Feedbooks
Written on 02/27/2013 at 1:00 pm by eBook-mom
Feedbooks is an e-book retail website with an excellent selection of e-books that are free to download. What makes this website unique is the ease of downloading e-books in languages other than English. Feedbooks has books available in French, Italian, Spanish and German. To access the website in one of these languages, go to the bottom of any Feedbook webpage and you will find a column with links to the English, French, Spanish, Italian or German version of the website. I found it very interesting to glimpse the internet in a language other than English. The website design and interfaces stay the same but the books featured change. Each different language has an interface that features different books. Being able to see the different e-books that Feedbook features for each language, makes it easier to find books of interest. Another way to find e-books in another language is to choose a category and in the category view, you will see links to e-books in the languages offered by Feedbooks.
Do you remember?
Do you ever wonder if you can still read and understand the foreign language that you studied in high school or college? Feedbooks has given me the opportunity to challenge myself and find out what I do remember from French class. Not only can you find some of the classics in a language other than English but there are some pretty nifty titles on some interesting subjects. It's always easier to read something of interest, especially when it's in a language that you are struggling with. I'm one of those gals that likes to skip to the end before I read the entire book so if the ending is really interesting; I'm psyched about reading what comes before the ending.
Feedbook features
The Feedbooks interface is pretty basic for an e-book website. You can view featured e-books or you can drill down to the category of e-books that you are interested in. The featured e-book selection shows thumbnails for the e-book and a download button but no summary. When you search for books by category, you will find the thumbnail, summary and a download button. The category page also notes the sub-category the e-book belongs to under the download button. When you choose the language in the category section, the interface remains in the language of your choice but the summaries of the e-books change to the language they are featured in. The change in language indicates that you are able to access the e-book in the language of the summary. The selection of e-books in the category will change depending on what e-books are available in that language which makes it easier to find e-books that you might not otherwise be familiar with.
Format choices
There are three format choices for download: epub, kindle or PDF. Feedbooks is designed with mobile reading in mind, so you won't have any problems downloading an e-book to your tablet or device. If you want to read more about the e-book before you download, the summary page has links to Goodreads and LibraryThing. Book details and links to other books by the author or similar books can also be found on the summary page. If you register for Feedbooks, you can leave comments on the summary page but you don't have to register to download the e-book or view other people’s comments. If you register, you can buy books, and have a bookshelf where you can keep your downloads and access Feedbooks self-publishing tools.
Looking for a challenge?
If you are learning a foreign language for the first time or
if you are trying to stir up some golden foreign memories, why not go on over
to the Feedbook website and challenge yourself.
Bonne lecture! Happy Reading! See you at Feedbooks.
