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Pleasantly Surprised by iBooks and FREE BOOKS!

czachorski

czachorski

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 24, 2007
871
1
I wasn't really planning on doing too much book reading on this thing, but I have to say that I am pleasantly surprised at how nice iBook is. For me, the biggest surprise is all the free books. I started reading Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations and War and Peace, both free. Seems like there are 1000's of other free book as well. Nice!
 
Currently reading "The Count of Monte Cristo" which I got for free.

The book is way better than the movie, btw.
 
Where are you guy downloading books from, the iBooks store?

edit: Nvm.

edit 2: I foresee a huge spike in people actually READING.
 
Benjic said:
Where are you guy downloading books from, the iBooks store?
Click to expand...

Yes - when you browse a category, it shows to panes - one is top paid, and the other is top free. There are a ton. When I find a good free book, I then search the store for that Author, and there are usually 10-20 more for free by that same author. All the good classics whose copyrights have expired.
 
jeffy777 said:
Currently reading "The Count of Monte Cristo" which I got for free.

The book is way better than the movie, btw.
Click to expand...

It's one of the best books ever written. I like his other works too, but it's the most engaging.
 
czachorski said:
Yes - when you browse a category, it shows to panes - one is top paid, and the other is top free. There are a ton. When I find a good free book, I then search the store for that Author, and there are usually 10-20 more for free by that same author. All the good classics whose copyrights have expired.
Click to expand...

I don't see those two panes when viewing a category. Only way I can get a list of free books is to search for free or on the home screen in the bookstore if you scroll to the bottom there is a link to free books but you can't separate these by category.
 
When you're viewing your bookshelf, drag it down towards the bottom of your screen and you'll see the hidden Apple logo.....

I like Easter eggs :eek:
 
Yes - Project Gutenberg has done a great thing by converting so many classic books into ebooks.

As far as I know, their entire collection of over 30,000 titles is available.

Also, it's worth noting that Apple did a great thing by supporting their format and allowing them into the ibookstore!
 
Anyone know the timeframe for when things fall out of copyright?
 
spectre51 said:
I don't see those two panes when viewing a category. Only way I can get a list of free books is to search for free or on the home screen in the bookstore if you scroll to the bottom there is a link to free books but you can't separate these by category.
Click to expand...

Sorry. It's under top charts in the bottom of the iBook store.
 
jeffy777 said:
Currently reading "The Count of Monte Cristo" which I got for free.

The book is way better than the movie, btw.
Click to expand...

Within iBooks there are 4 "The Count of Monte Cristo", free one, a 4.99 one and two 5.99 ones. Looks to be all the same.
 
Mitchrapp said:
Within iBooks there are 4 "The Count of Monte Cristo", free one, a 4.99 one and two 5.99 ones. Looks to be all the same.
Click to expand...

They are exactly the same, it's just other publishers trying to make a buck off of a public domain book.
 
Benjic said:
Where are you guy downloading books from, the iBooks store?

edit: Nvm.

edit 2: I foresee a huge spike in people actually READING.
Click to expand...

My reading has spiked, although not like mad, due to the Kindle app for iPhone. But between the news apps and that, I read a lot more than I used to.

For those wondering why there are so many free books, I think copyrights only last about 75 years. So Apple and Amazon can put them out there without licensing worries.

I do hope libraries work out ways to allow "borrowing" books. It could work a lot like the movie rental process. I just don't know how the pricing would go.
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Term_Extension_Act

Since the Copyright Act of 1976, copyright would last for the life of the author plus 50 years, or 75 years for a work of corporate authorship. The Act extended these terms to life of the author plus 70 years and for works of corporate authorship to 120 years after creation or 95 years after publication, whichever endpoint is earlier.[1] Copyright protection for works published prior to January 1, 1978, was increased by 20 years to a total of 95 years from their publication date.
Click to expand...
 
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