eBook News

I was just reading an announcement that came out that if you buy tickets to see the new Three Musketeers movie though Fandango, you will receive a free eBook of the original novel from WOWIO.  While I'm glad to see ebook support going with WOWIO, support for classics reading, and I'm sure that the book (with it's movie tie-in cover) will do well, I kind of wish that the movie's web site ( www.threemusketeers-movie.com ) had just given away the public domain book them selves. It would have been a nice bonus from their site to have links to the kindle/nook/ePub/etc versions of the book and perhaps even the audiobook version. So while I am sure that I will be going to the movie, I don't usually buy my tickets through online, and I thought that there may be quite a few others like me, I've put together quickly a few sites that provide the famous Dumas novel for free reading and listening to online or for download: Audiobook Version: Books Should ...

The British Library has recently released Lewis Carroll's book title Alice's Adventures Under Ground (later re-titled Alice in Wonderland). While you can purchase the iPad version, the Library has a free online application that displays the book and provides an number of great tools as you read the book using the museum's "Turning the Pages" system. The book itself is composed of detailed scans of the original text hand written by Lewis Carroll with his own drawings. Using the library's tools, not only can you read the text you can also explore the images with the Magnifier tool, read the text as print, and even listen as someone with a great voice reads it aloud to you. I found that just reading Carroll's handwriting to be it's own experience, as here is the whole book in a booklet form with page numbers on each page and areas where he had added his own drawings. While I'm sure that there are drafts of each section, just looking at what he did ...

Today I was doing a presentation on Mapping Shakespeare for the Florida Virtual School. The whole design of their virtual conference for students was very interesting, but it got me to thinking about the books that the students were reading. On my own campus I have seen students walking around with books such as the collected works of Shakespeare. When I have been able to talk to them, I ask if they were using extra material in the text, like summaries or expert commentaries. So far every time the answer has been "no". In investigating the cost of such a book, I have often found it approaching the $100 mark. While I understand many students who have to get that book, looking for a version they can sell back, unless they plan to be Shakespeare scholars, but I don't understand why they ever buy it. I know that instructors are often unaware of digital options for text, and that students are usually more aware. But with the current cost of books in college averaging ab...