Tech From an E-booker’s Viewpoint

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.

As I have said before, I don’t like formatting books, but I do it.  I really miss Black Mask.  I could go there and download an already formatted e-book for my reader.  I am glad that I bought their DVD before the site disappeared.  I have tried to format e-books from Gutenberg and some other places, but I haven’t been quite satisfied with any of my results.  I get odd characters and space gaps.  I am too lazy to take the time to clean up the files, so I look for alternatives.  A bargain bin alternative is Bookshop Classics.  I have seen it sold separately for $4.99 and bundled with Bibles & Religion 400 Complete Works for $9.99 in the value software section of the big box stores.  The Bookshop CD contains over 1,000 literary classics.  These books can be viewed on you PC and you can print the book out. The best part is that you can save books in plain text.  The only drawback is that there is no book art.   Another choice is Reader Rom’s Ultimate Library.  Amazon lists this collection for considerably less at $15.75.    The Collections boasts having over 10,000 books.  Again you can export all e-books as a text file.  Another feature is that you can have the books read to you.  I tried it, but the voices are too mechanical.  I didn’t like it, but perhaps there are people who will.  What I did find in the collection are 127 books by Doc Savage.  I didn’t follow the Black Mask saga closely, but I thought the crux of it was caused by these very books.    Anyway, you can go to Reader Rom for more information and lists of books.

I usually go to Jazzercise for two classes a day.  In between classes I try to do a little reading.  It’s only fifteen minutes so I find it hard to get back into a novel, so I have decided to give Daily Lit a try. Daily lit sends me bite size portions of a book on a daily basis.  I like getting the books via my RSS reader.  I find it more convenient than having it emailed to me and it just looks better on my N800.  The best thing about it is that I am able to finish reading my installment in plenty of time and it gives me a sense of accomplishment.  I really don’t get into classics that much, but by reading for short periods of time I find that I am starting to like older prose.  So, could this help people who are reluctant to try e-books?  I think it could, by letting them get their feet wet.    It could also foster learning the ins and outs of the reading software, such as navigation, dictionary features, etc. between installments.  Over time they may lose some of their attachment to paper.  I don’t know of any service that would send popular books via email or RSS feeds, but I will look.   I wouldn’t want to pay unless I got to keep the book in its entirety at the end.  Maybe receiving the first chapter of an e-book for free could work and also boost e-book sales.

6.  How much money are you willing to put into it (Better known as Latest and greatest vs. older reader)?  .  Some people have to have the newest gadget as soon as it hits the streets.  Being an early adopter comes with the burden of paying hefty prices and working out the bugs of new devices.  Other folks are more patient and can wait until the price drops.  Fortunately for e-book tech lovers we don’t need or require the latest device.  There are drawbacks.  The drawbacks of legacy (older) devices is that tech support is often not available, replacement parts and accessories are scarce, and there are no updates to look forward to.  For first time buyers I suggest getting a device that is still being manufactured and from a solid company.  Doing so will at least give you some warranty protection and tech support.  Either way decide beforehand how much you want to invest based on your individual needs.  Prices range from $100 to just under $400.  Remember there is no right or wrong here.  Readers are for your enjoyment.  If you are happy with it, that’s what matters.  Not what the guy or gal next to you is using.  Look for online deals.  Often there are specials or other discounts like a coupon for free books.  If at all possible get your hands on a reader and try it out before you buy.  The Sony reader is available in stores so you can at least play around with the display.   This is also true with PDAs.  For other readers try your local libraries.  Ask if they have e-book readers available for check out.  You may be pleasantly surprised.

7.  Get online and join E-book communities and forums:  By joining online communities you can get honest reviews from peers.  That’s real life people, not famous critics.  Read through message archives and see how other feel about the device, software, and tech support.  It’s my experience that the peer support and knowledge from these online groups is invaluable and better than any retailer or manufacturer.  Not only are e-bookers friendly they are eager to help and will answer any questions that you may have.  There are e-book forums on Yahoo!, Google, and my favorite site is Mobileread. There are probably more out there so do a Google search.

Finally, have fun and enjoy reading.  In future posts I will go into detail about the various devices that can be used to read e-books.  Even if it doesn’t perform right out of the box, there is still a wealth of information that can help you make this an enjoyable experience and I will tell you how to access it. 

4. Where you’ll be using it:  If you plan to read while you commute then think about the lighting on your train, bus, etc.  If lighting is low you may not want to get an e-ink reader since there is no backlighting.  The lack of back lighting can be solved with attaching a book light to the reader. By contrast, if you are planning to read outdoors or under well lighted conditions then backlighting features may not be that important.  Either way think about how much stuff you already carry with you.  For example the Cybook  has a backlit large 10 inch screen, but it is somewhat bulky and heavy at 3 pounds.  Three pounds doesn’t seem like much now, but it will if you are already toting a laptop, purse…you get the idea.  It would be like carry a large hardback book.  If you plan to read at home a larger device may be more convenient.

5.  Availability of reading material:  If you like public domain classics then you’re in luck.  There’s plenty of reading material available at places like Project Gutenberg and Many Books.  I like reading best sellers so I am more restricted.  Before purchasing a reader look around the web at the various e-book resellers and make sure that they sell your genre of books.  Take note of the formats available for download and verify that the reader you plan to get is capable of displaying the text.  That’s part 2.  Final part to come…