ebooks Archives - Page 2 of 2

Amazon Kindle

Well, I finally did it. I bought myself a Kindle.

I’ve wanted one ever since they came out, but I hesitated early on with the 1st generation device. Due to the high price tag at launch, and the varied reviews, couple with the fact that I wasn’t sure I would even enjoy using an eBook reader, I decided to buy a refurbished Sony PRS-500. I liked the Sony and found the screen to be as easy to read as a regular book, unlike a backlit screen on a computer or other device. When the Kindle 2 came out, I thought I would upgrade but again, I could not justify the price tag.

But Wednesday, Amazon cut the price of the Kindle to $299. That’s still not cheap, but it was enough of a move to get me to buy. I bought one and got next day shipping and had the device in my hand by Thursday afternoon.

I already love it! The screen is easy to read, and it has 6 font sizes compared ot the Sony’s 3. I wasn’t crazy about the form factor originally (it looked like there was too much realestate used that wasn’t “screen.”) but I found it to be easier to hold and read like a book compared to the Sony.

I’m just getting to know the device, so I can’t do a full review, but that will come later. For now, suffice to say that if you like to read and have been contemplating an eBook reader, this is one nice device.

It’s Finally Here

By Chad Butler Leave a Comment

For those of you that are, like me, big fans of books, information, knowledge, and just plain cool stuff, one of the best things since Project Gutenberg is finally here – Google Print.

I’ve been waiting, no, salivating for the release of the Google Print beta, and it has finally come. This will likely be the world’s largest virtual library and will contain text and content that many of us have never before had access to. Google has been working with partner libraries at the University of Michigan; Stanford, Harvard and Oxford universities; plus the New York Public Library since announcing last fall that it planned to digitize the world’s libraries.

print.google.com

Project Gutenberg

By Chad Butler Leave a Comment

If you are a reader and you haven’t seen Project Gutenberg (http://www.gutenberg.org/), you aren’t really a reader. What is Project Gutenberg, you ask? Their description says it all:

Project Gutenberg is the oldest producer of free electronic books (eBooks or etexts) on the Internet. Our collection of more than 15.000 eBooks was produced by hundreds of volunteers. Most of the Project Gutenberg eBooks are older literary works that are in the public domain in the United States. All may be freely downloaded and read, and redistributed for non-commercial use

You will never read through the mountain of texts in your lifetime (even if you are a speed reader, they keep adding new content all the time). Here is just a sample of what you will find there:

The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells
War and Peace by Leo Nikoleyevich Tolstoy
The Bible, Old and New Testaments, King James Version
Moby Dick, or, the whale by Herman Melville
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
The Odyssey by Homer
Ethics by Aristotle
Memoirs of Napoleon â€” Complete by Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne
and More!!!

The work is available in several formats. Since it is done entirely by volunteers, not all work is available in all formats. But for the techno saavy, you shouldn’t have too much trouble obtaining a readable version of what you’ve been dying to read.