Michele Pierantozzi

SLM 521 Sp 02

2/16/02

Electronic Publishing and E-Books

I chose to download Acrobat e-Book Reader as an Elective Instructional Activity. First, I went to the Adobe web site to download the software for e-Book Reader. It took me two times to successfully download it but finally I figured it out. After I installed the program, I opened it to browse the menu options. I then opened “Getting Started with the Adobe Acrobat eBook Reader” and carefully read through the instructions before looking for some free books to download. The directions were clear and easy to follow. I often went back into the different menu options in order to try out aspects of the program.

It took me a few minutes to find the “Free book” section on the Adobe eBooks web site. I found 2 children’s books and proceeded to download them. Through The Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll took only a few minutes to download. Girls in Love by Jacqueline Wilson, a young adult fiction book, took almost an hour.

I searched through many of the web sites on the assignment page in order to find free eBooks and learn more about the program. I did not find free books I wanted to read on www.ebooks.com. I downloaded Hard Times by Charles Dickens to experience the process from a different site. In my search for more books, I searched through www.netlibrary.com and learned how to set up an account at the public library. In addition, I downloaded a free Apple Cookbook from www.bookrage.com/freestuff.html. On the University of Virginia’s eBook library, books were available to download to Microsoft e-reader or a Palm device. I looked through the selections but did not download any books.

Overall, I enjoyed searching for books and downloading them to Acrobat eBook. The words in the books are clear and easy to read. I was impressed by the variety of books available for purchase on the Adobe web site. However, once I sat down to read Girls in Love, I was disappointed. I realize the technology of eBooks is very innovative, but personally, I would much rather curl up on a couch with a paperback than sit at my desk to read a book on a computer screen.