First off, all of the Pownce (www.pownce.com) accounts that I promised to give out last week are now gone…plus a few extras I came across. Thanks to those of you that were interested and don’t forget to let me know that you have signed up and I will add you to my friends list.
I received a question about eBooks this week; like, “What are they?”
When you see the letter “e” added to anything you can be fairly certain that it stands for “electronic”. Email for instance…electronic mail. Therefore an ebook (or eBook) must be an electronic book, which it is. An official definition could be something like, “an electronic version of a traditional printed book that can be read digitally by using a PC, PocketPC, cell phone or other type of device.”
Next, where do you find these ebooks? One of the best places to find the classics would be “Project Gutenberg” (gutenberg.net). They say they have over 20,000 books most of which are found in the public domain of the U.S. They also say that they average over 3 million books downloaded per month. “Public Domain” means that the item (book, software, etc.) is available at no charge because it’s copyright, patent, or trademark has expired or has been waived for public use.
Here you can find a lot of the classics like “The Three Musketeers”, all of Arthur Conan Doyle’s “Sherlock Holmes” books, and even “War and Peace”. You just follow the links and download them to your computer.
You can also buy most of the latest books in the market in ebook form (usually from $5-$18). Check ebookmall.com, or just use google.com to search for “ebooks“. If you are looking for a specific author or title just “google” them with “ebook” added.
Be careful! There are several different ebook formats out there with several requiring special software to read them; like Adobe, Word, MS-lit, and MobiPocket. I like to use either HTML (web page format) or TXT formats. I have a preference for the TXT (text) file format as it is readable without special software. Just make sure that you have the software that can interpret the files and make sure you price the software before paying for the ebook.
One last new term for you, “Podcast Books”. Years ago we would have called these “Books on Tape” but not today. These books may be downloaded to your MP3 player and listened to on your way around town. They also start at free (www.podiobooks.com - new unknown authors) to some at $50+ (www.audible.com - the newest books out). You download them and listen away. I sometimes enjoy these with my 90 minute roundtrip ride to work each day.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 11th, 2007 at 7:48 pm and is filed under Columns. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.