Internet Books

With sites like Project Gutenberg sprouting up more and more, internet books are emerging as interesting combinations of old and new technology. Somewhat ironically named after the inventor of the printing press, Project Gutenberg collects, scans, and publishes on the internet books which have become public domain, either because they were not written under a copyright or because their authors have been dead long enough for their rights to the material to expire. The books are then made available online for anyone to download and enjoy.

Internet books (otherwise known as e-books) have been met with somewhat mixed reviews. Though e-book readers were said to be the end of brick and mortar libraries and bookstores, their sales never matched up to the predictions. You're still much more likely to see someone at the bus stop paging through a Grisham novel than you are to see them firing up their e-book. Though intuitively they make sense; e-books can store an entire library in your hand and browse and page through electronic books relatively easily, in the end people would rather read from an actual book.

Though few people will turn to internet books for their leisure reading, they do work admirably for other tasks. Since they are completely digital and searchable, and since public domain internet books are available for anyone to download and search, they can be a boon to students doing research or for scholars who are trying to track down a particular passage or phrase. The newly launched Google Books allows users to search thousands and thousands of full-text books which have been scanned into digital formats to make searching and retrieving specific information easier than ever before. However, Google Books has only limited access to many books which are not in the public domain. Part of this move is to avoid copyright infringement, since they are providing access to copyrighted work. However, Google also wants to provide enough of the book on the internet to get people interested enough to buy it in a book store or check it out from the library, allowing the internet to promote physical books over internet books.

PDAs (or Personal Digital Assistants) have also helped the evolution of the internet book along. Since they are becoming more powerful and are equipped with better displays than past generations of PDAs, they display e-books easier and clearer than before. PDAs are quickly gaining on laptops as the weapon of choice for those in business, and what better way to relax after a day at the office than a book already conveniently placed in the palm of your hand?