…do a review and a little pass-on to friend, would be appreciated.
Any of you Goodreads members who’ve got ‘Alizant’ and want to…
by CJ | Sep 5, 2010 | Journal | 23 comments
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Just finished it last night, and loved it. Interesting developments … looking forward to more!
I found another free e-book resource, but only for USA & Canada residents: Barnes and Noble is putting up 20 classic E-books for free, different ones each week if I understood correctly. http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/Free-eBooks/379001668/?cds2Pid=29168&linkid=1608371
They say you have to get a Nook app to read them, but as far as I can see (not having one) the Nook reads ordinary EPUB files so Calibre should do as well.
Even though the books are free you have to register, and give them a creditcard-number; and if that’s not from America you can’t get registered or get the books.
They had some nice books up there this week, two Rudyard Kiplings, two Mark Twains, E.Nesbit, and several more I’d have liked.
Can you reach http://www.gutenberg.org? Tons of free legitimate e-books.
B&N e-books, like Amazon e-books, have DRM. I was looking for Phryne Fisher books and found them as e-books on a number of sites, both US and Australian, but they all use DRM (sigh). So, I’ve written to the publisher asking if they plan to add these to the ones they already have on Amazon. No word yet but asking never hurts.
Yes, I’ve found many good books, and a lot of ‘new’ old ones to try, on Gutenberg.
There’s so much there it becomes hard to know what to look for!
I was looking for Lois McMaster Bujold’s ‘Sharing knife’ four books as e-books and came across the above-mentioned shop. Didn’t know about the DRM.
A lot of her other books are out on Baen e-books (I think those are DRM-free?), but not this series. They were on Fictionwise IIRC, but are gone there now (I don’t know if those were DRM). B&N had them, and they’re still available (legally, as far as I can gather from her site) for the Amazon Kindle (DRM), but both those sources don’t sell to Europe. Does anyone know of a source for these that’s open to Europeans?
@Hanneke: Baen are DRM-free; Fictionwise you have to check, some are and some aren’t. I just keep plugging away, emailing publishers and authors. Sometimes I get nice positive replies thanking me for my interest and telling me their plans, often I get ignored, and occasionally a really tart note saying never in a million years will they do an e-book. These folk have their heads in the sand.
The story on the sudden disappearance of some titles from Fictionwise and Amazon (as happened to mine) may relate to B&N(Fictionwise) putting up e-books which it had no right to sell and for which it was not paying the author.
What’s DRM again and its apparent problems?
Digital Rights Management – a method of tying an e-book to a specific reader. Amazon books have DRM tying the book not just to Kindles but to specific Kindles by serial number. B&N has DRM and I believe theirs is similar to that of Adobe Digital Editions, or co-ordinates with it in some manner.
Not all Amazon books have DRM. Those published by Indie authors often don’t have it but it is difficult to tell who does and who doesn’t.
Thanks!
It should state right on the site (we’re plain about it) whether or not it is DRM. We could create DRM books—but opt not to, because we feel the buyer should have their book on any device they want. We just ask in courtesy that, different from regular books [but we charge less] that you not trade them on to friends. Tell them buy their own copy. 😉
That truly isn’t a problem for me. I’ve never liked to lend books and I gave my most of my library away to the Blue Star Mothers when I got my Kindle. I kept favourite authors where I like to have both formats but that’s about it. It certainly makes dusting easier.
I’ve discovered, unhappily, that I am allergic to books. I tried to keep a wall of books in my bedroom when I lived in an apartment—the theory was sound-baffling, against the neighbor.
Unfortunately, I proved to be allergic not just to the dust but to the old books. And naturally the old books are your favorites that you’ve kept forever. They’re now relegated to the basement (with a de-humidifier)—and I have them; but it could become a problem if you have a situation like the apartment where there no choice but live up next to them.
Sounds like mould spores. Sadly the only treatment I know is to send them to Harwell (atomic energy research station) and get them frozen ANC then have them very carefully defrosted. I guess I should not have asked a rare book librarian shat she would do….
CJ should the URL not be http://www.gutenberg.org
You’re right, Apf; I fixed it above. 😉 Thanks!
Readers beware: I just downloaded one of Diane Duane’s books and read it. She asks that you not share her books with anyone else. I love her books but can’t afford to spend the equivalent of a new book for every member of the family. I did not see anything on her site that warned me that I was only buying the rights for one person to read the book. I am disappointed to say the least. I never intended to share the book with the world, but now I can’t even let readyGuy read this book that he was interested in. There has to be some middle ground in all of this.
This is not unusual. You buy an e-book and it’s for your personal use only, not to be given away or lent. B&N allow you to lend for 2 weeks on their Nook; Amazon allows multiple Kindles to share the same books but they must all be on the same account and only one at a time can have the book downloaded. I don’t know about the other readers. This is generally on the honour system and most people abide by it. We all have to keep an eye out for bootleg copies and let the authors know about them.
For those vendors who want to make sure there is no sharing there’s DRM which Amazon, B&N and other sites use.
Our own policy is you may honorably lend a Closed Circle book to any member of your household, the same people who could reasonably pick any of your paper books off the shelf and read it, the same people you’d trust with your Kindle or your computer. I’ve written to Diane and asked for a clarification.
Have just started it this evening. Khyel and Dancer are just coming into the city. So you can tell I’m only a few pages into the book.
Thanks CJ, This is getting hard to track. I have books from Amazon that I can download to the two computers and three other devices I own, but I have to separately download them for each separate reader/computer. I have books that I can download and share with anyone (mainly Project Gutenberg). I have books that are DRM-free that I can share within my household, and now I have books that I can’t share with anyone. I’ll have to change my computer password and place it in a separate filefolder not accessible on the home network. What a headache!
Word straight from Diane: “I’m going to go change that wording as soon as I have two moments to rub together. Thanks for bringing this to my attention!! This really should have occurred to me before.”
—Basically, she copied the standard no-copy statement from Smashwords, the service she uses, and just put it into her form as boilerplate. She didn’t at all intend that strict an interpretation, but is going to change the wording so yes, share it with people in your household, no problem.
Thanks for the assistance CJ. ReadyGuy really wanted to read some of her books but I kept putting him off and not loading up his Kindle with her books because I am compulsive about reading copyrights, etc…. I guess I’m anal-retentive or something.
Lol! I thought I knew Diane’s intention, but I wanted the word to be official. Good for you guys; and you can trade books about without a qualm.