Stockton-San Joaquin County Public Library

Electronic Books

Introduction to E-Books

Need to read a Shakespeare play or a Dickens' novel for class this weekend? Want to take a pile of good books on vacation without the hassle of hefty volumes? Or do you simply like to have a book with you whenever you are trapped in a line at the supermarket? E-books fill all these needs.

Most of the E-book sites below will let you download books to your computer instantly. Some have books formatted for your PalmPilot or Pocket PC's special e-book reader software. There are several software programs available that make reading e-books more enjoyable than simply scrolling through text. Look below for a list of Internet sites from which you can download e-book readers. Also listed are sites where you can buy dedicated e-book reader machines from GEMStar and Franklin.

The majority of E-book sites offer text (novels, plays, poetry, magazines, and historic documents) that are no longer covered by copyright and can be downloaded for free, but several sites will sell you current best sellers--fiction and nonfiction--at competitive rates. Copyrighted material must be read with special reader software that protects copyright. These special readers are free and can be downloaded from the online bookstores that sell the e-books.

Free E-Book Sites

Internet Archive: The Texts Archive is where to find ebooks. More than 280,000 texts have been added. Formats may include PDF, text, and DjVu.

Universal Digital Library. Million Book Project: This free, not-for-profit site offers ebooks viewable as through the browser with either the DjVu or AlternaTIFF plugin.

Alex Catalogue of Electronic Texts (Eric Morgan): The Alex Catalogue contains public domain texts in the areas of American and British Literature and Western Philosophy. A unique feature of the Catalogue is the on-the-fly creation of PDF or ebook (Newton Paperback, Palm Pilot, or Rocket eBook) files. Palm or RocketBook users can load these documents directly to their devices without reformatting. The .pdf format uses your Adobe Acrobat Reader to see text as it appeared in the original text.

American Verse Project: The American Verse Project is a collaborative project between the University of Michigan Humanities Text Initiative (HTI) and the University of Michigan Press. The project is assembling an electronic archive of volumes of American poetry prior to 1923. Choose "Browse the American Verse Project Texts" to view all of the authors included. You will find all of the American luminaries from before 1920. You may also search for a phrase from any poem in the collection.

Electronic Books page for the University of Texas at Austin: Still want more? The University of Texas at Austin's library has put together an exhaustive list of e-text sites. Be warned, however, that many of these sites require large subscription fees that make them available only through institutions such as universities, libraries and businesses. See this library's Electronic Resources page for the subscription databases to which it subscribes for you, if you have a Stockton-San Joaquin County Public Library library card.

SparkNotes: You probably know what Cliff Notes are. Well, SparkNotes offers the same help in understanding literature for free online. It also offers free, online guides to philosophy, math, chemistry, economics, computer science, history, physics, psychology, health and nutrition, biography, biology, and astronomy along with reference tools like a dictionary, language translator, the periodic table, and more.

Avantgo: Scroll down to Sign Up or LogIn to access hundreds of mostly-free, daily news downloads from sources such as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, Variety, TV Guide, Salon, and many foreign language news services. You can also download your local movie listings and stock quotes My Yahoo and get your local weather from theWeatherman.com. The sources you choose download automatically when you synchronize your Palm or Pocket PC with your Internet-connected PC.

Free Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) Sites

MemoWare: Memoware.com offers thousands of e-books and e-zines in a variety of special e-book formats for Palm-powered and Pocket PC PDAs. Most of the material is free, but Memoware also sells texts and software. See sites below for source of commercial, current books for sale.

Commercial Sites

Commercially produced (and usually copyrighted) e-text requires special, free e-book reader software that protects copyright. The necessary software can be downloaded for free from the sites that sell the books.

Amazon.com's E-books & Docs: On the Amazon screen choose the BOOKS tab and then the E-BOOKS & DOCS menu. Amazon currently offers books for sale in the Microsoft Reader and Adobe Acrobat eBook formats. Once you download the appropriate software for free from this page you may view books you purchase on your computer or your PDA. Microsoft Reader can be used on computers or Pocket PCS and Adobe Acrobat eBook Reader can be read on computers, Pocket PCS and Palm-powered PDAs.

eBookLocator: Has your favorite author been published in e-books? EbookLocator.com lets you search the offerings of a long list of e-book stores by author, title, subject, publisher, keyword, or ISBN. Three formats are searched: Microsoft Reader, Adobe Acrobat eBook Reader, and Palm eBook. You will see cover pictures, book descriptions and book excerpts, publishers, formats, and retail prices along with a list of retailers who sell any particular book. Oddly enough, Palm's own bookstore, Palm Digital Media, is not in the list of publishers yet. Yes, you can get Janet Evanovich's first three Stephanie Plum mysteries together for $10.00 or less.

Powell's Bookstore E-book Page: The famed Powell's Bookstore in Oregon offers current electronic books for sale in three formats: GEMSTAR eBOOK, MICROSOFT READER, and ADOBE ACROBAT eBOOK READER. On its E-book page, Powell's explains these three formats and offers links to buy a GEMSTAR reading machine or to download the free software.

eReader.com
formerly Palm Digital Media eBooks, and before that Peanut Press: Offers current books for sale in the Pilot .Doc format (originally created by Aportis.com) that can be read with any .Doc reader software. From the FAQ, "A doc file is a type of PDA file that ends in either .pdb or .prc. These text files have been specifically packaged for use on a PDA. Doc format is pretty much a standard for PDA documents, and the latest version of the eReader can view them."

Ebooks.com The Digital Bookstore: This online bookstore looks a lot like Amazon.com or B&N, but it sells exclusively e-books: fiction, non-fiction, and even children's picture books. You can search e-books in over 50 categories. Cover shots, synopses, and preview samples of these commercial titles make e-book buying feel like a trip to the bookstore.

Fictionwise.com: Fictionwise.com gets a lot of press. It charges a nominal fee for books that should be free, but it has a wide assortment of commercial publications available. Various formats are available. Non-copyrighted titles are not encrypted and can be copied after purchase. Commercial books, naturally, are encrypted for use on a devise designated at the time of purchase.

Handandgo: Handango was born from the need for a company to exclusively serve hand held users. Today, it has the largest collection of hand-held and wireless software anywhere, plus hardware and accessories. You can find e-book reader software and collections of pre-formatted e-books for sale.

EBookMall: EbookMall has 25,000 eBooks in eleven e-book formats. Its Knowledge Collection explains what an e-book is and describes each of the eleven formats it offers: Adobe eBook, Adobe PDF, Gemstar eBook, HTML, Instant eBook, Microsoft Reader, Microsoft Word, MobiPocket, PalmOS, Plain Text. Most of the books it sells could be found for free elsewhere. Its copyright material tends to be by unknown authors. This is a good place to find out about e-books, e-book readers, and e-book formats.

EBook Reader Software and Dedicated Ebook Readers

While free e-books can be read directly on your computer, commercial e-books require special reader software to protect the copyright status of the text. The Adobe Acrobat eBook reader and the Microsoft Reader can be downloaded from the eBook section of Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com as well as the direct links below.

EBook Reader Software
With the release of Adobe Reader 6.0 Software, Adobe united Acrobat eBook Reader and Acrobat Reader in a single application.

Adobe Acrobat eBook Reader: From this Adobe Acrobat home page you can learn more about the eBook format and find sites from which to download all kinds of Adobe Acrobat eBook formatted texts including comics and picture books with full illustrations. The Adobe Acrobat eBook Reader can be used on almost any PC or MacIntosh computer or PDA. You must have Internet Explorer version 4 or later loaded on your computer. Internet Explorer can be downloaded for free too. Read the "Requirements" section for details. The Adobe Acrobat eBook Reader is not the same as the Adobe Acrobat Reader you use to read .pdf files on the Internet. This format has special features and protects copyright.

Microsoft Reader: The Microsoft Reader can be used ONLY with Windows-based PCs, laptops and Pocket PC 2002 devices. An older version of the software can be used with older Pocket PCS. Many books and documents in Microsoft Reader format can be downloaded from this page as well.

The following are all popular eBook readers for Palm-powered and/or Pocket PC PDAs.

Palm Reader: A free viewer for commercial Palm e-books that also supports the Doc format. Versions are also available for PCS, MacIntosh computers, and Pocket PCS..

MobiPocket: Mobipocket Reader Format is your Universal eBook Reader for all PDAs and brings you a wide range of eReading technologies to choose from - Palm Series (PalmOS v2.0 and onwards), Windows CE, Pocket PC, Psion (Epoch 32) and Franklin eBookMan. The Reader features touch-screen page turning, bookmarking to facilitate quick returns to noteworthy sections, adjustable font size and color, and full text searching. The basic reader is available for free, the Pro version costs $19.95. The Mobipocket site also sells current, popular books and comics on its site.

CSpotRun: A free Pilot .Doc reader that supports scrolling.

QED: From PalmGear: "QED is a full featured, fast and rock stable working editor for large text documents on PalmOS organizers. It is free and usable as a reader! Ideal for reading and writing all kind of documents including lists and source code." The commercial version costs $17.95

TealDoc: A full-featured doc reader for standard Palm OS document files, TealDoc, from TealPoint Software, also supports special features and enhanced TealDoc-format documents. TealDoc costs $16.95.

iSilo: iSilo is a highly versatile document reader available for Palm OS and Pocket PC handhelds, and Windows and MacIntosh computers. You can find thousands of ready-made documents downloadable immediately for reading with iSilo or you can create your own documents from HTML content using iSiloX. Basic iSilo functions are available for free, or you can pay $17.95 for the registered version. The registered version can even view pictures and tables. You can create iSilo documents yourself using iSiloX

TomeRaider: TomeRaider is a fast, flexible and powerful cross-platform reference viewer giving instant and free access in TomeRaider format. You will find books in this format at Memoware.com among other sites. You can download the software for free; a licensed version costs $20.00 for the Palm Version and $25.00 for the Pocket PC version.

Dedicated Ebook Readers

Amazon Kindle: Kindle uses the E Ink, backlit technology. Books and other content may be downloaded via wireless, utilizes Amazon Whispernet to provide wireless coverage via AT&T's 3G high-speed data network in the U.S. Price of the reader is $260 dollars.

Franklin eBookman: The Franklin eBookman is both a PDA and an eBook reader. It can also play music files and audiobooks that can be purchased from the Franklin site. Prices range between $100 and $230 dollars on sale.

Nook: Barnes & Noble's Nook uses the E Ink, backlit technology. Books and other content may be downloaded via AT&T's 3G Wireless Network or on Wi-Fi. And every Barnes & Noble has free Wi-Fi. Price of the Nook is $260 dollars.

Sony Reader: The Sony Reader uses the E Ink, backlit technology. Sony sells ebooks for the Reader. Price of the reader is $300 dollars.

Tips

Reading Your E-Book Online

Once your book has loaded, click the mouse anywhere on the text (but NOT on any hypertext links). You may then use the arrow keys and the "Page Up" "Page Down" keys to move through the text.

On a hand-held device or an e-book reader there are up and down buttons or bars to help you move through the text.

Searching for Quotes or Other Text

Want to find your favorite quote in a book? After fully loading the text onto your computer screen, just open the find box on your web browser (ctrl-F) and enter the text you wish to find. The last word is truncated, so you can type "child" to find child, child's, or children.

You can also use the find box to jump down to the author or title you desire in a long directory.

Hand-held devices and e-book readers have special find functions as well as special functions for bookmarking text and adding notes.

Saving Free Books

Once you have a book fully loaded on your computer screen, you may save it to disk by opening the find menu and choosing "Save as." Then select a directory in which to store your book, give it a name, and choose the format in which you wish to save it. You can then burn your favorite books to a CD if you like.

If you save a book as an .html file, clicking on the file name will open your web browser to view the book from your computer just as you did over the Internet. You can also save the book as plain text (*.txt), which will take up less room on your computer. You can then open the plain text book with any document viewer or editor such as your word processor or Wordpad that should appear as an "accessory" file in your "Program" directory.

You can also use a file translator program to translate a plain text file into one that you can use on your PDA or e-book reader. E-book reader software is described elsewhere in this section on e-books.

If the book you wish to save is in .pdf format, you just have to open the free Adobe Acrobat Reader that is probably loaded on your computer if you use the Internet. Then open the file from the Adobe Acrobat Reader.