Archive for the ‘ebooks’ tag
OverDrive to distribute DRM-free O’Reilly ebooks no comments
OverDrive announced today that it has entered into a distribution agreement with O’Reilly Media. Soon the publisher’s entire ebook catalog of around 1,500 ebooks will be available DRM-free to OverDrive’s library, school and bookseller partners in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and other countries.
O’Reilly specializes in technology topics and features titles from popular writers such as David Pogue, J.D. Biersdorfer and Robin Nixon.
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OverDrive releases new Windows Phone app no comments
OverDrive has released a new Windows Phone version of its OverDrive Media Console. The new app enables readers with popular phones such as the LG Quantum, Samsung Focus, HTC Trophy and others to download public library ebooks and audiobooks directly to their phone. Users can also search for their local library and browse its downloadable ebook and audiobook collections from within the app.
"With the launch of our new Windows Phone app, OverDrive now supports eBook and audiobook lending on every major mobile and desktop operating system," said David Burleigh, director of marketing for OverDrive.
The OverDrive app for Windows Phone is available at the Windows Phone Marketplace. To find a local library that sources their digital holdings from OverDrive use the OverDrive Search tool.
The video below from OverDrive demonstrates all of the features of the new Windows Phone app and serves as a quick tutorial.
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OverDrive releases new BlackBerry app no comments
OverDrive has released a new version of its free Media Console app for BlackBerry devices. The new version brings support for direct downloads of ePub ebooks from public libraries whose digital collections are supplied by OverDrive to BlackBerry phones and the forthcoming PlayBook tablet.
Like OverDrive’s apps for other devices, this new version also includes the “Get Books” feature, which lets you browse and check out titles from within the app itself, rather than having to do this from your desktop and then sideload the files.
OverDrive Console will work on BlackBerry touchscreen devices with BlackBerry OS 4.7 or higher. You can currently download the app from OverDrive or from MobiHand. Media Console will also be available in BlackBerry App World soon.
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Free Kindle & Nook Books; Halloween Reading no comments
Homeland: The Legend of Drizzt, Book I (Bk. 1) by R.A. Salvatore (4 1/2 stars/226 reviews) is free at both Barnes & Noble and the Kindle Store. This is the first book in the very popular fantasy series.
Barnes & Noble also has special pricing on three horror-themed ebooks just in time for Halloween. Each of the titles below are priced at $2.99 at B&N.
After Midnight by Richard Laymon ($5.59 for Kindle) (4 1/2 stars/17 ratings at B&N).
A young woman descends into an ever-escalating nightmare of murder and madness when her only defense against an intruder is a Civil War saber.
Dark Hollow by Brian Keene ($6.39 on Kindle) (4 stars/16 ratings at B&N).
Strange things are happening in the rural community of LeHorn’s Hollow: women are disappearing overnight, mysterious fires are seen in the woods and eerie piping music is heard. Dark Hollow was inspired by the classic horror story The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen.
Siren by John Everson ($5.59 on Kindle) 
(4 stars/8 ratings at B&N).
Evan is entranced by the alluring song of the beautiful naked woman he saw in the surf one lonely night. But this is no mere seductress. She is a siren, one of the legendary sea creatures who prey on unsuspecting men. And she has claimed Evan as her next lover.
* * *
Some more ebooks to help you get into an All Hallow’s Eve mindset:
The Grimly Queen by Shayna Krishnasamy (4 stars/15 ratings) $1.99. This YA title seems to be exclusive to Kobo.
From the author of the astonishing young adult novel Home comes a haunting tale of identities taken, lost and found, and an obsessive friendship between two young women who have everything to gain from one another and nothing to lose but themselves. When a shy university sophomore begins to feel that her life is disintegrating around her she’s more than willing to accept glamorous Regan Lathie’s offer of an escape — a room in her apartment, away from the campus. But only once she’s moved in does she understand the true height of Regan’s status. As their friendship deepens and she is sucked further and further into Regan’s world, she begins to see that being Regan Lathie, the girl everyone desires, isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, and coming back to herself might be the only way she can escape The Grimly Queen.
Funland by Richard Layman (4 1/2 stars/28 reviews at Amazon) $5.49.
A growing group of leering, belligerent punks known as the Trolls are intimidating fun-seekers at the coastal amusement park Funland, and some of the local teens blame the Trolls for a series of missing persons and decide to fight back late one night. But what’s really behind the disappearances is waiting for them all in the funhouse. . .
The Lake and 17 Other Stories by David McAfee
(5 stars/12 reviews at Amazon) $0.99.
Seventeen short horror stories from the author of 33 A.D. and Saying Goodbye to the Sun.
The Red Church by Scott Nicholson (4 1/2 stars/31 reviews – Amazon) $0.99.
For 13-year-old Ronnie Day, life is full of problems: Mom and Dad have separated, his brother Tim is a constant pest, Melanie Ward either loves him or hates him, and Jesus Christ won’t stay in his heart. Plus he has to walk past the red church every day, where the Bell Monster hides with its wings and claws and livers for eyes. But the biggest problem is that Archer McFall is the new preacher at the church, and Mom wants Ronnie to attend midnight services with her.
Sheriff Frank Littlefield hates the red church for a different reason. His little brother died in a freak accident at the church twenty years ago, and now Frank is starting to see his brother’s ghost. And the ghost keeps demanding, "Free me." People are dying in Whispering Pines, and the murders coincide with McFall’s return.
The Days, the Littlefields, and the McFalls are descendants of the original families that settled the rural Appalachian community. Those old families share a secret of betrayal and guilt, and McFall wants his congregation to prove its faith. Because he believes he is the Second Son of God, and that the cleansing of sin must be done in blood.
Island Life by William Meikle (4 1/2 stars/11 reviews – Amazon) $2.99.
An archaeological expedition is intent on opening an old barrow on a remote island in the Scottish Hebrides despite the reservations of the locals, who all know and fear the old stories. The scientists unleash a colony of murderous monsters from deep under the earth. As the released creatures swamp the island, slaughtering livestock and people alike, the humans must band together to combat it with few resources save their courage and wits.
Ruthless: An Extreme Shock Horror Collection by various authors (4 1/2 stars/2 reviews) $4.00. This one sounds really hardcore. Even the cover art looks like there was considerable pain involved.
"With Ruthless, Shane McKenzie has proved yet again that politesse is overrated, that it’s not necessary to be smooth and restrained, that sometimes horror needs to be rough and messy…this is the real deal. Hardcore, kick-ass, take-no-prisoners horror. It’s gross, it’s disgusting, it’s rough, it’s raw."-Bram Stoker award-winner Bentley Little This shocking short story collection includes sick and twisted tales by the following disturbed authors: John McNee, Daniel Fabiani, Lucas Pederson, Danny Hill, Jessy Marie Roberts, Shane McKenzie, Jared Donald Blair, Lesley Conner, David Bernstein, AJ Brown, Tom Olbert, Nate Burleigh, John "Jam" Arthur Miller, Thornton Austen, Aaron J. French, Eric Stoveken, Alec Cizak, D. Krauss and Airika Sneve. With introduction by Bentley Little.
Parasite: Six Tales of Speculative Terror by Dekker Dreyer (4 stars/4 reviews) $1.19.
In North Africa something washes ashore rotting everything, and everyone, it touches. On an alien world three astronauts realize the dangers of living off the land. In the shadow of a plane crash two survivors face off against a horde of clockwork monsters. ‘Parasite: Six Tales of Speculative Terror’ transports you to a nightmarish science fiction world where you can’t run, you can’t hide… and you’re never alone.
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Free Kindle Books – 8/16/2010 no comments
Five new free ebooks at the Kindle Store to help ease us into another Monday:
Seeds of Destruction: Why the Path to Economic Ruin Runs Through Washington, and How to Reclaim American Prosperity by R. Glenn Hubbard & Peter Navarro. (not yet rated) Politics, the economy.
Mourn The Living by Henry Perez (5 stars/2 reviews) Suspense.
The Truth About the New Rules of Business Writing by Natalie Canavor & Claire Meirowitz. (4 1/2 stars/44 reviews) Business communication.
Germs, Genes, & Civilization: How Epidemics Shaped Who We Are Today by David P. Clark (3 1/2 stars/14 reviews) On the influence of pestilence on human history.
Profiles of Remarkable Businesses (Collection) by FT Press Delivers (no reviews yet) Business.
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eReading is Really Big in China 3 comments
Judging by the ever-growing number of ereaders continuously being released in China, it should come as no surprise that ereading is probably more popular there than anywhere else on the planet.
The Independent reports that in 2009 the value of digital publishing surpassed that of traditional publishing in China – this according to China’s General Administration of Press and Publication.
Most of the ereading in China seems to be done on mobile phones. According to Research and Markets almost a half million dedicated ereaders have been sold there in the first half of 2010 – up from just over a quarter million in all of last year.
Will the iPad be going to China any time soon? No official word from Apple, but the iPad has just received a safety certification from the Chinese government – a necessary first step before the iPad can be released there.
And what of the Kindle? The Kindle 3 will support the Chinese language (both Simple and Traditional) along with several other new languages. There have been recent rumors that Amazon might be planning to launch the Kindle ereader in China in the near future – rumors fueled in part by a job opening posted briefly on Amazon.cn for a “Sr. Product Manager, Amazon Kindle.”
Sony announced in May that it would be releasing its ereader in China this year as well. There are an estimated 200 to 300 million book readers in China, so it could prove to be the most lucrative market for ereaders, especially as Chinese readers seem to be wholeheartedly embracing digital reading. On the other hand, rampant piracy may make it a much more challenging market for selling ebooks than the West.
I’m wondering if the Kindle Store here in the US will start carrying ebooks in the newly supported languages once the Kindle 3 is shipping? There seem to be very few Chinese or Korean Kindle books at the moment. There are more books in Japanese, but most of these seem to be Japanese public domain classics (did you know that Genji Monogatari, written in the eleventh century, is usually considered to be the world’s first novel?). There also do not yet seem to be many books that would use the Cyrillic character set offered by the Kindle 3.
Currently, the only non-English content that you can easily search
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Free eBooks – 8/01/2010 1 comment
Several new freebies in the Kindle Store. There have been a lot of free books coming and going lately, so if you see something you like it is best to jump on it as if you blink it may be gone. Some of these are also free at Koboand Barnes & Noble.
In The Warrior’s Bed by Mary Wine (3 stars/ 8 reviews). Historical romance.
The Sari Shop Widow by Shobhan Bantwal (3 1/2 stars/39 reviews) Contemporary set in Edison, New Jersey’s Little India.
The Ocean Inside by Janna McMahan (4 stars/ 8 reviews) Contemporary.
Venus in Blue Jeans: Konigsburg, Texas Book 1 by Meg Benjamin (5 stars/2 reviews) Romance.
The Man Who Loved Jane Austen by Sally Smith O’Rourke (3 stars/32 reviews) Romance.
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Scott William Carter (2 1/2 stars/ 51 reviews) is free at Barnes & Noble.
For more freebies see my Free Kindle Books page.
