The Portable Harvard Classics

[wallcraft]

I don't object to Mobipocket, but these books are encrypted. This means that they are only readable on devices that Mobipocket supports, which excludes Macs and almost all Linux cell phones, PDAs and computers. In particular, FBReader is a viable option for reading unencrypted MobiPocket books under Linux and (soon) Windows XP. FBReader can probably be used on Macs as well (via X11), although I have never heard of anyone doing this.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by micheldaw

Hi folks.

It would seem my little site caused some trouble by going down. I appologize for the inconvenience. A series of unrelated catastrophes caused me to lose just about everything I had created, so it was back to the drawing board.

I have restarted the project under a new title "The Portable Library". I have focussed on a single format (see the FAQ on the site for my reasons) and I am charging (yes, you read correctly) a nominal 99 cents per book to cover the cost of the website (once I exceed the allotted size limit).

It is located here: http://www.geocities.com/portable_library/

I hope some of you can visit. I would appreciate any feedback.

Cheers

Mike

I'm sorry to say that calling them "The portable Harvard Classics" is now very misleading. They aren't portable any longer. I have a Sony Reader and cannot read Mobipocket format. And being DRM protected, I can't even do any sort of conversion. I'm sorry, but I don't like the new setup at all. The fact that you've just killed off a good portion of the market you are trying to sell to does no good at all. A lot of people here have a Sony Reader or some other device to read ebooks that cannot read DRM (or even non-DRM) protected Mobipocket format. I can't recommend these books to anyone at this point. And I would have been interested in the Ben Franklin autobiography. Sorry I cannot read it now. But I'm not limiting myself to books I can only read on the computer. I bought the Sony to be portable and if I can't be portable, then no sale. If you had them in HTML then you could keep the formatting and I could have converted it to work with my Sony and most people could convert to work with whatever reader device they have. But as it is, you've cut out a lot of people who do use the forum here. Sorry to have to be so harsh, but I feel the change is not for the better. And if you look at some of the ebook readers that are coming out in the future, they won't handle Mobipocket either.

[RWood]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I'm sorry to say that calling them "The portable Harvard Classics" is now very misleading. They aren't portable any longer. I have a Sony Reader and cannot read Mobipocket format. And being DRM protected, I can't even do any sort of conversion. I'm sorry, but I don't like the new setup at all. The fact that you've just killed off a good portion of the market you are trying to sell to does no good at all. A lot of people here have a Sony Reader or some other device to read ebooks that cannot read DRM (or even non-DRM) protected Mobipocket format. I can't recommend these books to anyone at this point. And I would have been interested in the Ben Franklin autobiography. Sorry I cannot read it now. But I'm not limiting myself to books I can only read on the computer. I bought the Sony to be portable and if I can't be portable, then no sale. If you had them in HTML then you could keep the formatting and I could have converted it to work with my Sony and most people could convert to work with whatever reader device they have. But as it is, you've cut out a lot of people who do use the forum here. Sorry to have to be so harsh, but I feel the change is not for the better. And if you look at some of the ebook readers that are coming out in the future, they won't handle Mobipocket either.

If you look through the Souny Reader Upload section you can find some of the volumes of the Harvard Classics that I have already converted. They are DRM free. More are coming out in the future until I have completed the entire set.

[JSWolf]

I'll have to go have a look and see which ones you've already converted. Thank you!

Where are you getting your source material? I'm interested in the Ben Franklin one.

[RWood]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I'll have to go have a look and see which ones you've already converted. Thank you!

Where are you getting your source material? I'm interested in the Ben Franklin one.

Franklin in in Volume I which is not yet completed. I can do a special of just that book if you like as it was one of the first books I downloaded from Project Gutenberg. I have read it about 20 times over the years and it is one of the finest examples of American autobiography I have ever read. It inspired me as a young man and has always made me feel better after reading it again.

As to sources for material, Project Gutenberg is great. Contributions are always welcome there. A lot of their books have been machine converted by ManyBooks to other formats although a lot of their books do have uncorrected errors when they source their material from Distributed Proofreaders before it is finished and posted on Project Gutenberg. There are also other books at Project Gutenberg Australia that are not on the US Project Gutenberg. There is also Project Gutenberg Consortia that has still more titles. There are also many sites on the Internet that have a lot of the classics posted. Of course there are some titles that I have to scan and OCR as I have not found a source for them on the Internet, yet.

In copyrighted material, the most known free site is the Baen Free Library. As one of the best publishers of science fiction they post selected complete books by most of their writers on the wen for free. They feel that by offering the public a sample of their wares that people may find a new writer that they like and come back and buy more by them. (It worked for me.)

There are also a number of other sites that offer DRM free books such as Steve Jordan's site with great SciFi and noir books in multiple formats.

There is also FeedBooks that offer free copies of many public domain books that are delivered in custom PDF files for your specific reader including the Sony Reader.

[Hadrien]

I'm working on our new list feature right now: anyone will be able to create list with multiple books and make a single file out of this list. This way you can create omnibus versions, something like the portable harvard classics will be possible, or you could just create a list of your favorite books, books that deal with the same subject etc...

Here's how it'll work: once on the book page, a new element will allow you to add this book to an existing list or to create a new list with this book included. Once you have multiple books in your list you'll be able to drag & drop them to select the order of these book in your list/pdf. Lists will be displayed on the page of the books, and anyone will be able to click on these lists, and generate a single file out of it.
The creator of the list will also be able to add a short texte introducing his list that will be displayed in both the website and the file.

I'm working on many different new features and improvements at the same time, but I hope I won't run into too much problems adding this one. If I don't run into too much troubles it should be available before the end of May I guess...

[RWood]

Just an update for you culture vultures, as of tonight there are sixteen (16) volumes of the Harvard Classics available in the MobileRead Sony Reader download section. All are in LRF format for the Reader, unique series covers, and TOC. There is no DRM in the bunch.

The available volumes are: 2, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 20, 21, 22, 23, 29, 30, 31, 33, and 43. All are reasonable sized files except The Divine Comedy which is just over 17 MB due to the large number of graphics included.

Many of the books in other volumes have also been posted as single volumes and will also be included in their correct volume when they are published.

[UncleDuke]

got 'em all, good show, post more