MobileBooks.org: E-books for Java-enabled phones—even low-end models
Has anyone run across MobileBooks.org—full of WAPized e-classics from Project Gutenberg—and what do you think of it?
MobileBooks works with Java-enabled phones, including low-end models. Some 200 books are free.
I don’t like the idea of even a US$3 monthly subscription fee for continued access to all 5,000 of the MobileBooks’ PG books (two months free). But at least MobileBooks was smart enough to use an appropriate format for its audience—unlike the World eBook Fair, which seems fixated on PDF.
Plus, kudos to MB’s John Michael Mizzi for a better-done site than the Fair’s. Read more about the Malta-based Mizzi at di-ve.com. Excerpt:
John says it usually takes around 15 minutes for people to get used to the idea of reading from your mobile phone.
Even though the screens seem small, it is amazing how much text you can fit on them. You can change the font size and background color and uses the phone numeric pad for simple navigation through these ebooks. You can leave bookmarks for future reference for yourself or for friends. You can also search for text in the eBooks and all this on cheap phones that are available all over the world.
No need to buy very expensive PDAs so you can read eBooks. A cheap java phone, price varies greatly, will do the job. So when waiting for nearly anything, travelling, attending boring conferences, and even during the darkest pitch black nights, John reads these eBooks at a level of great convenience.
John has contributed a number of these “mobile phone eBooks” to project Gutenberg and is planning to contribute more. He is also very interested in helping Maltese authors and publishers to have their content available on this new and interesting medium.
Hey, John, way to go!
One catch: Phone companies will charge downloading fees of maybe 50 cents a book. Also, on some phones, the books will end up in 64K slices.
More on “free”: Now, has anyone heard of a free equivalent with 5,000 books or more for cellphones? If it doesn’t exist, I suspect it’ll be along. Or maybe Matt McClintock at Manybooks.net will oblige with the addition of WAP-format books. I wish John Mizzi luck but would warn him that he may need to expand his offerings to differentiate himself from “free.” Judging from the di-ve.com info, he already intends to. Meanwhile, unlike the World eBook Fair, John is actually adding value to the books by getting them into a useful niche format. So I’ll cut him much more slack than I would the World eBook Fair.
One reason for all of John’s WAP books to be free: Imagine all the good they could do in developing countries with far more phones than computers.
Perhaps another way to read thousands of free books on cellphones: Use a Mobipocket-capable phone from a company such as Nokia—along with a Mobipocket conversion utility. You know how I feel about Mobipocket and Amazon. But give Mobipocket its due here.
(Spotted via Only Connect, through which I’ve just learned of a Houdi book that looks intriguing.)
August 23rd, 2006 at 9:17 pm
I have been in contact with John on and off. I like the format of the books he has available, very readable on even a small screen! I agree these are public domain, but he Is spending his time to make them usable on any cell ;phone and nice on the eyes to boot. Better than some of the programs that you can use to convert the books yourself! $3 is not much for the convenience, especially since a paperback version of just ONE of these books would cost $5 and up…maybe a contribution method might be better, say $10 for unlimited access to his good work? Something to consider….
November 27th, 2008 at 11:04 am
There’s a GREAT program I’ve been using for the better part of a year, will read any txt file you can find or make.
It’s called ReadManiac.
It’s been released open source but was always free.
Works on any java enabled phone.
Takes a little getting used to but only about 10 minutes to figure out how to load, change books ect.
I’ve got a 256mb memory card in my comupter and already have over 40 books in it (everything from the bible, to the Dresden files, Sherlock Holmes, Shakespear, Jungle book and even XANTH
Happy Hunting