Backpackers, bookworms and hybrids rejoice. Books don’t have to weigh you down when you travel, and you get to preserve nature all at the same time. Yay for ebooks!
The four most popular formats for ebooks are PRC (Palm open format), LIT (Microsoft reader format, download app here), HTML and PDF. The rest are RGO (Repligo format), PBD (Palm native format), DOC (Word document), RTF (rich text format) and TXT (plain text). If you’re traveling with a laptop, then perfect! There are loads of ebook readers that are free for download on the Internet (it’s the books that cost, dahling).
My favorite are the PRC books which I read through the MobiPocket ebook reader, because not only is MobiPocket Reader a super great reader application dedicated to reading ebooks (Have you tried reading an ebook right on your browser!? Don’t. Your eyes will cramp from all the horizontal back and forth.), but MobiPocket also comes in many flavors!
That’s right! There’s a version for every platform. Here’s a Mobipocket reader for your PC, one for your Blackberry, one for your PocketPC or Smartphone, there’s one for the Symbian OS (yay for Nokia and SonyEricsson smartphones!), for your Palm device, for a dedicated ebook device if you have one, and yes, even for your phone that only supports Java (‘cept that it’s in Alpha stage, so be on the lookout for bugs!). (You can also synchronize your books across platforms if you have many devices.)
So the next time you plan on bringing a book to pass the time, bring your cellphone instead. I’ve read more books in the last two months than the first ten of this year combined. I’m a ebooker now. And I save trees. (Smug look.)
Underground tip: You can find free ebooks over at the Ipmart Forum, or download ebooks from the channels #ebooks and #bookz on an UnderNet server in mIRC. Happy hunting!
I’ve recently become an ebooker as well! Saving trees…hmmm, never thought of that before, hahaha. But it’s true, very true. 😀 We save trees! Haha… (same smug look)
I’ve been reading ebooks ever since before coz i dnt have the money to buy ’em. you’re not only saving trees but also money from your pockets but not from publisher’s though…hehe..my sister is reading her ebook of the twilight series on her SE cp and im reading my daily verses from the bible on my iphone…saves you from carrying a lot of books also. 😉 Save trees! Plant trees!
saving trees… never really thought of it as that before! haha. i don’t like reading ebooks off a computer coz they strain the eyes and i can’t get a comfortable reading position. maybe if i find a software for my cell.. but i don’t know if i’d like it, though. my cell’s so small, maybe reading off it will strain the eyes again. though i bet it’d be a lot more convenient than lugging around a paperback in my bag.