Who has used e-books? How are they?
Is there such a thing as ‘ibooks’, that can be downloaded onto an ipod?
I’m planning some trips this summer and wouldn’t mind an efficient way to take some books along. I don’t have a portable pc. Maybe the book thing would make one of those gadgets worthwhile…perhaps a cheap one…? Any ideas?
There are a bunch of free (public domain) text ebooks at www.gutenberg.org. Some of them are available as audio books in mp3 format. Also, you could use speech synthesis software to convert any text to an audio file of a “robot” voice reading to you. (The book better be interesting, cause the voice surely isn’t! 
)
Some libraries allow patrons to “check out” ebooks via Net Library (after signing up at the physical library). Last I checked though, a constant Internet connection is required to read them.
I’m disappointed that ebooks aren’t more widespread. Apparently, Sony is planning to release an ebook reader this year, so maybe they’ll start to catch on.
I don’t have an ipod, but my wife has an .mp3 player, and I believe that the books found at http://librivox.org/ would be downloadable and playable on any portable device that can play .mp3s. They record and make available texts that are in the public domain. I’ve recorded several audiobooks for a local non-profit, and I’m going to be looking into narrating for librivox. I’d love to break into the lucrative commercial audiobook market, but it’s even more competetive than the commercial voiceover market – which is much more competetive than I imagined when I started down the voiceover path.
Rich
I read ebooks on my iPaQ Pocket PC. I find them especially useful for taking on holiday and reading on the train and so on.
Cathy
except if you read too much it burns out your eyes 
I wish I was ever in a position to ‘read too much’ - with 3 kids, a hubby, a job and a Phd, not to mention a severe unicycle habit to be getting on with even on holiday I don’t get enough time to read.
Cathy
Wow, thanks for those links! How cool is that, I am in the process of downloading my first audio book. Started with Alice in Wonderland as I always wanted to revisit that story! I can’t wait to see how this method works out. I’m hoping that after the download I can get the file onto my ipod and then have a listen that way.
I also subscribed to the podcasts just to check them out.
Looking good, this is going to be fun, fun, fun!