I'm so confused ... Help?

[Dr. Drib]

Many of us here (myself included), take these PD books and convert them and try to make them look nice. The format for all these books [see INDEX, in the UPLOAD section] is the native format for our Reader: Bbeb.

Since these books are in the public domain, there is no lock or anything like that on them.

There's 625 books there, last count. They're arranged alphabetically by the author's last name.

Don

Originally Posted by Cthulhu

Little Old Lady:

Just to clarify: your public library allows you to download "locked" copies of current fiction?! That is awesome. Sounds like an amazing program, the only problem being that reading on a PC is difficult under the best conditions, and in order to allow for security, the library feels it must include DRM software.

Oh Brave New World! With such books in it!

[KlondikeGeoff]

Welcome, LOL, and I do hope you will enjoy the Reader. As you know by now from the preceding posts, the PDF format is not the greatest.

As you have written that you are interested in current novels, then all the great classics from Project Gutenberg, many of which have been improved by people in this forum and made available, may not be what you are looking for.

Other suggestions such as Baen are good, but they are limited to SF.

Right now, that leaves only the Sony ebook store. They have a pretty large collection now of current novels and are adding to it weekly. All of these have to be purchased and some are rather pricey, but there a lot of others that are reasonably priced from $4 to $8 or so, and you may like some of these.

Browsing and ordering through the Connect software and their website may not be the easiest thing, but there is a wealth of current books there to buy, if you wish.

I find that when am interested in buying some recently written books, I browse through Amazon.com, read the blurbs and reviews, and make notes of those books I might want. Then I go to the Sony store and search for any of these they may have, and buy some now and then. To me that is easier than trying to browse on the Sony site.

Good luck, and don't hesitate to post any other questions you may have.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by Cthulhu

Just to clarify: your public library allows you to download "locked" copies of current fiction?! That is awesome. Sounds like an amazing program, the only problem being that reading on a PC is difficult under the best conditions, and in order to allow for security, the library feels it must include DRM software.

This is now relatively common, see Public Library e-book downloads: Do you use yours?. The major downside is that these are typically either DRMed PDF or DRMed MobiPocket files, neither of which work on the Sony Reader. Note that this is some hope that DRMed PDFs will eventually be supported, because they are readable with Adobe Digital Editions, see Top Publishers and Sony Support New Digital Publishing Experience (Digital Editions).

[Cthulhu]

Ummm.....At everyone responding to my post:

I am not as ignorant as you infer that I am.
I am well aware of public domain books, and the great work at http://www.gutenberg.org.

The Little Old Lady--or so I thought--mentioned liking CURRENT fiction, and that she was getting these titles off her public library's website. *That* would indeed be noteworthy, and is what I was asking about. If I am mistaken, I apologise, but I thought that was her point: I have new(ish) titles on my computer, how do I port them to the Reader?

At any rate, please stop using my post about one subject as a means of addressing another.

[Little Old Lady]

Originally Posted by Cthulhu

Little Old Lady:

Just to clarify: your public library allows you to download "locked" copies of current fiction?! That is awesome. Sounds like an amazing program, the only problem being that reading on a PC is difficult under the best conditions, and in order to allow for security, the library feels it must include DRM software.

Oh Brave New World! With such books in it!

Hi Cthulhu!

Yes, Most of the Massachusetts Public Libraries are part of CWMars, which allows us to download eBooks for a 2 week period. After that, from what I understand, they automatically are "returned" and you no longer can access them. I think it's a pretty neat concept (gotta love technology), which is why I bought my Sony Reader to begin with. Unfortunately for me, I didn't realize that there were differences in Adobe formats, but at least I now understand that the reason the copies are in a locked format because it IS a lending library, and that must be their way of "recalling" them when the 2 weeks are up so that the books are not an outright gift.

The three titles currently hanging out on my computer for 2 weeks are Are You Afraid Of The Dark – Sidney Sheldon, Lost Lake – Phillip Margolin, The Closers – Michael Connelly, however, thanks to all of you good folks at MobileRead, I have found a couple of novels to put on my Reader, using some of the sources you have provided me with, so all is not lost.

If you'd like to check out this service here's the link: http://www.cwmars.org/ ... which features the blurb "Don't forget our downloadable eBooks". Of course in order to make use of it, one has to have a Massachusetts Public Library card.

Meanwhile, I've had a fine educational experience today and even found my way to the forum's Wiki, so plan to visit often to learn more. I downloaded Book Designer, so who knows? Maybe I'll even play around with formatting at some point!

And yes, NatCH, you are absolutely right about learning ... I just wish these old brain cells would absorb stuff a little faster!

Thanks again to all of you for making this newcomer feel welcome!

[JSWolf]

I too am in Massachusetts. I am in Roslindale and belong to the Boston Public Library network and the Minuteman Library network. Interlibrary loans allow me to access cwmars and some on the Cape. But I am not sure I can take out ebooks from cwmars. Never tired to be honest. That's because if I want to read them electronically, I don't want to be tied to my computer.

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by Little Old Lady

Thanks again to all of you for making this newcomer feel welcome!

Well, we do have ulterior motives: we like for newcomers to stick around.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by NatCh

Well, we do have ulterior motives: we like for newcomers to stick around.

But we did try so hard to get rid of NatCh. What went wrong?

[BobVA]

Hi LOL and welcome aboard! You might also check out www.manybooks.net which has most of the Project Gutenberg books. I find it a little friendlier in that you can select to have the downloaded already formatted for the Sony Reader, rather than converting it yourself.
If you get interested in doing your own conversions you'll find plenty of instructions are posted on this site. If you've got Microsoft Word on your computer it can be as easy as loading a file, doing a little reformatting and then doing a "Save As" in .rtf format. This does a pretty good job for simple texts.
The books in the download section here show what you can do with some more complex tools to get nicer looking results with more features (e.g. linked table of contents, etc.)

As was mentioned above, Adobe announced a new ebook format that supports protected content and that will cross multiple platforms. We're all waiting to see if Sony will support it on the current Reader. This would be a great solution for electronic library loans.
Another nice feature of this format is that text can "reflow" to fit different screen sizes, so it should look as good on something the size of the Reader as it does on a computer.

Cheers,
Bob

[yvanleterrible]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

But we did try so hard to get rid of NatCh. What went wrong?

Hey! Without Natch we wouldn't have that 'Smack' smilie and the untaught way of how to use them, they're such a nice way to give out that non verbal hint... Thanks for being there buddy!

Nice of you to point to him JS! I know you like him too!

[Little Old Lady]

Originally Posted by yvanleterrible

Hey! Without Natch we wouldn't have that 'Smack' smilie and the untaught way of how to use them, they're such a nice way to give out that non verbal hint... Thanks for being there buddy! :thumbsub:

Nice of you to point to him JS! I know you like him too!

… and NatCh, in addition to clearly explaining why my downloaded library eBooks would not work on the Reader, made me laugh several times yesterday … and in my LOL persona … I love to laugh.

Bob, or anyone, PLEASE, PLEASE do let me know … send me an email or “whatever” … if Sony does end up supporting the new eBook formula you mentioned, just in case I miss the posting. I haven’t permanently given up on the idea of electronic library loans.

JS, although I do pretty much everything else on my computer, you are correct in suggesting in your earlier post that reading a book on one would not be a satisfying experience at all ... yechh! However, curling up in a comfy chair with my Sony reading a borrowed library eBook still sounds pretty good. Downloading books to the computer to then be transferred to the Reader was, I thought, the ideal alternative to carrying a pile of books around with me all of the time!

Peace!

[JSWolf]

It is a great way to read curled up in a nice comfy chair or couch. Pick a good book fromt he list in the E-Books section here and have a read.

[yvanleterrible]

Originally Posted by Little Old Lady

…

Bob, or anyone, PLEASE, PLEASE do let me know … send me an email or “whatever” … if Sony does end up supporting the new eBook formula you mentioned, just in case I miss the posting.

You know we can't do that! You have to keep reading here! Every day!

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

But we did try so hard to get rid of NatCh. What went wrong?

Heh, you started about 11 months too late, JSWolf -- by the time you came along, I was already a fixture.

You should enjoy the next week or so, though, since I'll be mostly off-line during my moving trials.

@yvanleterrible: thanks, buddy, for making this oldcomer feel welcome.

@Little Old Lady: Glad to make you laugh, being easily amused myself, and laughing at myself as much as I do, I know the value of a good laugh.

[KlondikeGeoff]

Originally Posted by NatCh

You should enjoy the next week or so, though, since I'll be mostly off-line during my moving trials.

Wow, you've been arrested and are going on trial just for moving?