Book-drunk

[catsittingstill]

Cat staggers in, looking disheveled and somewhat pink.

I just found manybooks.net.

Oh my gosh. They have _The Princess and The Goblin_. Free. In unsecured Mobipocket. I paid 6$ to get it at Fictionwise (though it came with _The Princess and Curdie_ and _On the Back Of The Night Wind_, so it wasn't that bad a deal, especially considering the paper book prices...).

They have Tarzan 1-8 in unsecured Mobipocket. Free.

They have The Three Musketeers. Free!

They have several books and short stories by Daniel Keyes Moran. Free.

I don't know what all else they have. But apparently they have automatic format-generators for all the most popular formats of e-books (there were like 20 listed--they probably have yours). So they say the first time a ebook is generated in a particular format it takes a bit longer to download. I think mine had all been downloaded in mobipocket before--they were all pretty quick.

I think I need to lie down for a bit. My brain is threatening to overheat.

What a wonderful site. I shall return!

Comments

[smoooom.livejournal.com]

FREE e books? FREE???????

thanks for the info

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Yes. Free.

Actually, Baen Webscriptions (www.baen.com/library/) also has a library of free e-books. Theirs is smaller, but their books are in copyright (free by permission of the authors and publishers in hopes of getting readers hooked on a series so they well then pay for e-books. It seems to be working.)

Manybooks.net by contrast has out-of-copyright works like The Three Musketeers and the Tarzan books, along with books that have been placed there by authors (I picked up _Hacker Crackdown_ there for example).

[filkergem.livejournal.com]

You are a Bad Woman, did you know that? Thanks for the tip!

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Hic! Bad? No, I'm good...

I even made a donation to help support the site.

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

I just figured out what it is about you and the e-books. The mimoths have found all your paper copies and decided they wanted to make indoor snow. Am I right?

I figure mimoths are a lot like my dear two-year old child, Destructina the Mighty.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

The mimmoths are definitely into ebooks. They can turn the pages just by pressing a button. What could be easier? Whereas getting a grip on a single page with a fur-covered trunk is, well, it's not easier.

And free e-books? They're all over that.

[folkmew.livejournal.com]

I shall kiss you next time we meet. Don't be alarmed. :-)
But seriously - WOW, thanks.

I love my palm books because I can easily hold it and "turn pages" while rubbing the backs of two children simultaneously at naptime. :-)
Plus I can read them in bed and not wake up Ed.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

:-) I look forward to seeing you again. And you're very welcome, and I hope you enjoy the books.

I was happy to see so many "old friends" (though the Tarzan books are actually Kip's old friends, but I was pleased to find a place where I could get them for free.)

[occams_pyramid]

If you can convert from plain text, the Tarzan books, the Three Musketeers, and a *lot* else is available free from Project Gutenberg.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

The most commonly available tools for converting to mobipocket format don't work on Macs. Which is what I have. Plus, while I admire Project Gutenberg and wish them only the best, they are apparently handling line length by putting in hard returns every 70-80 characters or so, which is reported to make the resulting e-books hard to read.

There are doubtless routines for removing the line-length returns without removing the returns that mark paragraphs. Owing to not having a way to make mobipocket ebooks at the moment, I don't know what those routines are, though.

[mdlbear]

Most of manybooks' content comes from Gutenberg, and they're doing the conversion on demand.

[thymidinekinase.livejournal.com]

Neat! I'd just been toying with the idea of hunting down _Three Musketeers_ (I blame _The Phoenix Guards). Thanks for posting the link.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

:-) You're welcome.

[mdlbear]

Oh, dear.

You're evil, you know...

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Hic! No, no--good. I'm good; I've thought it over, and I'm pretty sure.

Books are good. Free books are very good. I didn't make the free books, so I can't really take credit, but surely pointing people toward free books makes me at least a little bit good.

[mdlbear]

The "about" page is interesting, and especially the list of conversion tools.

[aylinn.livejournal.com]

okay - have you told DON about this site?

it might help stem the accumulation clutter.

for a week or so...

*g*

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Err. Did Don friend me? If not, I haven't told him--it is up to you!

[mbumby.livejournal.com]

Wow. Not enough time now, I'm sure it will consume lots. But I have jotted down the address, and if my finding it again coincides with free time, I'm sure I shall delve into their shelves. Thanks (I think).

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

:-) You're welcome (I'm sure)

[randwolf.livejournal.com]

Oooh, shiny.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

:-) Isn't it, though?

[jebra.livejournal.com]

Ah! Thanks.

If you're not already familiar with it, I'd like to return the favor by pointing you at memoware.com (http://memoware.com/).