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E-Books |
| by Tim Drenk |
E-books are becoming popular as more and more publishers make more books and magazines available. Being able to read a book during a free moment without carrying an additional item is very appealing to many people.
An e-book
First, an e-book, or an electronic book, broadly defined is any book, magazine, or written material viewable on some sort of computer. One of the reasons for such a broad definition is that there are many different formats and programs for reading e-books. Some formats are secure and encrypted, others are plain text documents. And, of course, some e-books you must buy and others are free.
How to read e-books
First, you will need is a reader program. For Palm OS, there are many reader programs for the basic DOC format. The DOC format is a generic text document format usable by most handhelds. For a free reader program, I would suggest checking out PalmReader from Palm Digital Media can view their own format as well as DOC formatted e-books. PalmReader is also included on CD with the Palm m500/505. AportisDoc and CSpotRun are two other free reader programs. There are also programs that can view and edit the DOC format such as WordSmith and QuickWord. The Gadgeteer has a good review of the many DOC readers.
For Pocket PCs, Microsoft Reader comes built-in which uses the LIT format. You can install PalmReader or AportisDoc to view the DOC format.
Finding ebooks
Second, you will need to get an e-book. There are numerous places you can find e-books on the web. Where you should look depends on what kind of handheld you plan to use and what kind of ebook you what. Whatever e-book you download, you will need a program that can read it. Most web sites indicate what format the e-book is available in before you download it.
Here is a list of some of the places to look for ebooks for handheld computers:
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| MemoWare |
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A good place to start looking for ebooks for Palms and Pocket PCs. All ebooks are free and most are available in several different formats. |
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Palm Digital Media
(Peanut Press) |
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Formerly Peanut Press, Palm Digital Media publishes a wide variety of e-books that use PalmReader which is available for Palm OS and Pocket PC. |
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| MobiPocket |
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MobiPocket publishes ebooks that use the MobiPocket Reader which is available for Palm OS, Windows CE, PocketPC, Psion, and Franklin eBookMan. |
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| Project Gutenberg |
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Project Gutenberg publishes public domain e-books in plain text. You will find many classic books here. |
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| Palm Press |
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Palm Press publishes free Christian ebooks in Palm DOC format. |
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| University of Virginia |
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U of V publishes public domain e-books in the DOC and LIT format. |
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| Fictionwise |
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At Fictionwise, you'll find fiction e-books in all the major genres that are in a variety of formats. |
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