Ebooks

Many of us lack access to all the books in English we would like. Project Gutenberg has tonnes of books available in both audio books and text files. The text files can then be copied to your iPod/mp4/whatever to read/listened to some other time.

http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page


Ebooks can be a great way to pass time on train rides 

I haven't read one yet, but my kid has an itouch and he reads them all the time.

If you wouldn't mind getting his source and adding it here, it would be appreciated. 

Project Gutenberg digitises books that are copyright free in the USA. Apart from torents, there must be other sources.

Amazon.com also has Kindle* readers, which will download e-books for you.

I asked him type in how he does it (on his itouch.) Below is what he wrote:

Try typing in "Stanza" on the search tab. If you look hard enough, you can get wonderful books, like "The Call Of Cthulhu" by H.P. Lovecraft, for instance. Of course not all the books on Stanza are free, but I really don't suggest checking your gifted horse for cavities.

Does that make sense to you?

Kindle is pretty pricy, not available everywhere and has a few problems.

But, free ebooks rock!

If it's free, my kid will find it. 

Exactly. Unless you want new books then the freebies are usually ok.

Other stuff you can find on torrent sites.

Any more ebook sources you people use?

Yay Kindle just arrived by courier 

Mae,
Thanks for another great clue!
I will add it to my list.
Grats!

I bought a Kindle before coming to China. I have to say that now I have it I couldn't live without it! Such a great way to pass the time. A couple of months ago I started reading the Harry Potter series (again) and I am now on the sixth book
I would definately recommend purchasing one if you are a lover of reading!

I manage to get through life without an ereader or iphone. If I had a lot of money I would most probably donate it to all the poor girls, standing alone and cold in  the street, before I got around to buying the latest technology.

For all that I get to do a lot of reading using my old-fashioned laptop. Up to now I have downloaded in PDF format but yesterday I downloaded Adobe Digital Reader which may, or may not, let me read books in EPUB format. If not I will try another programme.

While many free books are rather old that is not a problem to me. I have just finished reading the autobiography of Lady Susan Townley, who travelled around the world at the turn of the 20th Cent, and found it fascinating. Many modern books are available, but you do have to hunt to find them.

So far I have found Google Books to be the best source for books. I just select the "Full View" option and then hunt around. It has a lot of good features, including being able to bookmark, so I think it is worth a look.

There are many sites with free books so it is best to Google something like, 'free books + epub' and start exploring.  

  

Kindles aren't actually all that expensive. I think the most basic Kindle they have out right now costs $79 brand new and the most expensive one is close to $200 -- and that's with all the bells and whistles. I'm going to bite the bullet and get myself one as a Christmas present.

I've used:

archive.org  (over 2.5 million free ebooks)

openlibrary.org  (over 1 milllion free titles)

gutenberg.org   (over 30,000 free titles)

manybooks.net  (over 26,000 free titles)