On Mon, Nov 23, 2009 at 09:18:40PM -0800, Jim Adcock wrote:
Cool. I would point out that it would be nice if PG created Ebook-reader-friendly "landing pads" for each of the books in a particular format -- ie MOBI and EPUB. The current "landing pad" pages for each book are virtually impossible to use with Ebook-readers, so it is not possible to create a "Magic Catalog" using a proper "landing pad" approach.
IE the recommendation:
Sorry for not responding sooner. One obvious approach is something like this: http://m.gutenberg.org/etext/12345 ...which would just be minimalist HTML. Does this seem like it should be easy? Or, do we need to customize for 1000 different devices (literally...according to our pals at wattpad.com). -- Greg
in
http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Gutenberg:Information_About_Linking_to_our_Pag es
really doesn't work for E-book readers so one can't use that approach -- because it doesn't work.
If you had such proper "landing pads" then you could include links such as "How to Donate", and "About Us" etc. Also, if you want to encourage tools such as "Magic Catalog" then it would be cool to publish the PG catalogs in a format that can be easily and reliably parsed, including info on whether a particular book is illustrated or not (Many ebook users do not want the illustrated version since it takes too long over "mobile phone" links)
Also it would be cool if someone took on the issue of using netbooks as-if they are Ebook-readers, because that would be a way to support a "Generic" Ebook-reader that would be agnostic about where one gets one's books from -- including PG.
Manybooks.net has a E-book friendly version at:
mnybks.net
if you want to see an interface that Ebook-readers do reasonably well support.
freekindlebooks.org also has an Ebook-reader friendly interface -- one that doesn't even assume a search box capability!