Confused newbie

[rogertb]

Very very new to ebooks, having read a lot about the end of the printed book I thought I'd check out ebooks, I have an Advent 'netbook' PC and figured, at least, I could download a few books and see if I can mange to read them comfortably, I'm currently trying Adobe Reader 9 and am surprised that I can't view the page vertically (maybe I'll get used to viewing in landscape) but also I was hoping to reduce the number of books I pack to go on holiday, and (as an example) I thought I'd search for a popular author; Ian Rankin, but I couldn't find his books in ebook format, is this correct /

I'm sorry if these are old rubbish questions but I have done some research - even finding a good forum was a bit of a struggle ... any help welcome. Many thanks Roger

[Ben Thornton]

You can use inkmesh to find books, for example: Ian Rankin

The best place to buy them depends on where you are.

For public domain ebooks, use the ebooks link at the top of the MobileRead page to access the many excellent books that people have uploaded.

[rogertb]

Thanks ben for your prompt and courteous reply ... I'll check that out - Roger

[Katti's Cat]

Hi Roger & welcome to MR. Buying eBooks is indeed a question of where you are. For alternate sources, try the library. It seems there are more and more around that offer eBooks.

I can't help with the orientation problem but hope someone else can.

[ChrisC333]

Originally Posted by rogertb

I'm currently trying Adobe Reader 9 and am surprised that I can't view the page vertically (maybe I'll get used to viewing in landscape)

Why can't you view the page vertically?

I use a netbook for reading and the ability to switch the view is built into the graphics drivers of the machine itself. If you can find the right tab for the display properties then you might find that there's an option to do it.

On mine I just press Ctrl Alt and an arrow key and it flips the screen display either to the left or right, or upside down. But if you can't find a way of doing it using the existing software then there are a couple of utilities that I found for free on the net that supposedly also do the job. I can't say if they're any good or not because I didn't need them. From memory, one was called something like 'irotate' but I can't give you any opinions on whether they will work for you or if they are safe or not.

I hope that's what you meant.

Cheers,

Chris

[rogertb]

Thanks both ... and Chris good of you, the short cut doesn't seem to work but I downloaded Foxit Reader which seems to do the job ... Roger

[StewieH]

morning roger , another way you can read your books on the advent especially if you use firefox as your web browser is to install the epub book add in for it, i will look out the details when i get home today and post them for you, cant remember offhand at the mo, sorry .
stu.

btw, what model are you using? i have an advent 2213 works great esp once the ram has been upgraded to 2 gig.... it flies!

[rogertb]

Thanks Stewie, epub looks good on wicki ... I'll try it out, I have the Advent 4211 and am pretty happy with it, I'm a mac man really but needed something small and light (compared to my 15" mac lap top) to take on holiday and the Advent does the job so I thought I'd try leaving at home the normal pile of heavy books I take, (travelling light is important if you fly Ryanair) ! Regards Roger

[rogertb]

Anyway now I'm thinking about an ipad .... here come the can of worms !

[StewieH]

ipad looks good,but im not a fan of itunes so im not gonna bother. the 4211 isa cracking little netbook ( its a re-badged MSI wind btw) so you cant go wrong there . update the ram and you'r good to go.

stu

ps here's the linkforthe epub reader addon for firefox

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/45281

[rogertb]

Thanks Stu