Tech From an E-booker’s Viewpoint

Last Spring my daughter took a Shakespeare course.  She wanted to buy the books, I said no, they are public domain, use your REB 1100.  She gave in, only because she didn’t have the money to pay for the material she needed.  I got the feeling she felt singled out as everyone, to include her professor, was intrigued by her device.  It was the first time any of them had heard of or seen an e-book.  She complained that it was hard to follow along during class with her reader.  I told her that was operator ignorance.  It should have been easier to search, make notes, and highlight important passages.  She sighed and rolled her eyes.  So now she only uses her N770 for leisure purposes (She gave me back the REB1100).  Did she have some valid complaints?  Is it harder to use an e-book device in an academic setting?  I am about to find out.  Starting tomorrow morning I will be back at school.  I enrolled in a sophomore English literature course.  My sources for books will be Project Gutenberg and the Harvard Classics, I downloaded from Mobileread.  My plan is to be totally paperless with the exception of exams.  Hopefully I will be able to find all the needed text on the Internet or within my own collection of e-books.  Also I will use a different e-book device each week. I’ll keep everyone posted regularly and end with lessons learned.

P.S.  I haven’t forgotten about my iLiad.  Things are going a lot better and before the end of the week I’ll post my first impressions.

Well, it’s another Sunday.  I hurt my shoulder the other day and so I haven’t been able to post as I would have liked.  I am still working on “Where to get e-books” section.  I have had to recheck the sites I have bookmarked.  Some of the places have disappeared or have changed addresses.  I will get those up as soon as I can if my shoulder will cooperate.  Also I will add those sites recommended via your comments.  One site that I often take for granted is Project Gutenberg (PG).  While first e-book adopters are well aware of the many titles available through PG , many new comers may not be.  Project Gutenberg was founded by Michael Hart in 1971.  Today it is the largest single collection of totally free e-books.   Its online catalog lists over 20,000 e-books.  You can sign up for RSS feeds of newly added material in addition to their weekly newsletter and while you’re at it, consider a small donation.  The project also needs volunteers for a variety of things.  You can read more on the site.  I use to volunteer to send CD/DVDs to people who could not download the files.  If you chose you can be reimbursed for expenses such as postage. I enjoyed it, but school work got in the way.  I have decided to get back into it.  There was no minimum per month to send out, so I’ll start slower this time.  I would also hand out the discs to my daughter’s friends at school and to anyone else I thought would benefit.  It’s one way to spread the joy of e-books.

I received an email late last night from Books on Board.  In addition to announcing that Mobipocket was back in operation, they are offering 22% off Publishers List Minimum for ONE DAY with Promo Code MOBUP (all caps).  this sale ends tonight at 11:59 PM Central Daylight Time. This discount is good for all ebook formats and audiobooks.  I have never bought anything from this reseller, but I will give it a try at such a good discount.  In fact I have noticed that a lot of their offerings are cheaper than most other sites.  Their selection of books also seems more than adequate.  I don’t understand the term Publishers List Minimum, but I will find out.  So now the vendors are attempting to do damage control in the wake of Mobipocket’s long “down for Maintenance” absence.  I think that sales may help to keep customers, but I am not buying any e-books in Mobi format. I think that Mobipocket owes us an explanation.  So far we haven’t got one, and I seriously doubt that we will.  For that matter,  I doubt if the e-book vendors have gotten an explanation or how about this: an apology.  I hope that places like Books on Board are successful in keeping their customers and with their discounts, maybe they will attract more customers.  Without places to buy e-books at a reasonable price,  the less attractive e-book devices become.

edit:  I added three books to my cart and then the promo code, but it didn’t make a difference in the price.  I tried to find info on the term Publishers List Minimum, but I couldn’t.  So I went to Fictionwise to see if I was saving any money.  Granted, I belong to Fictionwise’s Buywise club, so your experience may be different.  Books on Board endedn up being slighter cheaper at $18.91 compared to Fictionwise at $$19.52.  But because of my micro rebates, Fictionwise is cheaper since I will save an additional $1.27, so my final price is $18.25.  So I will pass on Books on Board and use my Fictionwise gift certificated my daughter gave me for my birthday.  Oh, in case you’re interested the books I chose are:

• Into the Storm - By Suzanne Brockmann $5.94
• The Face - By Dean Koontz $6.79
• The 13th Apostle - By Richard Heller $6.79

It’s 2:09 and I just checked and Mobipocket is back.  It looks different.  I like it.  Well, that’s over and I saw no explanation on the front page.  Also no new ereader device.

Books for a Buck: Specializes in affordable novel-length fiction. We do sell many of our books through Fictionwise and Mobipocket, but some of our books (especially our cheapest books) are available only through the publisher website. Also, new books are on sale for only $1 during their first month of availability-before they go on Mobipocket, Fictionwise, or other distributors.

Try searching with Digital Reading Search
It’s a Google Custom Search Engine that searches the free and paid-for ebook sites.
(Baen, PG, ManyBooks etc are on the list)… no warez.

Baen: They have many in their free library. None of their books have DRM, they are reasonably priced and they have many formats. Unfortunately they are somewhat specialized in military related SciFi and they currently do not support the LRF format used by the Sony Reader. However they do have formats that can be used with the Sony, e.g. RTF, and also have Mobipocket, MS .lit, HTML, Palm & Rocket/Ebookwise. They do have a few books by other publishers as well, e.g. Tor.

Penguin GroupI like this site because it has a special interest grouping.  So if you are into African American literature, this site has the best selection I’ve seen and I didn’t have to search for it.  Other special interest groups include Latino literature, parenting, and short reads.  Prices on some of the books are more expensive than other e-book stores.  Site sells paper books and not all include an e-book version. Also some selections include an excerpt of the book.

Cyberread

Site contains over 40,000 e-books in a variety of formats.  Not all formats available for every title.  Good selection of categories that may be of interest to professionals and students in addition to fiction novels.

Diesel E-books

Good selection of children fiction and religious fiction.  Formats include MS reader, Palm reader, and Adobe.  Diesel also sells bundles and offer free e-books.  Free e-books are mostly classics and require you use MS reader.

Digital Book Index

If you are looking for free e-books, this is must go to and bookmark place.

The site links to more than 137,000 titles from 1800 non-commercial and commercial publishers, universities and private sites.  If you need some help in find articles for research, this site and really help you find more resources.  Great for all types of students and us regular folks too.

Readers ‘R Us

This is mainly a place to get classic books for free.  They also offer free MP3 audio too.  I found this site when looking for children books.  The site is not very user friendly when it comes to navigating through the categories.

I’ve decided to add a new page to the site.  I remember when I first bought my Rocket e-book, I spent more time just trying to find books rather than read.  There wasn’t much out there, but today there are quite a  few.  Some sites offer free ebooks, free chapter excerpts, as well as novels for sale. The problem is knowing where they are.  Later today I will add a few of the places I know about along with a description and post here.  Then I’ll add some more during the coming days.  If you know of any places online please leave a comment. Once posted on the home page, I’ll move them to the ”Where to Get E-books” page, for a quick reference.