Ebooks are rather interesting and I guess the reading devices will only get smaller, lighter and cheaper. Netlibrary seems to work like a real library and you download an ebook for a specific period of time. I do wonder about copying to a cd though, maybe Netlibrary has measure in place to prevent that. I guess it is like using the photocopier to photocopy a book but a great deal easier and quicker.
I had quite a poke around in Project Gutenberg and it was gratifying to see that Pride and Prejudice is in 6th place in the top 100 ebooks downloaded and Jane Austen is in 6th place for the top 100 authors.
Project Gutenberg uses books in the public domain and so they are usually books that were published many years ago, hence the prominence of Dickens and Austen. I searched for titles by Daphne du Maurier but she must be too recent as there were no titles by her. I also searched for Katherine Mansfield, and Gutenberg has two of her short story collections. I was pleased to see a New Zealand author featuring as I thought the focus may have been very European and American. The other points to note about Project Gutenberg are: there is a link to Wikipedia for authors, you can download audiobooks or free and it follows strict library protocol, showing a bibliographic record for the ebook with Library of Congress subject headings. I looked at one of the ebooks on line and the first few pages outlined licencing protocols etc. Also books by Beatrix Potter include the text but no illustrations which are the essential ingredient in her books. The Project Gutenberg ebooks and website I thought to be very vanilla then again it is all for free.
Kindle was also interesting as it looked similar in size to a paperback and cordless, just like a book you could read in bed and isn't that when paper books will be superseded?
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