Back in 2004 Google launched the Book Search Project as it was known. Supposedly there are now some 10 Million books that have been scanned and made either wholly or in part available on line. I say "supposedly" because I have definitely not counted them.Some authors and publishers were either not contacted or could not be contacted and so some scans were done without permission. So there was a lawsuit. Not that a lawsuit about something like this is a big surprise.
Then in 2008 a settlement was reached whereby Google would pay some $125 Million to various parties. There have been at least three federal investigations and I don't know where those stand.
It's been in the news recently, too. And at least one blogger I read posted about Google Books.
So I thought I should check it out.
I loved Edgar Rice Burroughs when I was a young reader. I think I read most of his works although not all by any means. I am not even certain how many books he wrote.
I clicked on one of the titles the search brought up. I honestly don't know if I've read it or not. I could read it online on my computer, download a PDF or a TXT file, buy it from a list of sellers, or find a library. Pretty good I thought.
So I clicked on the Amazon link to see if I could buy the book as a Kindle version.
Sure enough I could buy it for $.80. Actually that's pretty good, too, because if I wanted it on my Kindle and downloaded it from Google then I would have to convert the PDF and then copy over to my Kindle or use the TXT and copy over. Probably worth $.80 to do that.
But while I am looking at the page I see one of those "also bought" links to a "Works of Edgar Rice Burroughs" that contained 50 of his books. FIFTY! So I click and sure enough it is what it says and is priced at $4.79 for the Kindle. That's 50 books for $4.79 for the Kindle. That's amazing.
The publisher is MobileReference.com so I surf over to their site. They have a whole bunch of books that are ready to go for the Kindle.
I did not buy the Edgar Rice Burroughs book but I might. The reason I didn't buy it is I have more books I am reading right now than ever before in my entire life. I see so many titles I would like to read and it is so easy to get them.
If it were just easier and faster to read them now.
3 comments:
Wow, 50 books for that price? Unbelievable. So how many books does one of those Kindles hold? Do you delete the book once you have read it? Just curious.
The K1 will store about 2500 books on the device. The K2 stores about 1500 books. The new Kindle DX stores about 3500.
However, books you buy from Amazon are also stored at Amazon so when I read a book I just delete it from my K2 because I don't see any point of having more on the device than I am reading.
There is a used market now for the K1. I've seen them listed under $250.
I like the size of my K2. It is a disadvantage that it doesn't do PDF's very well though. The new DX does PDF but is more expensive.
It sounds like the Kindle is great! I'm thinking that I have to get one of 'em. After vacation, maybe!
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