Digital bookstores for Academics and Scholars

thibaulthalpern · 03-22-2009, 01:36 AM

I want to start compiling a list of digital/online bookstores that have a "good" selection of books for academics and scholars, especially those in the arts, humanities, and social sciences.

So far, I have found the following to be somewhat decent:

• ebooks - www.ebooks.com

seems to have a good selection of academic books but it isn't always the cheapest price

• Sony bookstore - bookstore.sony.com

seems to have a fair/good selection of academic books and once in a while, the prices are better than ebooks.com

• Amazon Kindle Store - amazon.com/kindle

• Powells - www.powells.com

• BooksOnBoard - www.booksonboard.com

• eScholarship from CDLIB - www.escholarship.org

from the University of California system. For those who are affiliated to the UC system, use your UC library proxy server or VPN to your UC campus network. This get your more "privileges". I haven't found a way to download the books though, but you can view all of them on your computer screen for free.

• Websites of the various publishers

publishers do not necessarily have the cheapest digital versions available, although if you're desperate this might be an option

[I'll keep adding to the list as I find ones that are appropriate]

snipenekkid · 03-22-2009, 02:26 AM

Interesting links which gave me a BIG giggle right off the bat. Having a couple degrees in Mathematics I figured I would take a peek at what might be out there for electronic texts. What book comes up first in the list? Differential Equations for Dummies, great woolly jeebus, if you need that book perhaps another course is in order. I KNOW it's a nice review or refresher text if one is rusty but just that title made me laugh because if one struggles at that level, time to look into a different area of study since it is the beginning not the destination of the study of Mathematics.

Nice to see there are a lot more texts out there than when I looked a couple years ago. Thanks for the motivation to look again.

thibaulthalpern · 03-22-2009, 03:26 AM

Yeah, I'm an anthropologist and we use theories and works from the whole gamut of the humanities, arts and social sciences (depending on what your research specialty is). I'm happen to see some academic electronic books available. I rarely ever buy non-academic books because those I generally read once and never again so I prefer to borrow the general non-fiction and fiction from libraries.

wallcraft · 03-22-2009, 09:22 AM

Have you looked at the Kindle store on Amazon? It won't help for non-Kindle owners (although the iPhone is now supported), but, at least when it was first introduced, a large fraction of its lead in ebooks over other sites was "technical" ebooks.

thibaulthalpern · 03-22-2009, 09:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wallcraft

Have you looked at the Kindle store on Amazon? It won't help for non-Kindle owners (although the iPhone is now supported), but, at least when it was first introduced, a large fraction of its lead in ebooks over other sites was "technical" ebooks.

Thanks, I just added it. I wish the Amazon Kindle store would open itself up to other devices aside from the Kindle and iPod touch/iPhone. I own an iPod touch but I don't really like to use it to read books. The screen is sooo small.

03-22-2009, 01:36 AM	#1
thibaulthalpern Evangelist Posts: 478 Karma: 451808 Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: California, USA Device: my two eyes, KLiiK, Sony PRS-700	Digital bookstores for Academics and Scholars I want to start compiling a list of digital/online bookstores that have a "good" selection of books for academics and scholars, especially those in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. So far, I have found the following to be somewhat decent: • ebooks - www.ebooks.com seems to have a good selection of academic books but it isn't always the cheapest price • Sony bookstore - bookstore.sony.com seems to have a fair/good selection of academic books and once in a while, the prices are better than ebooks.com • Amazon Kindle Store - amazon.com/kindle • Powells - www.powells.com • BooksOnBoard - www.booksonboard.com • eScholarship from CDLIB - www.escholarship.org from the University of California system. For those who are affiliated to the UC system, use your UC library proxy server or VPN to your UC campus network. This get your more "privileges". I haven't found a way to download the books though, but you can view all of them on your computer screen for free. • Websites of the various publishers publishers do not necessarily have the cheapest digital versions available, although if you're desperate this might be an option [I'll keep adding to the list as I find ones that are appropriate] Last edited by thibaulthalpern; 03-22-2009 at 09:44 AM.

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03-22-2009, 02:26 AM	#2
snipenekkid Banned Posts: 760 Karma: 51034 Join Date: Feb 2009	Interesting links which gave me a BIG giggle right off the bat. Having a couple degrees in Mathematics I figured I would take a peek at what might be out there for electronic texts. What book comes up first in the list? Differential Equations for Dummies, great woolly jeebus, if you need that book perhaps another course is in order. I KNOW it's a nice review or refresher text if one is rusty but just that title made me laugh because if one struggles at that level, time to look into a different area of study since it is the beginning not the destination of the study of Mathematics. Nice to see there are a lot more texts out there than when I looked a couple years ago. Thanks for the motivation to look again.

03-22-2009, 03:26 AM	#3
thibaulthalpern Evangelist Posts: 478 Karma: 451808 Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: California, USA Device: my two eyes, KLiiK, Sony PRS-700	Yeah, I'm an anthropologist and we use theories and works from the whole gamut of the humanities, arts and social sciences (depending on what your research specialty is). I'm happen to see some academic electronic books available. I rarely ever buy non-academic books because those I generally read once and never again so I prefer to borrow the general non-fiction and fiction from libraries.

03-22-2009, 09:22 AM	#4
wallcraft reader Posts: 6,975 Karma: 5183568 Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Mississippi, USA Device: Kindle 3, Kobo Glo HD	Have you looked at the Kindle store on Amazon? It won't help for non-Kindle owners (although the iPhone is now supported), but, at least when it was first introduced, a large fraction of its lead in ebooks over other sites was "technical" ebooks.