Read books online... free. (links)

[Joy H., Group Founder]

There are many websites allowing us to read entire works of literature online.
Here's one I found today which looks good. It's free: ====>
http://www.readbookonline.net/fiction...

At the webpage it says:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Welcome to 'Read book online' website.
This site contains about one thousand books from hundreds of authors."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The following page gives a sampling of the famous titles available: ====>
http://www.readbookonline.net/prize/2...

The presentation looks readable, especially if you enlarge the print by pressing "CTRL +" several times.

Here's the page for _A Room With A View_ by E M Forster, Chapter One: ====>
http://www.readbookonline.net/read/19...

If you know of other websites online offering complete books to be read online FREE, please post the information in this thread. Thanks.

[Jim]

Here's another I was just told about for old SF/Fantasy books: http://manybooks.net/

One of my favorites is:
http://www.archive.org/index.php
You can get movies, audio books & all kinds of fun stuff at The Internet Archive.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Jim wrote: "Here's another I was just told about for old SF/Fantasy books: http://manybooks.net/

Jim, I have a question about Manybooks.net. It says: "Free eBooks for your PDA, iPhone, or eBook reader." Does this mean that you have to own a PDA, iPhone or eBook reader in order to use their services?

Thanks for posting the links.

[Jim]

No, but you can read them on the computer or print them out. You can download the .rtf format (Rich Text Format) that is easily read by Wordpad, which is on all Microsoft Operating Systems. That's what I usually get. Then, you can make the text bigger (control A to select all, control B to bold the text &/or Format - Font & choose 12 or 14.) No glasses needed!

There are also links on many of the stories to free audiobooks.

Great selection, too. Lots of Robert E. Howard (Conan), more than I've seen anywhere else. Plenty of Edgar Rice Burroughs (Tarzan), one by Phillip Jose Farmer, a few by Edmond Hamilton (Star Wolves) & 4 by John W. Campbell, who was one of the most influential editors in SF. He also wrote space operas. There's also a bunch by Doc Smith, might be the entire Lensman series!!! Just awesome.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Jim wrote: "No, but you can read them on the computer or print them out. You can download the .rtf format (Rich Text Format) that is easily read by Wordpad, which is on all Microsoft Operating Systems...."

Hmmm, I have to look into this. Sounds a bit technical. I'll ask my sons about it when they visit.

You also wrote:
"...you can make the text bigger (control A to select all, control B to bold the text &/or Format - Font & choose 12 or 14.)

Hmmm, more tech stuff. I'll have to look into that too and ask my sons. I'm accustomed to the simplicity of Notepad, but havn't done anything with Wordpad that I remember.

[Jim]

Notepad works the same way, Joy. Try Wordpad because it allows you to do pictures, too. Play with it a bit. Open a new document with it & type some stuff in or paste it in from a web page. There's a few keyboard shortcuts that REALLY come in handy.

While holding down the control key, press
a - to select all in a document or web page
c - to copy the selected
v - to paste what you copied
z - undo what you just did (hitting it more than once keeps backing up, usually).

If you get an error message, you can press Alt - PrintScreen & then use control-v to past a picture of it into a Wordpad document. Notepad won't support graphics.

I guarantee if you learn these well, it will suddenly make life a lot easier. You can usually do the same with the mouse (click & hold on something, hold the shift key & drag the mouse, then right click & left click on copy), but the keyboard works when that doesn't & is easier, IMO.

As for reading text on the computer, I like printouts a lot of times, but lots of times it isn't worth it. When someone uses a size 8 or 10 font, I have trouble reading it, often. So I just make the font bigger &/or bold it.

Usually, I use text documents to search for stuff, not for real reading. I'll want to see what happened in a specific instance or remember a cool bit of dialog & want to look it up. You can use Amazon's book preview for that, too. A lot of times they or Google Books will post lots of text.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Hi Jim,
I located Wordpad and put it on my desktop. Yes, it's very much like what I do with my HTML email. So I'm familiar with the shortcuts you mention.

A while ago I tried learning Word, but it took too much time and I didn't really need such a complicated program.

I can see that Wordpad will come in handy because it does HTML. What I've done up to now when I've wanted to use HTML, was to write my document as an HTML email. Then I'd save it to my files, outside of my OE.

I've always wished I could do HTML with Notepad. Now I can do it with Wordpad. Of course, Wordpad is much simpler than Word. I don't know why I haven't done this before. I remember that a long time ago when I first started on the computer, I was made aware of Wordpad, but I wasn't advanced enough to appreciate it because I didn't even know what HTML was at the time! LOL

Of course, I finally did learn what HTML was as I was learning more about email.

I realize that fonts can be made larger for reading purposes, but I still can't get used to reading a book on the screen. James Follett, who wrote _Churchill's Gold_ sent me an rtf file of his book _Temple of the Winds_. (I had "met" him on a UK newsgroup. In fact he sent me an MP3 of the book by snailmail. Nice of him!) Anyway, I tried reading it as a Word document, but I didn't like reading from the screen. I guess that takes getting used to. Perhaps I just wasn't into the story that much.

It's nice to know that when I want to read _A Room With a View_ by by E M Forster, I simply have to go to ReadBookOnline.net at: ====>
http://www.readbookonline.net/read/19...
So when I run out of books at home to read, I can do that. When we're not close to the library during the summer, it's an option.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

PS - Jim, thanks for reminding me about Wordpad. I had completely forgotten that it existed!

[Jim]

Glad it worked out, Joy. Even best that you know the keyboard shortcuts. I use notepad & wordpad a lot, even though I have Word, as well. Why use a sledgehammer when a finishing hammer will do?

The best thing about Notepad (don't forget about it) is that if you copy something from a web page that has a lot of stuff in it, like pictures & links, if you post it into Notepad, they all go to just their text markers & can be easily edited out. It's great for posting stuff here. Sometimes you want that stuff, then you use Wordpad.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Yes, I'm looking forward to experimenting with Wordpad. As I said, I've been wondering for a long time how I could apply HTML outside of my email's Rich Text mode. I didn't want to get involved with a complex word-processing program like Word.

So I'm grateful to you for your guidance here.

Notepad has so many good uses. (Our son told me about it when I first started on computers.) I often use it for quick note-taking, especially when I come across something unexpectedly and don't want to lose it and I'm in a hurry. One of my hobbies is saving all kinds of interesting words, expressions, and things that are well-said, not to mention quotations.

It's a time-consuming hobby. I've always done it, even before computer-days. I have notebooks packed with notes. It's an inexpensive hobby and it's educational. Also, it doesn't take up much space and isn't too messy... except for the scraps of paper with random scribblings. (g) Collecting words is a natural bent for me.

[Don]

Jim wrote: "Here's another I was just told about for old SF/Fantasy books: http://manybooks.net/

One of my favorites is:
http://www.archive.org/index.php
You can get movies, audio books & all kinds of fun ..."

I use www.archive.org all the time. It's a great source for music and audio books of things in the public domain.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Don wrote:One of my favorites is:
http://www.archive.org/index.php
You can get movies, audio books & all k..."

I'll have to explore that website. I've bookmarked it.
Thanks for posting it, Don.
Is it as complex as it looks?
I'll check it out and find out. (g)

[Jim]

I love the Internet Archive. I got some radio shows by Ayn Rand, an old SF movie, "Attack of the Giant Leeches" & a bunch of other stuff there.

It's not hard to find stuff, Joy. Most things are tagged pretty well. Look at some of the categories & then search on something, like an author's last name.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

OK, Jim, I'll try that. But first I have to finish reading _The Soloist A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemptive Power of Music_. Our in-person library book club will be discussing it tomorrow night. Also, I have to watch the SAG awards tonight. I'm a very busy lady. LOLOL

Thanks for the encouragement, Jim.

"Nine tenths of education is encouragement."
-Anatole France

[[deleted user]]

You can read part of Stephenie Meyers book from Edward Cullens viewpoint by googling Midnight Sun. I really do not like to read online much as the screen is too bright but I did read half of this one.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Alice wrote: "You can read part of Stephenie Meyers book from Edward Cullens viewpoint by googling Midnight Sun. I really do not like to read online much as the screen is too bright but I did read half of this ..."

What book are you referring to, Alice?

[[deleted user]]

hmmm, wonder what I did wrong! I will put it on my profile for you.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Alice wrote: "Stephenie Meyer wrote the currently extremely popular vampire books that start with Twilight that everyone is screaming about!! There is even a whole group here called I Hate Twilight. I had so ma..."

Thank you, Alice. How could I forget! Jackie and I saw the movie "Twilight" together a short time ago. Now I realize who Edward Cullen is. The actor who played Edward was so handsome!

[[deleted user]]

Yes, I thought he was HOT TOO! LOL! But the lipstick got me down a little. I loved the tree climbing scene which was better than the race up the meadow in the book.

I like Isabella even better but the poor thing is so masochistic. (Bella)

[Joy H., Group Founder]

The scenery was beautiful.

[[deleted user]]

It made me want to travel up to that area and its gorgeous here in CO.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Here is another website where you can read stories online:
http://gaslight.mtroyal.ca/gaslight/
(See links at the left of the page.)

I just finished reading The Monkey's Paw, the famous short horror story by W.W. Jacobs. You can read it FREE at the above website. The link is:
http://gaslight.mtroyal.ca/mnkyspaw.htm

Here is a list of the site's contents by author:
http://gaslight.mtroyal.ca/gaslight/c...

Here is a list of the contents according to chronology (date of publication)
http://gaslight.mtroyal.ca/gaslight/c...

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Also, try this site: http://www.feedbooks.com/
"With Feedbooks, enjoy your books on any device: smartphones, tablets or dedicated readers."

SAMPLE: "SISTER CARRIE" by Theodore Dreiser:
http://www.goodreads.com/reader/5260-...
"This book is brought to you by Feedbooks. http://www.feedbooks.com "

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Thank you and welcome to our group.

[Liz]

Can you find an online website that I can read the book River thunder by Will hobbs

[Jim]

Liz, you'll probably need to check out your library for that. It was just published in 1999, so is still in copyright. I guess you could check Random House's site & see if they ever put it up as a freebie.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Liz wrote: "Can you find an online website that I can read the book River thunder by Will hobbs"

Liz, here's a link to a free sample to "River Thunder":
https://play.google.com/books/reader?...

They give you the first 7 chapters.

Jim, thanks for jumping in while I was "gone".

[Zohaib]

Very nice resources listed here. :)
Well, if you are looking for non-fiction books about business/entrepreneurship/self development, visit http://howentrepreneur.com. They have many Best-Sellers Books there.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Welcome, Zohaib!
Thanks for adding the information.