Free eBook - Down And Out In The Magic Kingdom

[Ed Hansberry]

<a href="http://www.craphound.com/down/">http://www.craphound.com/down/</a><br /><br />"24 hours after launching the site from which you can download my novel for free, the book has been downloaded over 20,000 times. It's been Slashdotted, blogged to hell and back, and I've done a number of press interviews about it. What's more, the title is currently sitting at #304 in the Amazon Sales Rank. Let's call this one a success. I could not be more stoked."<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/hansberry/2003/20030110-down.jpg" /><br /><br />Volunteers have already converted it to several formats, including formatted versions for <a href="http://craphound.com/down/Cory_Doctorow_-_Down_and_Out_in_the_Magic_Kingdom_formatted.pdb">Palm Reader</a> and <a href="http://craphound.com/down/Cory_Doctorow_-_Down_and_Out_in_the_Magic_Kingdom.lit">Microsoft Reader</a>. :way to go:

[Rirath]

Looks interetsing, thanks.

[Ed Hansberry]

Looks interetsing, thanks.
Yeah, that is my problem too. With physical paper books, I would make a mental note to buy something interesting later because I don't want a lot of books just laying around. Now I just download them. They don't take up space. I now have, including this one, 8 unread ebooks on my iPAQ and two partially read ebooks. I alternate between the two depending on the mood I am in when I sit down to read - somethign else I never did with paper. :?

Wouldn't trade the ebook experience for paper again for anything, but it has changed how I read.

[Pony99CA]

Looks interetsing, thanks.
Yeah, that is my problem too. With physical paper books, I would make a mental note to buy something interesting later because I don't want a lot of books just laying around. Now I just download them. They don't take up space. I now have, including this one, 8 unread ebooks on my iPAQ and two partially read ebooks. I alternate between the two depending on the mood I am in when I sit down to read - somethign else I never did with paper. :?

Of course eBooks take up space -- on your iPAQ. :-)

I have so many unread books, both paper and electronic, that it's not funny. I wish I had more time for reading, but that doesn't stop me from getting books. :-)

Steve

[Janak Parekh]

I have so many unread books, both paper and electronic, that it's not funny. I wish I had more time for reading, but that doesn't stop me from getting books. :-)
But the difference is that when I'm stuck somewhere and want to read something, I can just pull my iPaq out of my pocket. Ain't gonna do that with my catalog of paper books. I try to buy all my new SciFi in ebook form. Makes it much easier to handle, and the 3870's reflective screen is really easy on the eyes.

--janak

[Rirath]

Might try looking into Speed Reader Plus, I brought that one awhile back and it's extremely handy. Zipping through articles and books at 300-400 WPM speeds is quite handy, and that's somewhat of a leisurely pace. It's not hard to reach 500-600 within a few days of use if you've got the mental skills to process it. (anyone can sit and stare at words and claim it's reading) Top speeds reach around 1000 wpm, while "average" normal reading speeds clock 150 wpm. (keyword "average" of course. I'd say we're all well over that.)

Anyhow, in my case... money well spent. Now that I'm reminded of both the book and SRP, I guess there's no time like now to see how good it is. It's only 5 am. :)

[ECOslin]

ASCII text file, 284k

HTML file, 328K (Thanks to Dorothea Salo for preparing this!)

Printable PDF file, 328K

PalmOS PDB file, 168K (Thanks to David Friedman for preparing this!)

Apple Newton PKG file, 585K (Thanks to Victor Rehorst for preparing this!)

Formatted PalmOS Palm Reader file, 168K, for use with readers like this one (Thanks to Chris Meadows for preparing this!)

Microsoft LIT file, 164K (Thanks to Scott Major for preparing this!)

Mobipocket file, 164K (Thanks to Timm Gleason for preparing this!)
Good it's available in txt and html.

[serpico]

Just downloaded the pdb file for my palmIIIc and it was 165kb, not too bad. Of course reading is not as nice as some of you guys' tft screens! :lol:

[dean_shan]

Thanks for the book. I love it when authors release an eBook version of their print books (The Hacker Crackdown (http://www.palmdigitalmedia.com/free-books/thehackercrackdown.pdb), Underground (http://www.underground-book.com/)) for free. Thanks a bunch :D.

[Rirath]

Just finished reading it... pretty cool actually. Certainly had some concepts I won't forget any time soon. Loved the overall idea of the future... the location wasn't my ideal choice but eh... still a good read. Used SRP, took the first half at 260 wpm to take in all the sci-fi concepts and terms, then the second half at 550 wpm. Worked great. (Roughly 47k words in the book.)

[Glisson]

Dang! 404 Error. The kiss of Death... Any chacne of getting another link or someone floaing me a copy of the Microsoft Reader version? Looks like a good read. Way cool of the author to do this.

Thanks.

Glisson
[email protected]

[bgate]

I second the broken link sadness, any other download sites?
Brent

[Steven Cedrone]

Dang! 404 Error. The kiss of Death... Any chacne of getting another link or someone floaing me a copy of the Microsoft Reader version? Looks like a good read. Way cool of the author to do this.

I second the broken link sadness, any other download sites?
Brent

I just used all three links from Ed's front page post. All worked...

Steven Cedrone
Community Moderator

[Rirath]

Well, it's down now... hmm... was working fine. Considering all the hits that place has been getting I'm suprirsed it's crashed. I'd wait a bit, should come back shortly.

[Glisson]

I got a copy. Thanks for the help. I'm off to go dive into this new gem!

Glisson

[rlobrecht]

Well, it's down now... hmm... was working fine. Considering all the hits that place has been getting I'm suprirsed it's crashed. I'd wait a bit, should come back shortly.

It got the double whammy. The /. effect and the Thoughts effect.