On the lookout for new and interesting titles for your ebook reader? Me too! I’m always looking for new things to read, but sometimes get tired of stopping at the same old resources or spending more money on titles than I should. With this in mind, I thought it would be a good thing to mention two of my new “old” favorites: The book section of the Internet Archive, and Hathi Trust. You can always find something here….
Internet Archive
While we all know the Internet Archive as the home for dusty web pages, user created content and the Prelinger Archives, you might not be as aware of their massive pile of ebooks and related resources. With collections from Canadian libraries, American libraries, and other sources such as the Universal Library, there are millions of titles just waiting to be downloaded to your reader. Searching is somewhat old-school, but very thorough and the list of results is impressive in any respect. Linked subject headings make it easy to branch out with related searches and the supported formats include Kindle, ePub, PDF and others. Just this morning, I was researching a subject for my history blog and came across some titles from the World War II era such as The War Bond Story and World War II: A Concise History. Hit the link and try your own search today.Hathi Trust
While I’ve mentioned this resource a bit in some of my previous posts, I can’t help but tell you about this one again, albeit with some reservations. Positioned almost as a competitor to Google Books but not quite, the Hathi Trust brings together major collegiate partners and libraries to form an impressive online ebook site. Currently there are over 5 million volumes online with over 800,000 in the public domain. With multiple searching options as well as being able to view your found titles in several formats such as image, text, and even PDF, this is one resource you should spend some time with. One of the features I liked most about the site is the ability to maintain your own collection of titles. My only reservation with this resource however, is that I have yet to find a way to download any titles. If your reader does have web access or you use your cell phone, this might be a non-issue. Testing with my ancient Windows mobile phone, I was able to search and read a few titles in plain text. If your reader is an older version, like my Sony PRS-505, with no web access, then you could always try Google Books to see if the title is available there.
Visit today?
Between these two resources, I was able to download about fifty new titles in just a short period of browsing. There are lots of options and lots of subjects to start looking at, all at a great price: Free! Have you tried these sites before? Thoughts? Alternative sites I could try? Let us know in the comments below!
