how do you find stuff?

[sic]

As a Canadian being locked out of the Connect store I've bought the SONY Reader so that I'll be able to read all the classics and out-of-copyright books on a paper like display.
I also download computer books sometimes.

I'm wondering how people are getting the content for their readers...
Are you purchasing books? If so do you use SONY's store or are you buying it elsewhere and then trying to get it to the correct format?

Are you taking advantage of the "warez" sites and download PDF ebooks? (Of course only if you have a paper copy already )

How about collections?
I find that collections are great for browsing when you don't exactly know the title. e.g. When I'm looking for a children's book for my daughter I'd never find it by author or title, but I can find good ones if I browse some collected works.

thanks for your comments

Sic.

[NatCh]

I've got quite a lot of material from Baen publising, myself, but that's only good if you like the sort of SciFi they sell.

I think I'm pretty likely to continue to use the Connect store (even after my $50 'taste' is gone), as I find things there that I want to read. They do need to continue to work on the listings though -- almost 11k titles sounds great, but it doesn't translate to a very large number of titles per catagory. Though they have added almost a thousand in the first month, so that's a good sign.

I know you can't get to it from Canada, but I'm hoping that once they get the U.S. release settled they'll look to other areas. They have said "no" about Europe, but I don't think they've said anything official about Canada.

[sic]

well... it's a bit off topic but anyways...
in my opinion SONY is trying to ride two horses with one ass and at the end will arive on the floor
you cannot sell a device and the content because there's a conflict of interest there
IMO they could have cashed in with a better device that is an open system, and only focus on selling the device.

The reason I was asking the initial question is because my post about the ebook search I created on my website did not revice any positive feedback...

regards

Sic.

[NatCh]

You have a point about the device & content thing. But looking at it from the other side, part of what people have been skeptical about e-readers in the past is lack of content (which goes back to your original point ), and the Connect store is an attempt to address that, as the Reader itself is an attempt to address the issue of no good reading hardware. Kind of a catch 22 situation.

[sic]

re: availability of content it's a Yes-And-No kind of a thing.
e.g. I'm a software engineer. I can find most computerbooks online. I can even download them for free (as in warez )
can I read it on the reader?... sometimes
I agree with the TeleRead folks about the great need for an open universal ebook format.
On the other hand I've been trying to find The Slave from I.B. Singer and I couldn't...
A good bilingual Bible for the reader... also couldn't
I guess it greatly depends on what you're looking for.

I expect to see college textbooks and language books (with embedded audio) in the future formatted for the reader and similar devices.

sic.

[Jack B Nimble]

Originally Posted by sic

you cannot sell a device and the content because there's a conflict of interest there

Unfortunately, the iPod success tends to contrdict you there, and that is the model Sony seems to be looking to emulate.

Could the hardware be better? Of course it could. We have all heard / talked about the shortcomings of the Reader, but again, they are following the iPod -- keep it simple and easy. And it does emulate the basics pretty well. It does not do some of the features I use in my PDA ebook software, but the basics are all there and easy to use. By basics, I mean simple interface, good battery life, resizeable text, standardized external media, good content at a (some would say) reasonable price, and handles several non-proprietary formats (though I wish basic HTML was one of them).

Now, if they would just make their content available to Mac users, it might be enough to make up for the features it is missing for me.

Jack

[tcv]

I thought sic meant you can't sell the device and be a publisher of the content. In other words, it wouldn't work is Baen sold an ebook reader and locked out every other publisher.

[Jack B Nimble]

Originally Posted by tcv

I thought sic meant you can't sell the device and be a publisher of the content. In other words, it wouldn't work is Baen sold an ebook reader and locked out every other publisher.

Now I am really confused. In that case, why would Sony have a conflict? They are not a publisher.

Originally Posted by sic

in my opinion SONY is trying to ride two horses with one ass and at the end will arive on the floor
you cannot sell a device and the content because there's a conflict of interest there

[tcv]

I didn't say it made sense, I just thought that was what sic meant.

[Cthulhu]

@tcv:

To answer your original question, if you are looking for public domain content (i.e. plain text, non DRM protected), the two best sites are gutenberg.org & manybooks.net. Both are set up to allow people to download classics with no copyrights remaining, for free. So anything written before 1921 is fair game & most likely available there.

The Reader will handle .pdf,.txt, .rtf. The most popular, in terms of ease of use and readibility(sp) is .rtf. PDF's do not transfer well to the device because the document thinks it is being displayed on a screen that simulates 8.5x11", so it shrinks quite a bit on a 6" screen.

As long as you purchase a supported format from other e-book sites, like fictionwise.com, ereader.com, ebooksmall.com, &tc, the file will work on the device.
How much you will pay for the file is a matter of contention in a number of threads here. ;-

[Madam Broshkina]

When I download a book on manybooks.net on the select format box I choose Sony which will download your book into a .lrf file. This works for me a lot better then a .rtf file. Of course your mileage may vary.

[sic]

if I sell ebook readers then pirated ebook copies that people can download for "free" are good for me.
(just like all the mp3s out there were boosting iPod sales)
So I'm not so interested in all the DRM, copyright protection etc.

If I sell ebooks then I want to sell on every device, not just one. If people want to read it on a 2 line cellphone screen... I don't care as long as they are buying my content.
I want DRM because I'll lose sales if people can just freely copy my stuff (actually... this is proven to be false... but that's a different story)

so what does SONY want?
are they publisher or just middle-man?

and... noone really answered the original question

[Madam Broshkina]

Original question: I'm wondering how people are getting the content for their readers... Are you purchasing books? If so do you use SONY's store or are you buying it elsewhere and then trying to get it to the correct format?

My answer: I have purchased about 9 books from the Sony Store. I have not tried to buy any books from anyone else.

Original question: Are you taking advantage of the "warez" sites and download PDF ebooks?

My answer: I have not tried taking advantage of the "warez" sites to down load a PDF ebook. For me the trouble of converting a PDF that can be read easily in my Sony Reader is not worth the trouble.

Original question: How about collections?
I find that collections are great for browsing when you don't exactly know the title. e.g. When I'm looking for a children's book for my daughter I'd never find it by author or title, but I can find good ones if I browse some collected works.

My answer: The Sony Connect site has categories, for example; Biography, Horror, Romance, History and many others which you can browse and hopefully find something you will like.

[sic]

thanks for your answers!
interesting... looks like they got you hooked in
re:formatting PDF
I was attempting to reflow a pdf... then I just started using the "landscape" reading mode, when you turn the device on the side, and it's quite all right.
Compared to the effort I need to put into reformatting the PDF it's definitely the better choice.

Sic.

[johnnaryry]

There's a lot of interesting free stuff here, available in several different formats:

http://memoware.com/

--ryan