Classic Novel eBooks

Although I absolutely prefer a nice physical book in my hands there is another option out there for anyone reading this post if they want to read a Classic, an eBook.

It can be hard to find some classics as eBooks without paying for them, such as "The Pearl" by John Steinbeck, however this is due to a copyright still existing on the work. Those works where the copyright is no longer in effect and the book is 'public domain' are in eBook format in many places on the web.

Three sites that offer free eBooks for the public to download without needing any kind of account are:

Planet eBook: http://www.planetebook.com/

PlanetPDF (7 pages of classics): http://www.planetpdf.com/

Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org

Of these three Project Gutenberg is by far the most extensive.

They are also very accessible by offering the eBooks on CD or DVD in either a downloadable format or you can actually request for them to send you a free CD or DVD and have them mail it to you.

Another really cool thing is that you can actually create your own disc so that the image only has what you want on it. This option however does not allow you to have them mail it to you (only to download and create the disc yourself).

If you decide that you'd rather have the classic eBook in your hand on an independent reader (instead of a laptop, Palm Pilot, Dell Axim, etc) you can check out devices such as Amazon's Kindle. There are actually quite a few devices that are dedicated for eBooks. This page does an excellent job of breaking down all of the options: Mobileread Wiki eBook Reader Matrix. However with the price of the Amazon Kindle at $399 without purchasing titles, I think I'll stick with the hard and softcover classics that fit in my hand.