Hands free reading

[rcharlton]

As long as I can remember, reading has been one of my favourite past times.

It was really heartbreaking when reading became too much of an ordeal as my hands and arms grew weaker.

I never enjoyed audiobooks as I usually found the narrators annoying.

I looked into the Kindle ebook reader - but it was not available in Canada at the time - plus it looked cumbersome and both the reader and the content seemed way overpriced.

Then last spring, my wife bought an iPhone - and I discovered that there are a number of free ereading applications (Stanza, Ereader) with access to 50,000+ free books which can be downloaded straight to your iphone. Essentially all classic books (Dickens, Austen, Conrad, Stevenson, Hugo, Vernes etc.) can be legally downloaded for free as the copyright has expired.

And no - the screen is not too small - you can adjust font size to much larger than the average book, change font type, colour, background - plus there is an autoscroll feature so no page turning is needed - and reading in the dark is a treat as the unit is back lit - many of these features are not found on the Kindle. I frankly don't understand why anyone would buy a Kindle.

On top of all that - you can check email, take calls, listen to music and audiobooks, surf the web - all for a price cheaper than Kindle. If you don't need a phone, the ipod touch has the same features without cell phone contract costs.

You can also download books to most other PDAs as well. I'm using a Palm TX right now. It does not have as many features as the ipod but it's a good reader.

I velcroed my Palm to a small hexagonal bird feeder. I can now just sit the bird feeder next to my pillow, set my ereader to autoscroll and I'm set for hours of hands free reading. When I get tired, all I have to do is tap the screen and my place is automatically saved and the unit powers off automatically too.

AND - you can store thousands of books in the device - so every time I go out - to the doctors, the hospital or wherever - I can bring my ENTIRE library with me - every single book. I actually enjoy waiting at the DR.s now as it gives me a chance to read.

 

[GlenBrittle]

Well THANK YOU for that information.

I too , enjoy reading at night , when the mind is playing tricks on me , keeping me from sleeping. I find that its the next best thing to sleep when you can not.

I just ordered the 64G Ipod Touch. I will be using it to speak for me , and now , you have given it another purpose.

How do you get to all of those free ebooks ?

Glen

 

[Al]

Thanks for the info Richard. Glad to see you still drop in on us.

AL.

 

[DebbieR]

Thanks - I will checking this out for my dad.

 

[scoter]

Hi,

I thought I'd drop by and let you know about an app I developed called QuickReader. It is a speed reading eBook reader that provides a configurable guide that moves through text at 100-2000 words per minute and automatically turns the page. One of my users said he uses the app to read in bed so he doesn't have to turn the pages manually. You can see a video of how it works at QuickReader Videos. Currently the app comes with 21 eBooks.

All the best,
Patrick

 

[joelc]

We don't usually allow advertising but I think this is worth consideration. Looks good to me even thought I could never use it.

 

[crystal-b]

thank you for the information, thats great

 

[trfogey]

One place to get free e-books is Project Gutenberg. They have a variety of formats available for various types of readers and reader software. All of the Project Gutenberg books are public domain, through expired copyrights, so the books are rather old (nothing with a first publication date after about 1910). However, that leaves a wide variety of classic works of literature that many of us haven't seen since we left school.

There is a similar site in Australia called Project Gutenberg Australia. The copyright laws in Australia are less strict, so a lot of books written in the first half of the 20th century can be found there. However, it is technically illegal for US users to download those books, but the website doesn't appear to enforce that in any way.