Get nine free e-books for your phone, PDA, or PC
Get 'The Whiskey Rebels' and eight other e-books absolutely free.
(Credit: eReader)I've made no secret of my love of e-books. I read 'em on airplanes, in bed at night, in line at the post office, and so on. But I do have a complaint: They're not priced substantially lower than their dead-tree counterparts.
That's why I'm tickled about this: e-bookseller eReader is offering nine Random House works of fiction absolutely free.
These aren't bargain-bin titles from no-name authors, either. The collection includes three crime-noir novels from Charles Huston, all of which earned 4.5 stars from Amazon readers; The Whiskey Rebels, a brand-new (and well-reviewed) historical novel by David Liss; and The Idiot Girl and the Flaming Tantrum of Death by Laurie Notaro, a 4.5-star collection of essays.
Amazingly, there's no catch here--just add the books to your shopping cart and check out. The eReader software that's required to view the books is available for Palm, Windows Mobile, Symbian, iPhone, and iPod Touch, as well as Windows and Mac systems.
I can't speak highly enough of my experience using eReader on my iPhone. In fact, I'll go so far as to say the iPhone makes a way better e-book reader than the Amazon Kindle. Agree? Disagree? Let your opinions fly in the Comments. Meanwhile, grab these freebies while you can. I'm not sure when this "holiday special" expires.
Update: Users of the Stanza iPhone/iPod Touch app can download this same batch of free books directly to their devices.
Rick Broida, a technology writer for nearly 20 years, is the author of more than a dozen books. In addition to writing CNET's The Cheapskate blog, he oversees BNET's Business Hacks. Rick is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CBS Interactive. Disclosure. Deals found on The Cheapskate are subject to availability, expiration, and other terms determined by sellers. Follow Rick on Twitter at cheapskateblog. 
Also, have to seriously agree on the cost of eBooks. If I am going to give up my precious books, there has to be a compelling value case and they haven't made it yet. Too expensive, proprietary, and difficult to use.
Why make suck a ridiculous statement at the end of an otherwise ok article? Whenever someone spews idiotic comments such as this it becomes obvious they have never actually used an ebook reader. eink is the most important part of any ebook reader as it removed all eye strain and makes it just as enjoyable as a dead tree book. Go find an actual ebook reader and try it out, you will be surprised.
If you'll click through to my related post about iPhone versus Kindle, you'll see my various reasons for preferring the former. Of course, that's just my opinion. I'm entitled to one, right? :)
I use my wife's iPhone quite a bit and I've played with the Sony read in the store. Obviously, the iPhone makes a much better general-purpose device. The Sony has a beautiful screen. I imagine that if you're a bookworm or a law/medical student who needs pour over reams of copyrighted books, the Sony is the better tool. For everyone else (which is, like, 99% of the population?), the iPhone is the better choice: it's a "good enough" e-reader, plus it's an excellent phone, excellent MP3 player, and - to me most importantly - a "good enough" internet browser and email client.
To make eReaders more appealing, its manufacturers have to do one of two things:
1) drastically reduce their price point - e.g. give them away for free in return for signing up for a 10 book purchase agreement or simply sell them for under $100 to make them an impulse buy. Follow the shaver/razor-blade model: make your money on the books, not the device!
2) Have the eReader become a multi-purpose device. But there is a bit of a challenge there as there is already an 800-pound gorilla in that market: the iPhone - the swiss army knife of electronic devices. But I think it could definitely succeed here also - because it has a really nice feature that distinguishes it from the iPhone: its screen SIZE. In our household, we're currently have 3 laptops for doing work and surfing the web. The web surfing part consists mostly of visiting news sites. If we had a device that was lighter than a laptop and "instant-on" like an eReader and which could be used to surf the web (i.e. had WIRELESS), we would be willing to shell out the $300-$400 price current eReaders charge. But, alas, Sony and Amazon don't seem to "get it".
[I understand that current ePaper technology doesn't lend itself to rapidly changing web content - e.g. animations, videos, etc. - but that still leaves billions of "static" web pages that could easily be traversed using ePaper technology.
My opinion is: You sir are either an idiot or a liar.
You just want to crank up your comment count so the boss will think you are writing something worthwhile. The comparison between a iPhone and Kindle is so utterly ludicrous that I won't even bother. If you truly believe the statement you made then you have clearly never used a Kindle even though your comparison implies you have.
If I'm looking for a device that lets me read books on the run, what makes more sense: A bulky, ugly, non-pocketable, single-purpose unit that costs $350, or a sleek, sexy, omni-functional tool that starts at $199? (Plus $70/month, granted--but let's not forget, it's also a PHONE.)
Wow, I knew the Kindle had its fanboys, but I didn't think they'd come out swinging. Always happy to see this kind of devotion, especially where books are involved.
Who reads on the run? Do you honestly read novels while jogging? Let's be serious now, who would rather read on the run, then climbing into bed with a good book? Reading novels is not something to be multitasked so there is nothing wrong with a single-purpose unit. As for bulky and ugly I would argue the sony ereader is sleeker and sexier then the iPhone.
But at the end of the day anyone who actually uses an ebook reader will always choose it over a pda/iphone/etc. because of the eink technology. I have never met someone who read an entire book on both types of devices and preferred the pda and if you are honest for a moment I'm sure you will admit that neither have you.
Switch to an actual ebook reader that uses eink for one full week and I bet you will never switch back. I've noticed Target now sells the sony ereader, they have a great return policy, buy it for the week and if I'm wrong return it, but I'm willing to bet you won't.
Don't patronize me with the fanboy card just because I disagree with you. I happen to be an iPhone fan so that argument doesn't stick.
Since you're going there lets do it:
First lets get this straight: I do not care if my book is a phone. Frankly if I'm reading a book I don't want my friends picture jumping in the middle of my text when they call. A book should not ring that's why there are all those signs in the library. The kindle is designed to do one thing and do it well. In fact it does this one thing so well it warrants the price.
The kindle is smaller and lighter weight than a paperback. It lets you stick 2000+ books in your backpack so it's quite compact enought. You wouldn't want it to be any smaller or it wouldn't handle or read comfortably.
The iPhone on the other hand has gone too far for this purpose. Who really wants to read ENTIRE books on a 3" screen? Seriously? I'm 20/20 and I want to stay that way.
While we're talking about screen lets get it out of the way: The Kindle (and Sony) electronic ink screens are amazing. Pictures on the intarwebs make it seem like they are LCDs when they are not. For those reading along who haven't seen one this might help illustrate: When the kindle goes to sleep an image stays on the screen without consuming any battery. It's not an LCD. It's like paper and works great even in bright sunlight.
Speaking of battery: The kindle battery lasts a week, a WEEK, without a charge. Does your iPhone even make it a day? Heck, can you even finish one book let alone several without that sleek, sexy, omni-functional tool having to be attached to a power brick plugged into the wall? That's gotta be comfy in bed. What do you do on long flights?
The kindle also does it's "one *******" perfectly. Book purchases are direct on the kindle and take like 20 seconds to download. It can display any book or document that you can print. Got something wierd? Just upload to amazon and they send it back. It's on a high speed network just as fast as the iPhone 3G yet instead of costing $70/month it costs ...wait for it... $0. You cite the high price of the kindle but your iPhone is going to cost you the same in just two months! ($199 + 2x $70 = $340). Want to make a comparison a year from now?
.
So as a quick summary:
It can't be comfy laying at the beach with a cord attached reading a book on a 3" screen in the glare of the sun. Try a Kindle next time.
I'm going to revise my original opinion. I don't think you're an idiot. I think you've never actually used a kindle. You can respond and say you have even if you haven't. Nobody will really know. Take the high road though: Go borrow a kindle for as long as it takes you to read ONE book. I'm betting your experience will be great enough to write a new blog post about.
Who reads on the run? Do you honestly read novels while jogging?"
You're not serious, right? God, I hope you're not serious.
This is the man's opinion. It's his blog. Posters (not just you) need to stop with the name-calling. Give your objective opinion and you don't need to post the same stuff several times. As someone else said, get your own blog and bloviate.
My opinion is that I also believe it is difficult to read a whole book on the iPhone; however, I will not shell out $300 for a dedicated eReader. It's too expensive to start with and the price of eBooks is prohibitive. I like to borrow books and magazines from the library. I read out-of-town newspapers online. So, there would have to be some extreme price-cutting for me to be able to justify such a purchase.
bookwormhole.net
Search on either name and all their books will come up listed with their Amazon reader ratings. If there's been a professional review, for example, the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, you'll see a link to that too.
You can sort by ratings, etc., as well. It's free and has no ads, no registration required.
...and these companies wonder why people pirate.
helped me buy most gifts this year.
Rick's the man!
I use the HP iPAQ 214 to read all my documents, particularly on the train with Foxit Reader for reading PDF documents and it works good enough until a better device comes out. With this device, you have a 640x480 screen resolution with a display which spans 4" diagonally. Many of the documents I have can be read perfectly without requiring any translation or reformatting. I have two main problems with this device, 1) the touch screen is very poor and requires a good jab for it to work, and 2) it uses windows mobile and active sync which has caused me a lot of synchronisation problems.
I've done a lot of research into finding a suitable device for reading documents including devices from iMate, but unfortunately I haven't found any screen remotely close to the clarity I get on my iPaq 214. I would be interested to know if anyone knows of any devices out there that have 4" or larger, have a minimum resolution of 640x480, can fit in my jacket, and does not weigh more than a few hundred grams, I would be very grateful.
It does beat out palm and ipod touch as a multi-purpose device.
The iPhone seemed sharper (I will leave the numbers to the spec sheets) and no harder to read than the Tx.
I am puzzled by remarks like, "spews idiotic comments" which seems hyperbolic and ill-considered. I would agree that the Sony and the Amazon readers are better for reading than my Tx, I have looked at both in stores, but you can only read a book you have and my Palm stays with me almost all the time.
The larger reader simply aren't as portable. So since I have never had eyestrain with my Palm, I prefer it to the more specialized devices.
i'll add my 2 cents that having the option to read books on the phone i already have sounds pretty appealing, especially since the number of gadgets i have and the money i spend on them has piled up over the last year. i could definitely do without one more dedicated device and hit on my wallet.
although this whole eInk technology sounds great, i will probably stick with using my phone as a short term solution until reader and ebook prices go down enough to suit me.
thanks for the stimulating discussion rick!
I read Free Range Chickens, which is cute in places, but pretty darn short. Not complaining, though: it was free. Enjoy! And I, too, have read eBooks for years on Palm devices (and found your book on Palm devices very helpful, Rick!), but have to disagree with you here: the Kindle beats reading eBooks on a Palm or iPhone hands down.
However, and this is not a small disadvantage, pulp doesn't require electricity.
I can not imagine reading an entire book on my iPhone.
I read every day prior to starting work and at lunch (1.5 hours a day) and only need to charge the battery in my Kindle once a week (if that often).
if I plan on making it through the entire day with my iPhone, I need to turn the 3G off if not needed.
When I (and I am assuming that I am not alone) read, I want to immerse myself in the book. I would NEVER waste my time trying to read while in a line at the post office. For that short attention span, you might as well read a book on the iPhone while driving.
People need to get off this "multi-function" kick and realize that items that are purpose built will always, ALWAYS perform better than a multi-function device.
Just like how even though I have a camera built into the iPhone, I still own a separate camera for great photo taking moments.
I also need to mention that I have seen the Sony reader and think once you get past the nice design, it does not work as the Kindle does. Wireless delivery and shopping is the KEY to the Kindle.
- by SkydiveGuy December 29, 2008 6:02 PM PST
- actually... I just looked up the ereader app for the iPhone... looks like it is getting 3 out of 5 stars... for a FREE program. The $360 Kindle is getting 4 stars out of 5.
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Showing 1 of 2 pages (38 Comments)It must be true... its on the internet :)