Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group discussion
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Links to web pages where we can read books online
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LINK TO SAM WATKINS BOOK ABOUT THE CIVIL WAR: _CO. AYTCH_(Sam Watkins was a Civil War soldier.)
You can read the book here:
http://books.google.com/ebooks?id=Hyh...
Below is the link to the GR description:
Co. Aytch: A Confederate Memoir of the Civil War
Today I learned that sample Google eBooks can be read on your computer. You don't need a fancy device. This was interesting to me because I don't have any other device for reading digital books.This is a wonderful way to sample books. Some sample books provide more sample pages than others, but it's fun searching.
All you need to sign into Google eBooks is a Google gmail addy.
To try out some sample books, go to the Google eBookstore at:
http://books.google.com/ebooks
I signed into Google eBooks and I tried reading some eBook samples which are free. The format was a very satisfying experience, much better than any online reading I've done up to now, including reading "inside the books" at the Amazon website.
At the Google eBookstore, search for a book you're interested in and try reading a sample. It's fun! You can even save your sample books in your eBook collection. Doing that is free.
BTW, the eBooks have page numbers and each page number also indicates the total number of pages in the book so that you know how far you have to go to the end.
PS-You can set your eBook for either scrolling or for turning virtual pages. (See the drop-down menu for settings. It gives you choice of "scanned pages" or "flowing text".)
PPS-Also BTW, I found that, as I was reading the samples, it helped to make more space on my screen by pressing the "f11" toggle key. When you do that, the pages in the sample become larger and hold more text, requiring less page turning.
Our group member, Jim, wrote the following in another thread:=========================================================
"Two of my friends read this free, very short story & gave it glowing reviews. I highly suggest it to everyone. It's pretty incredible how much was packed into this short story about kids & peer pressure. Tears your heart right out."
"Free from Tor at
http://www.tor.com/stories/2010/11/po...
"Make sure you check out their other freebies."
=========================================================
Don't forget http://gutenberg.org There are over a million free books there, most of the classics. You can download most in various formats for your ereader (if you have one) or read them right online. Many also have links to a free audio version from Libervox.
One thing about Google books is they often will give you most, but not all of a book. Last time I checked, you couldn't download most of them, though.
Another site to check out is http://archive.org. They have a lot of different sorts of media that is all copyright free. There are some books, old movies & radio shows.
Thank you for those links, Jim. They're a great addition to this thread!
Quite a few of the major publishers have free books available. They're usually older titles that are the first in a series, so be warned. You might get sucked in. I have a couple of times & been very happy to buy the entire series, even the first book I read for free.That's what happened when I read the first of the Honor Harrington series by David Weber on Baen's free books.
http://www.baen.com/library/defaultti...
Actually, Baen has full CD's of various content you can download. There are audio books, slide shows & more.
http://baencd.thefifthimperium.com/
As Joy mentioned, Tor also has freebies. You can get them right from their main page:
http://www.tor.com/
Some authors give away free books & not just aspiring authors who are publishing up on Smashswords.com or places like that. J.A. Konrath, author of the popular Jack Daniels detective novels, has a lot of free stuff on his site:
http://www.jakonrath.com/
The Magnificent Ambersons (by Booth Tarkington) can be read free online since it's in the public domain, having been published in 1918.The free Google eBook version is at
http://books.google.com/ebooks?id=1qg...
or
http://books.google.com/ebooks/reader...
THE ENTIRE BOOK IS IN THE SAMPLE.
Glad to help, Joy. Since I've gotten my ereader, it's been great to find so many free books. There's a lot I want to read, but I have so many physical books in my stacks, that I want to clear out first. It's a terrible problem, I know...;-)
Jim wrote: "Don't forget http://gutenberg.org There are over a million free books there, most of the classics. You can download most in various formats for your ereader (if you have one) or read them right or read them right online. ..."
Jim, I'm not quite clear on what "download" means, as used in your post above. As an example, look at the following page at Gutenberg:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9702
(_The Old Curiosity Shop_ by Charles Dickens)
What's the difference between "Readme" and "MP3"? Is one to read and the other to listen to?
What happens when I download an MP3? Where does it get stored in my computer? Why are there so many of them on that page?
I'm not familiar with MP3's. Also, my sons have warned me about downloading things. Are there different kinds of downloading. Is everything we do a form of downloading?
Joy, an .mp3 file is an audio file..txt - text, will display in the browser or you can download it.
.htm or .html will display in your browser with more formatting.
.zip is a compressed file. It can be just about anything & you won't know until you extract it.
Other file extensions are probably some sort of ebook format like .epub or .lrf
Your kids are correct about downloading files & you should be careful. Those on Gutenberg are probably as safe as any you'll find, though.
Yes, everything you do on your computer involves downloading content. If it displays or plays, you've downloaded it. Usually it goes to a temp directory. When you specifically say you want to download a file like an mp3, you usually get to put it into a special directory, though.
Thanks for explaining, Jim. I like the way Google eBooks does it. It's very simple and clear. I love my sample eBooks! I enjoy reading them. I'm not even aware I'm downloading anything... and I'm probably not. Perhaps I'm just going out to a web page which is holding my personal eBook samples.http://books.google.com/ebooks?uid=35...
(All you need is a gmail addy.)
Like I said, you have to download it to view it. It's a matter of your access once you get off line.
Jim wrote: "Like I said, you have to download it to view it. It's a matter of your access once you get off line."Yes, Jim, I understand the difference between viewing and accessing. Actually, I don't usually try to view anything when I'm off line. When my computer's on, I'm immediately connected to the Internet. But now I see what you mean by downloading something so it can be viewed off line.
I found the following website today which has SHORT STORIES TO READ ONLINE:http://www.classicshorts.com/index.shtml
The home page says - CLASSIC SHORT STORIES: "This Web site is dedicated to the short story and to those interested in reading light prose."
Jim of our group posted the following athttps://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Message #1092:
=====================================================
"Project Gutenberg has over a million books for free & there are even more on the Australian Project Gutenberg. These are typically older books that are copyright free, but include most of the classics in several different versions that will work on any ereader or PC. It's a great resource that too many forget about.
"Google Books has a lot of free stuff including magazines. Instead of text like Gutenberg, they use pictures so are better for some types of books.
"The Internet Archive has a lot of free books, audio books, radio shows, & movies."
====================================================
The link to Google Books is: http://books.google.com/
The link to The Internet Archive is: https://archive.org/
The link to Project Gutenberg is: http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page
Project Gutenberg Australia has some different books than the main site. http://gutenberg.net.au/
Fantastic Fiction is my favorite site for getting a quick run down on what an author has published & in what order. It's much easier than GR's pages.
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/
If you don't mind reading online, the following sites are good.
WikiSource
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Main_Page
Bibliomania
http://www.bibliomania.com
Free Speculative Fiction Online
http://www.freesfonline.de/index.html
Bartleby
http://www.bartleby.com/
Good suggestions for free book reading,however; just like some don't care for tablet readers(Kindle and Nook) which I understand, I myself, don't like reading books on line. I read enough on line without sitting any longer than necessary to catch up.
Jim, thanks for the additional information.Nina, I find that I'm not apt to read online if I can read from a hard copy book. However, sometimes it's helpful if one is just curious about a certain book and you want to get an idea of the flavor of it.
I agree, Nina. I download the books from Gutenberg & any site that allows it easily. When they don't, I still usually put them into a format for the ereader. I can either copy & past them into a document or print them out to a PDF document. Unless they're short or I'm working on something repetitive here at work like building new PC's. Then I'll read novels right on the PC.
Jim, I would call you a "voracious" reader! Nina is probably one too. So is my husband. I was never voracious about reading. I wanted to be that way but it wasn't easy for me because I'm a slow reader and I often lose interest quickly unless I'm compelled by the content.
Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group
Books mentioned in this topic
The Magnificent Ambersons (other topics)Co. Aytch: A Confederate Memoir of the Civil War (other topics)
Authors mentioned in this topic
J.A. Konrath (other topics)David Weber (other topics)
Also see our group's section called "READ ONLINE". It's at:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group...