Enjoying the old books
I like old books, and thus I enjoy Google Book Search, where I can find old books and magazines on just about any topic.
I type my search term into the box and wait for a page of results to appear. Then, from the drop-down menu titled "Showing", I select "Full view only". Another page of results appears -- all of which are fully available on the internet without any restricted pages.
The full-view books are often available for download, so I sometimes import them to my own computer. I've also started using the Library feature of Google Book Search. When a book is in my library, it's easy to find it again. It's also possible for anyone to browse my library.
2 comments:
The problem though is reading long-form literature on a computer screen is uncomfortable and can lead to eye strain. There is E-ink technology coming that could solve this. You can see it being used in the Amazon Kindle. Flip cellphones were first seen when Captain Kirk talked into his communicator. The Kindle is Star Trek PADD technology brought to reality.
Eric, you sound like a salesman for E Ink or perhaps for Kindle. For those who are interested, here is an article from the NY Times about Kindle 2, the latest of these hand-held, book-reading devices.
One of the best things about Kindles is that they are friendly to people with vision impairments -- the size of the font can be adjusted and most books can be read aloud by the Kindle, using text-to-speech technology.
A Kindle wouldn't work at all for my typical use of electronic books. I am usually researching something, with multiple browser windows and a word-processing program open.
This post wasn't really about Kindles, anyway. It was about using the Google Book Search, particularly the free books -- a resource that I think is under-appreciated.
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