Little Brother » Download for Free

Cory Doctorow has his book Little Brother available for free download. This seems to work for Cory. The Making Light blog praises the book, but then again, they are in the book selling business. It is the experience of several big names that a free download results in more sales because the online reading experience sucks. I downloaded the PDF version and I found the two column format unreadable. After I scrolled through the dozen or more pages of self-advertising I tried reading the story and the constant twitching of the scroll bars in order to read frustrated me quickly. I am guessing that the text and html versions are much better. My reasoning was that the PDF version would contain the most polished presentation. I was wrong.

Maybe on a book reader the stuff would present better.

Robert J. Sawyer has been discussing book appliances. I am not sure that these are a good idea, either. The Kindle ($400) locks you out of most free content (although there is a hack), and the iRex iLiad ($700) and Sony Reader PRS-500 ($250) are nothing more than book shaped computers that lack the ability to anything but display books. It would be far more efficient to buy a Dell Inspiron for $500 (or wait until the Vostro goes on sale for $399, again), load up mobi-reader software and acrobat reader and you will have a machine that can surf the web and do email in addition to presenting books.

If you must, start with the Franklin eBookman ($80 on Amazon). It is small and light, but readable and the price is right. Cory's book is available in eBookman format in a few places.