eBooks@Adelaide: Free Web Books, Online

 

eBooks@Adelaide: Free Web Books, Online

The purpose of this site is: to provide access to the “classic” works of civilisation; to promote reading of the same; and for the editor to have fun. There are many sites offering classic works in one form or another. Putting them into a format which readers might actually enjoy using is a challenge which I enjoy. If others benefit from it, so much the better.

The Collection began around 1998. I was aware of other e-text projects and had compiled a web page directory of these sites. Dissatisfied with the presentation on those sites, I wanted to explore how one might present a book usingHTML in such a way that it was as readable and enjoyable as a printed book. Having proved the concept, I then began adding titles and refining the format (and refinement continues to this day). The first title publicly promoted was Dickens’s Our Mutual Friend, done in order to tie in with an ABC TV adaptation which was showing at the time.

Selection of titles is loosely based on what are described as “the Great Books”, but includes all manner of things that took the Editor's fancy.

National Academies Press - free downloads

As of June 2, 2011, all PDF versions of books published by the National Academies Press (NAP) will be downloadable free of charge to anyone. This includes our current catalog of more than 4,000 books plus future reports published by NAP.*

Free access to our online content supports the mission of NAP--publisher for the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council--to improve government decision making and public policy, increase public education and understanding, and promote the acquisition and dissemination of knowledge in matters involving science, engineering, technology, and health. In 1994, we began offering free content online. Before today's announcement, all PDFs were free to download in developing countries, and 65 percent of them were available for free to any user.

Like no other organization, the National Academies can enlist the nation's foremost scientists, engineers, health professionals, and other experts to address the scientific and technical aspects of society's most pressing problems through the authoritative and independent reports published by NAP. We invite you to sign up for MyNAP --a new way for us to deliver free downloads of this content to loyal subscribers like you, to offer you customized communications, and to reward you with exclusive offers and discounts on our printed books.

Sign up now. It's quick, easy, and free.
Sincerely,
Barbara Kline Pope
Executive Director for Communications and The National Academies Press
*There are a small number of reports that never had PDF files and, therefore, are not available for download. In addition, part of the "Nutrient Requirements of Domestic Animals" series is not available in PDF. Future titles in this series will also not have PDFs associated with them.

The Worlds of David Darling

 

The Worlds of David Darling

 

The Worlds of David Darling is a large on-line collection of information on all aspects of science, technology, mathematics, philosophy, history, and science fiction. It has been developed, and is updated daily, by author and astronomer David Darling. It contains two major encyclopedias – the award-winning Encyclopedia of Science and the Encyclopedia of Alternative Energy and Sustainable Living. Material for these encyclopedia derives from the author's numerous books, submitted contributions from third parties, and public domain sources.
Other components of the site include a home page with regularly updated news, a number of separate news sections on topics such as health, the living world, paleontology, archeology, robotics, and technology, and an extensive collection of news archives.
The site first went online in 1999 and has now grown to more than 16,000 pages and approximately three million words.
See the site map for further details.

 

Includes --

THE INTERNET ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SCIENCE and ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ALTERNATIVE ENERGY AND SUSTAINABLE LIVING

 

The Worlds of David Darling

Is E-Book Milestone Worth Cheering? – Deadline.com

 Is E-Book Milestone Worth Cheering? – Deadline.com

Is E-Book Milestone Worth Cheering?

By MIKE FLEMING | Tuesday July 20, 2010 @ 9:21am EDT

 

Amazon.com is crowing that for the first time, its e-book sales volume has surpassed hardcovers. Am I the only one who sees this as an apocalyptic sign for the great pleasure of book reading? Amazon's basing  its assertion on sales figures for the last three months, when buyers were lining their Amazon Kindles with summer beach reading. Amazon chief Jeffrey Bezos marvels that the milestone is more remarkable given that Amazon has only been selling e-books 33 months, as opposed to the 15 years it has been moving hardcovers. A report on the milestone in The New York Times indicates that within the next decade, less than 25% of books sold will be in print.

The lure of e-books is easy to understand: with no trees killed, books come cheaper to consumers, who no longer have to lug around hardcovers when an entire library can be loaded into a single lightweight device. On the cost front, I wonder what will happen when the makers of Kindle and other devices corner the publishing market and are no longer interested in selling its software at loss leader prices so that it can move hardware. That confrontation is inevitable, when more brick and mortar stores vanish.

My biggest problem--and the reason I'll always stick to print books--is that I think the entire experience of reading a books is cheapened by technology, same as it was in music. Young people don't become invested in musical artists the way I did when I bought vinyl albums, savored the cover art and gave every song a chance (my kids pay a buck to download hits only and don't care about an artist's progression). Future generations of readers won't value the ritual experience of buying a book, appreciating its distinctive smell and formative heft, earning the way to the end, page by page, and then displaying the best ones like trophies on a shelf.

Now, the whole business of publishing is changing. More and more authors like James Patterson are co-writing novels. That's made them more prolific and wealthy, but it doesn't mean their books are better. Tom Clancy is taking this a step further this fall with the fall publication of Dead or Alive, a Jack Ryan thriller. All of the big authors write their signature franchise character books solo--Patterson works alone on his Alex Cross mysteries--Clancy wrote the Jack Ryan book with frequent collaborator Grant Blackwood. While other authors continued Ian Fleming's James Bond series, Robert Ludlum's Bourne series and even Mario Puzo's The Godfather characters, it's  only because those authors are dead. What's Clancy's excuse? I see it as another step in the wrong direction.

As for e-books, I'll give the last word to Elmore Leonard, who's still cranking out his customary 3 to 4 pages each day from 10-6, even as he prepares to turn 85. "To me, a book is a book, an electronic device is not, and love of books was the reason I started writing," Leonard told me recently. "I don’t have a word processor, e-mail, any of that stuff. I write in longhand mostly, then put it on my typewriter as I go along. I don’t have any interest in any of that electronic stuff, but I’m going on 85, and won’t have to worry about it too much longer.”

What about the rest of us, Elmore?

Is E-Book Milestone Worth Cheering? – Deadline.com