Alt Read

Salted throughout both my book column and my computer column have been references to the way the Internet is expanding our reading choices. This might be a good opportunity to wrap them all, plus some new ideas, up in one reasonably comprehensive package. (Keep in mind that as soon as you think you know what the Internet has to offer on a subject, it changes!)

Online Book Sellers:
Famed book-seller Amazon literally changed the way we shop - and not just for books! By eliminating the need for the so-called "bricks and mortar" stores, Amazon was able to deliver product to you at a premium price. Of course, books are an ideal candidate for online shopping - unlike clothing, for example, a consumer isn't as likely to need to handle the book before buying it. However, readers do like to browse through a book. Amazon gladly obliged, and now you can "open" a book virtually, getting a feel for the writer's style and the book's content.

That's not all that Amazon has done. Aside from expanding its product line to just about anything you can think of, Amazon has done an incredible job of mining the masses of data it has collected from buyers. If buyer A liked Book X, and also liked Book Y, Buyer B who likes Book Y is likely to enjoy Book X as well. (That's a little simplistic, but when you have millions of purchases from millions of people to correlate, you can make some astounding accurate predictions about a reader's tastes.)

Public Library
The Onondaga County Public Library has joined the growing number of libraries that have hopped on the digital bandwagon. Oh, of course, you can reserve a book online, and get email notification of when it's back on the shelves. You can get materials for your book club, hold items, renew items, and search the catalog online. Now, you can also download audio books. Audio books are only available as .wma (Windows media) files, so they are not compatible with your iPod. Most other mp3 players will play them, and you can also but these files to CDs and listen to them on your portable CD player, or in your car.

Google Book Search
Not sure what book you're looking for? Try Google Book Search. As Google tells us, "Book Search works just like web search. Try a search on Google Book Search or on Google.com. When we find a book with content that contains a match for your search terms, we'll link to it in your search results.

"If the book is out of copyright, or the publisher has given us permission, you'll be able to see a preview of the book, and in some cases the entire text. If it's in the public domain, you're free to download a PDF copy."

If it's not in the public domain, or otherwise not available for download, a quick link will hook you up to purchase the book, or to find it in your local public library.

Books come from libraries, or from "partners," book publishers and authors who wish to participate in this program.

You can also create your own online library for keeping track of what you own, for sharing with friends, and for keeping track of who has borrowed what. Check this out at the My Library area of Google Book Search.

Project Gutenberg
Named after the famed inventor of movable type, Project Gutenberg "is the first and largest single collection of free electronic books, or eBooks," whose mission is to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks."

What's an "eBook?" It's a "Plain Vanilla ASCII" digital version of a book, which can be downloaded and printed, or read online, on your local computer.

Books available from Project Gutenberg are almost all in the public domain, which of course means the copyright has expired on these works. You are free to not only download them, but also to provide a copy to a friend, create dramas using them, adapt them for pedagogical purposes, and create audio versions.

Which leads us to:
librivox
I have actually done a bit of reading for Librivox. LibriVox provides free audiobooks from the public domain. You download mp3 or ogg files to your computer, from there you can set up whatever listening system best suits your purposes.

Says Librivox, "LibriVox volunteers record chapters of books in the public domain and release the audio files back onto the net. Our goal is to make all public domain books available as free audio books."

When you find a book you're interested in, a very informative main page for that books provides links to:
# Gutenberg e-text
# A Wikipedia entry on the author
# LibriVox’s book Internet Archive page
# Zip file of the entire book (33.7MB)
# RSS feed · Subscribe in iTunes · Chapter-a-day

and the total running time.

The Librivox podcast (to which you can subscribe) selects a book and provides a chapter a day for your downloading pleasure.

Goodreads
Are you an avid reader? Have friends who are as well? Why not all sign up for accounts on Goodreads, and internet service (free) that helps you create a library of books you have read, along with your reviews, ratings, and recommendations. Sign your friends up, then compare book lists to see what you have in common. Find other readers who share your tastes to learn about books you may have missed. Look for me on Goodreads (I share a link to my book blog as well. You can find other subscribed members near you (geographically), and check out top reviewers, readers, and librarians.

Digital Book and Kindle
Sony's Reader Digital Book is just what it says: a digital form of a traditional book. This has been tried before, but one of the biggest drawbacks was the readability, and Sony seems to have that hurdle cleared.

As Sony tells us, "Viewing text on the Reader Digital Book's screen is just like reading text on paper. Unlike the display of a laptop screen which is backlit and can strain your eyes, viewing pages on the Reader Digital Book is as comfortable as on a real book. But unlike a real book, the Reader Digital Book's text is scalable, conveniently allowing you to adjust the size of text.
Enjoying books on the Reader Digital Book is made easy, thanks to e Ink® technology. This new advancement in display technology results in an experience that's similar to paper—high contrast, high resolution, viewable in direct sunlight and at a nearly 180-degree angles. And no power is required to maintain the image, so your battery lasts much longer than expected."

Another issue was always - what is there to read? Again, Sony has an answer: with more than 20,000 titles already online and ready for download (and more sure to come) - and with a capacity of up to 160 books on your Reader - you'll have a whole library in no time, all tucked neatly into your pocket.

More: the Reader can display Adobe® PDF documents, Microsoft Word documents, BBeB® Book, and other text file formats to the Reader. You can even play unsecured MP3s and AAC audio files.

The Reader comes in black and silver, with available book covers, and retails for $299. Included in your purchase are 100 free books, and after that, downloads will range from about $5 to about $20.

Or, try Amazon's Kindle: for this one, you don't even need a computer. You go online to Amazon using the Kindle itself (so it doesn't matter where you are), then buy and download a new book in less than a minute. Kindle uses same high-speed data network (EVDO) as advanced cell phones—so you never have to locate a hotspot. And, wireless delivery is paid for by Amazon!

Amazon also claims to have the readability problem licked, with its "electronic-paper display," providing a sharp, high-res screen that looks and read like real paper.

Amazon offers more than 90,000 books, including more than 90 of the top 112 current New York Times® Best Sellers. All new releases are $9.99, unless otherwise noted. If you're not sure, you can browse free samples - download and read the first few chapters free to see if you like the book.

You can also access top U.S. and International newspapers and magazines - again, all delivered wirelessly.

And if it's blogs your into, choose from over 250 of the top bloggers worldwide, including BoingBoing, Slashdot, TechCrunch, ESPN's Bill Simmons, The Onion, Michelle Malkin, and The Huffington Post—all updated wirelessly throughout the day.

Kindle weights only 10.3 ounces, holds over 200 titles, and boasts a long battery life - if you leave the wireless on constantly, you'll recharge about every other day. If you turn it off, you can expect a week or more of reading without recharging. A full recharge requires about 2 hours.

Kindle will set you back $399 (free shipping).

With all these choices, there's no excuse - it's time to beef up your library. And if you already are a reader like me, maybe the day has finally arrived that mom won't be able to demand that you "get your nose out of that book!"

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