eReading Room The future of books at NYPL

If you missed the big news, The New York Public Library now offers free ebooks for your Kindle! To celebrate, I've put together a somewhat exhaustive list of science fiction ebook titles to make it easy to browse them at a glance.

Click to go directly to any author: Douglas Adams, Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick, China Miéville, Kim Stanley Robinson, Neal Stephenson, Vladimir Sorokin, and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Need help? Check out this useful step-by-step guide to downloading Kindle ebooks. Many of these titles are also available for the Barnes and Noble Nook and Sony E-reader as well.

We hereby announce the new blog series When They Trod the Boards, designed to highlight notable film or television actors who have a substantial background in stage work as documented in the collections of the Library's Billy Rose Theatre Division. We launch the series with John Lithgow and his new memoir, Drama: An Actor’s Education,  published this week. Traditional books and ebooks are now flying off the Library's shelves! We’d like to highlight some of his shining moments on stage as reflected in our vast collection of stage photographs.

Have you heard? Library books are now available to borrow on Kindle devices and other devices with Kindle reading software (Windows, Mac, Blackberry, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Android, Windows Phone 7) as well as their Kindle Cloud Reader (read without downloading software in your web browser).

Here is a walkthrough of how it works. (If you're scrolling-averse, check out this video from OverDrive.)

Thank you for joining us for the June edition of Reader's Den. We hope that you have enjoyed reading (and discussing) Software by Rudy Rucker and that you will return for E.M. Forster's A Room With a View in July!

For our third installment of this month's Reader's Den, let's take a look at what Rudy Rucker's Software has to say about humans, technology, and what it means to exist.

Thanks for tuning in for the second discussion of Reader's Den for June! This month we are discussing the science fiction classic Software by Rudy Rucker, which is the first book in The Ware Tetralogy.

Welcome to the June edition of Reader's Den at The New York Public Library!

This month we will discuss Rudy Rucker's Software (1982), the first book in the Ware Tetralogy science fiction series, which also includes Wetware (1988), Freeware (1997), and Realware (2000). 

To participate, simply request a print copy through the NYPL Catalog or download a free, Creative Commons-licensed ebook (available in Kindle, Nook, and Sony eReader formats). 

Do you have an eReader? Is part of the appeal that it looks like you're living in the future? Have you found yourself wishing for more fantastical books to match your futuristic reading device? 

Look no further.

Did you get an eReader for the holidays? If so, here are some digital versions of popular YA books you might want to check out.

A friend of mine has recently taken to reading Moby Dick on her phone, using the Kindle for Android app. Although I like to make fun of her for reading such a formidable book on a tiny screen, she is adamant that her method is much less intimidating, because she doesn’t have to 1) lug the book around, or 2) face its visible girth, taunting her daily with unread pages. No matter your feelings on print v. electronic books, the classics, as well as the not-so-classics, are on the Web and ready to download to your computer and portable e-reading device for free.  

Were you one of the lucky ones who found a shiny new ereader or mobile device under the (nondenominational) tree? Or did you just decide 2011 was the year you would resolve to do more of your work and leisure reading on a screen?  Before you whip out your credit card for ebooks remember that other card.  NYPL might have you covered for free... read on to find out how in three easy steps!

Update 2/15/11: OverDrive Media Console Version 2.2 now adds native iPad support.

Update 12/7/2010: Good news Apple fans, OverDrive Media Console now adds support for eBooks. Same app, if you already have it, just be sure to update to the newest version. You might have to restart your device for it to recognize your checked out items the first time. While the app also works on iPads, it is not full screen. iPad users may want to continue to use the Bluefire Reader app but just a reminder neither we at NYPL nor OverDrive officially support this third-party product. Happy