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.
What is a "magic catalog"? You don't need landing pages, you can go directly to the epub/mobi.
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,
Try the RDF/XML catalog: http://www.gutenberg.org/feeds/catalog.rdf.bz2
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)
We have no information about the 'illustration' status of an ebook. Sometimes the producers include ornaments and drop caps as images, so we cannot claim 'illustrated' if we find images.
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.
Huh? Please illustrate.
Manybooks.net has a E-book friendly version at:
mnybks.net
Which concept is already outdated. The new kid on the block is the "Open Publication Distribution System": http://code.google.com/p/openpub/wiki/OPDS which PG will eventually support. -- Marcello Perathoner webmaster@gutenberg.org