Category Archives: Academic Books

Scotland’s Future in an e-book

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scotland2Teleread has reported a story today that is an interesting blend of e-books and politics. Scotland is voting this fall on whether to become an independent nation. The government as created an e-book explaining its views on the pros and cons of the matter. It is available on the government website for free download in .epub and .mobi (Kindle) formats. You can also read it online.

The e-book is available for free via Amazon.  Even there, politics evidently prevail. At the time of this writing, the book had two reviews, averaging three stars. One was a five star review praising the concept of a democratic Scotland; the other, a one star labeling the work “an imaginative piece of writing.”  Both reviews are from December, 2013.

I have to say, this a great example of how e-books can make a contribution to society as a whole in spreading information. 🙂

 

News of the Day: Applying the first sale doctrine to paper books?

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From the Digital Reader: Can you apply the first sale doctrine to paper books? 

From the Goodereader: Why do we abandon reading a book?

From Make Use Of: Add your personal e-books to Google Play Books 

From Digital Book World: Subscription service Oyster hits half a million book milestone 

From The Digital Book Reader: Sony is closing their reader store worldwide

 

 

 

News of the day

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Some interesting “e-stories” stories from today.

From Digital Book World: Self-published e-book anthology by High school freshman number one at iBooks.  

From Open Culture: 15 free e-books from University of Michigan Press.

From TechCrunch: Books are free *after* the author gets paid.

And, O’Reilly Books is offering a 50% off promotional code for International Day Against DRM 2014.

 

More Free E-books, Audiobooks and more

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OpenCulture.com describes itself as the home of “the best free cultural & educational media on the web.” If you are a lifelong learner or an aspiring polymath, this site certainly holds a treasure trove of delights. Whether you are looking for free online courses, language lessons or business courses, this site has something that will pique your interest.

Just a few that are highlights:

Bookmark this one; there’s so much to explore!

National Academies Press Offers Free PDF downloads

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Effective June 2nd, PDFs of reports that are currently for sale on the National Academies Press (NAP) Website and PDFs associated with future reports* will be offered free of charge to all Web visitors.

According to the site:

NAP produces more than 200 books a year on a wide range of topics in science, engineering, and health, capturing the best-informed views on important issues.

We invite you to visit the NAP homepage and experience the new opportunities available to access our publications. There you can sign up for MyNAP, a new way for us to deliver all of our content for free to loyal subscribers like you and to reward you with exclusive offers and discounts on our printed books. This enhancement to our free downloads means that we can reach out even further to inform government decision making and public policy, increase public education and understanding, and promote the acquisition and dissemination of knowledge.

*There are a small number of reports that never had PDF files and, therefore, those reports are not available for download. In addition, part of the series, “Nutrient Requirements of Domestic Animals” are not be available in PDF and future titles in this series will also not have PDFs associated with them.

There has been a real lack of academic books available for eReaders (free or paid), so this is great news for readers searching for academic materials in an ebook format.