Sony e-book reader gets 500,000 books from Google

SFGate ^ | Thursday, March 19, 2009 | AP

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Google Inc. is making half a million books, unprotected by copyright, available for free on Sony Corp.'s electronic book-reading device, the companies were set to announce Thursday.

It's the first time Google has made its vast trove of scanned public-domain books available to an e-book device, and vaults the Sony Reader past Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle as the device with the largest available library, at about 600,000 books.

The scanned books were all published before 1923, and include works like Charles Dickens'"A Tale of Two Cities" as well as nonfiction classics like Herodotus'"The Histories."

The books are already available as free downloads in the Portable Document Format (PDF), which works well on computer screens but not on e-book readers. Google will provide the books to the Sony Reader in the EPUB (electronic publication) format, which lets the lines flow differently to fit a smaller screen.

Google spokeswoman Jennie Johnson said the company wants to make the books available as widely as possible.

"Really our vision is: any book, anywhere, any time and on any device," she said. "We want to partner with anybody who shares our vision of making them more accessible."

The publishing industry has more or less united on EPUB for e-book distribution, but Amazon uses its own format for the Kindle. However, unencrypted EPUB files can be converted to a format readable by the Kindle using PC software.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

H/T to HardOCP .

[Paine in the Neck]

I was thinking of getting one of these readers. Do any FReepers have experience and opinions on which is best?

[Paine in the Neck]

I was thinking of getting one of these readers. Do any FReepers have experience and opinions on which is best?

[kc8ukw]

We have the Sony PRS-505, which is not quite the latest model. But we love it. I think the PRS-700 is the latest model - I think it differs in that it has a built in book light and more memory.

You'll probably be deciding between the Kindle and the Sony Reader. The Kindle is nice in that it is wireless, and because Amazon offers a bigger selection than Sony. However, the Kindle can only read books in the Kindle format.

To compete with Amazon's selection, Sony is taking their reader in a more open direction. It can read their own format, plus PDFs, plus several other ebook formats in common use. Most people also like the Sony design better - it's sleek metal vs. Kindle's oddly shaped plastic.

[kc8ukw]

Here is one short comparison article.

[ShadowAce]

[imskylark]

I love my Sony ereader. I take it everywhere with me. It isn’t wireless like the Kindle but it suits my purposes very well.

[imskylark]

manybooks.net have Sony format books for free. They are all out of copyright but I love the old books, anyway.

[shorty_harris]

For me, the perfect ebook device would be one that I could download books from the local library on (wouldn't have to be wireless). I'd pay $300 for such a device.

As it is, I have the ebookwise 1150. It's easy to use, the battery lasts for a couple of weeks between charges, and it only cost me $139. I have a dozen or so free classics on it, and it suits me fine.

[Solson]

I have the kindle and love it. The readability is great and I like that it isn't so thin. As long as I can convert ePUB to the kindle format I'm fine. I wish the library was larger overall. It doesn't have any Ayn Rand except Anthem right now and other classics.

Since I travel a ton, it's nice to have the wireless feature as well though I don't consider it a deal breaker.

I would have never paid full price for the Kindle. I got it for $200 and consider that a reasonable price. The discount for electronic format from amazon is nice as well.

[Raymann]

I bought the first Sony Reader the day it came out a couple years ago, and I still use it every day.

99% of what I read I get from the web, blogs and fanfiction so getting a Kindle with wispernet would be more then useless for me. Sony’s bookstore is very easy to use and I’ve never had a problem finding the books I want there unless the publisher doesn’t offer it in an ebook format.

If you read a lot then I can say it’s worth buying one. Yes they’re expensive but ebooks are a bit cheaper and so easy to use. A friend of mine told me he was reading Atlas Shrugged so I let him borrow my reader when he was about half way done to finish it. When he was done he went straight to the Sony store to by one himself.

BTW: there are a lot of ebook readers out there. Sony and Amazon sell the most but take a look at the link below to see a comparison chart of all the ones available.

{a href=”http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/E-book_Reader_Matrix";}

[Raymann]

Stupid html Mobile Read Wiki.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Ernest.

[snip] Google Inc. is making half a million books, unprotected by copyright, available for free on Sony Corp.’s electronic book-reading device, the companies were set to announce Thursday. It’s the first time Google has made its vast trove of scanned public-domain books available to an e-book device, and vaults the Sony Reader past Amazon.com Inc.’s Kindle as the device with the largest available library, at about 600,000 books. [end]

related resources:

free audiobooks from the public domain (volunteer to record one)
http://librivox.org/

WorldCat Find a Copy of a Book
http://www.worldcatlibraries.org/

[SunkenCiv]

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	Gods Graves Glyphs	Thanks Ernest_At_The_Beach! Now that I think about it, a GGG "Pages" topic. unencrypted EPUB files can be converted to a format readable by the Kindle using PC software. I read about the conversion process, perhaps in Popular Science. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
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[ChocChipCookie]

I have been wanting a Kindle for some time now, but I should probably check out the Sony Reader before making a purchase. My main reason for wanting one is to download most or all of the books we use for homeschooling. It would be fabulous to be able to grab just the Kindle or Sony Reader when we go on trips.

[SunkenCiv]

Paul Lutus’ book on his solo circumnavigation is a free d/l at his website, also available as a commercial paperback. An acquaintance told me tonight that he was reading it, and dreams of doing the same thing.

Confessions of a Long-Distance sailor
Paul Lutus
http://www.arachnoid.com/sailbook/index.html
http://www.arachnoid.com/sailbook/confessions.zip

[RikaStrom]

As it is, I have the ebookwise 1150. It's easy to use, the battery lasts for a couple of weeks between charges, and it only cost me $139. I have a dozen or so free classics on it, and it suits me fine.

This is the one I use. And if you download the GEBLibrarian software, you can convert other formats to also read on it.

[wildbill]

We’ll now see a battle for ebook hardware supremacy.

Sony has to remember how it got its ass handed to it in the old Betamax vs. VHS format wars. The key was the number of movies and other content available for the VCR hardware format and the VHS format waxed them.

If Amazon can’t come up with a partner like Google for all these books, they are in trouble with the Kindle.

[wildbill]

What is the availability of new fiction that normally goes to paperbacks and how much does it cost.

I’m buying pre-owned books at the library for $1.00-.50.