots of video tutorials available.

So which one is your favorite? If you have any recommendation worth mentioning here, mention that in the comments section.

Why Investing In Self Education Is A Good Idea

Investing in self education- sounds like one of those looks-good-only-in-the-book quotes, right? Benjamin Franklin had once said- An investment in knowledge always pays in your best interest.

You have heard and seen people investing in real estate and mutual funds. However, investing in self education is something that many of us are unaware about. Let’s take a look at the benefits it brings you…

– Secured: Once invested, nobody can take it from you. It also opens gate for a secure retirement.

– Earnings: We all know that once learnt, knowledge brings you dividend for the rest of your life. Infact, this is one of those, which brings you high return on not-so-big investment.

– Raises your esteem: As you don’t have to depend on anybody else for financing your education, it creates confidence and security around money.

The investment is self education requires time, effort and money. I am guessing that is one of the biggest reasons as to why doesn’t everyone master these essential skills for investing and developing financial literacy.

Financing your education is one of the greatest bargains of your life, especially if you start off at an early age. It costs little, risks nothing and gives you huge returns all your life. Is it not the best investment you’ve heard of?

We live in a fast changing, rapidly adaptive world. Things that weren’t possible yesterday, are on a high today. But to be on a look out for such opportunities, requires you to keep learning, especially updating yourself on new way of doing things.

All you need to do is put out the effort and a lifetime of benefits is yours for the taking. Afterall a little extra effort put in now, for a lifetime of financial security sounds better and more reliable than avoidance now and a lifetime of financial stress, does it not?

Free Online Course For People Belonging To Arts And Culture Background

One of the toughest career challenges for someone with great interest in arts and culture is getting a concrete platform.

The celebration of culture has played an important role in the establishment of various civilizations.

Imagine the consequence when a cultural idea gets technological wings.

Vanderbilt University in association with Coursera offers an online course on innovation in Arts and Culture, for free.

Innovation is buzzed.

Everyone is talking about it, and they’re doing it in grand terms. But the effect will only be seen when there comes a radical change. The free online course developed by David Owens at Vanderbilt University is customized for the cultural sector by the National Arts Strategies (Virginia, U.S.A). The course aims at helping people from arts and culture background to create an environment where new ideas are constantly created, shared, evaluated and the deserving ones and successfully put to work.

Those involved in arts and culture, have generally, lesser time and money for experimentation and risks, as compared to others. As a result of which, powerful ideas in the industry get stuck with no real action taken. The online study will help those in performing arts, museums and other cultural organizations build environments where new management and program ideas are created and worked upon.

Eligibility and Qualifications to enrol

The course is an initiative for people who are involved in arts and culture around the globe. You can enrol for the course online, as an individual, someone representing an organization, or as a whole team. Also, the course is available for organizations that deliver arts and cultural content activities around the globe.

Duration and syllabus

The duration of the course is eight weeks, which requires spending an average of 6-8 hours per week on the videos, assessments and quizzes.

The course syllabus consists of introduction, individual constraints, group constraints, organizational constraints, industry constraints, societal constraints, technological constraints, and lastly a session on what-if. The what-if session is about the adversities you might face while pursuing this career, how to deal with difficult situations and the time when failure is not an option for you.

Format

The course format consists of weekly video lectures with imbibed quizzes, short exercises, reading, case studies, several diagnostic surveys and a brief weekly evaluation paper. Because not all the registered users have the same learning objectives or available time, the course is offered at two levels of engagement: Standard Level and Studio Mastery Level.

Standard level is for candidates who engage in assignments, exercises and discussion projects, but do not have the time for an innovation project. They receive a Statement of Accomplishment at the end of their course.

Studio Mastery level is for candidates  who wish to master the course material and take part in the real-world projects, for the application of teachings of the course. They receive a Statement of Accomplishment- with Distinction at the end of their course.

To enrol in the course log onto the official website:  www.coursera.org