How to read out-of-print books on your iPad and iPhone for free:
As I mentioned in a previous post about ebooks, I really think we are going to be reading more and more in this format. I already am benefiting by being able to carry around a library with me wherever I go.
Yesterday, I was pointed to a quote by Richard Baxter but my friend had to print out the quote by printing the screen shot from google books. But wonder of wonders, when I looked up this book later on google I learned that I could download it either as a pdf or epub document! This is huge.
While I have long known that pdf’s can be read in ibooks, I wasn’t a big fan because it was too difficult to zoom in and read. The beauty of ibooks (or Kindle for that matter) is that the text can be scaled, highlighted, bookmarked and definitions looked up from a selected word. The epub format opens up the world of being able to highlight and notate your book.
Here is how you do it:
Go to google and select google books (books.google.com)
Look for an out of print book you want to read and open it. If it is available for download in epub you will see this drop down menu on the side: Example: Richard Baxter book, “On the Mischiefs of Self-Ignorance and the Benefits of Self-Acquaintance”
Select the format you want (again, I recommend the ePub format)
After the file is downloaded drag and drop it into your itunes library when itunes is open. When you sync your iPad or iPhone it will be loaded onto your device (make sure “sync all books” is selected and it will automatically do this every time).
[...] Brewer explains how to get out-of-print books from Google Books onto your iPhone or iPad for [...]
If your Kindle is pdf compatible, then just download the book from Google Books, saving it as a pdf file to your desktop. Then plug your Kindle into your computer, select “View files and folders”, and open the “Documents” folder. Then click and drag the pdf book that you downloaded from your desktop into the Kindle Documents folder.
(By the way, older Google Books often read more like an image than text on a Kindle. The upshot of this is that it may take up to 10 secs. to turn a page. Just turn the page when you’re about three lines from the bottom to adjust for this.)
Also, if you find an e-book that’s public domain but is in text for ( such as txt format), just highlight the text, copy and paste it into a blank Microsoft Notepad file; then save it to your computer’s desktop, and click and drag it to your Kindle as above. This format has the advantage of allowing you to change the font size, which you can’t do with pdf files on Kindle.
now we just need a good list a la Justin Taylor
You can also download eBooks in a variety of formats at http://www.archive.org
[...] 27. How-To of the Week: Get out-of-print books for your iPad and iPhone [...]
How do I drag and drop Epub’s into iTunes?
Okay, I got them into iTunes and checked sync all books, synced the iPad, now where do I find them on my iPad?