Free eBooks -- Manybooks and Feedbooks

For several years now, I have been going to ManyBooks.net for free ebooks. They were one of a very short list of sites that provide free ebooks compatible with .pdb (eReader) which was the compatible format for Palm OS app I used. I've found it convenient to go to them because of that. Add to that the fact that they have a very wide selection of stuff. They have around 28,000 books available in 23 different ebook formats. This was where I discovered some interesting titles like Blind Shrike, Halo and Graveyard of Dreams. I also found classics like The Art of War, The Cathedral and The Bazaar, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Jude the Obscure and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Internet.

I recently got an Android device though, and that has had me working with .epub more. I'm certainly glad that new devices coming to market have been gravitating to .epub in that the trend will make it possible to cut down the competing formats into 2-3. I mean I had to live with ebook format hell, just like I had to endure codec hell with media players.The books that I wanted were sometimes not available in the format I needed. Conversion was usually a complicated affair, converting to one format before converting to the final format you'll be using. And even then conversions usually messed up the way text was displayed and didn't preserve chapter info. Having a limited list of popular formats makes publishers concentrate on those and that makes the need for conversions obsolete.

Moving on from that rant, .epub is quite popular these days. I've found it easy to convert old PDF and PDB format ebooks into EPUB using Calibre (more on that in another post). For new stuff, I also discovered a new site when I started using the Aldiko ebook reader on my HTC Tattoo. My new favorite goto site for free ebooks is Feedbooks. Feedbooks lists a wide variety of ebooks from public domain books. They also have a growing list of original books, creative works whose authors have chosen to release free of cost to readers as a form of promoting their lit. Different from ManyBooks.net that hosts every possible format you may ever want, Feedbooks concentrates on today's popular formats. You can download in only three formats -- .epub, .azw (Kindle) and .pdf. There's a fourth option for Custom PDF that's only available to registered users. Custom allows you to configure the size of each page (in mm) and the font (type and size) to use according to what will fit your device's screen. You wouldn't have to convert it any further after that. Feedbooks also has a mobile site to make it easier to scroll and pan while looking for books to download. I've tested downloading to my phone. It's really convenient when you see something interesting and want to download it immediately lest you forget when you get to your PC.

While both have their own pros and cons, I go to both sites primarily to discover something new. Oddly enough, you don't have to buy anything to discover works that interest you. I first discovered authors like Rick Dakan (Geek Mafia) and Benjamin Rosenbaum (True Names) browsing through both sites. I've also stumbled upon old titles that I've wanted to read in the past, but didn't have the inclination to buy.