This Week's MS Reader Free eBooks Are UP! Tales of Pugilism, Suburban Ennui, and Tilting at Windmills

[Crystal Eitle]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.microsoft.com/reader/promotions/free_shop.asp' target='_blank'>http://www.microsoft.com/reader/pro...s/free_shop.asp</a><br /><br /></div>This week's MS Reader promotional eBooks are up. As always, it looks like there's something for everybody.<br /><br />In nonfiction, there's <i>Facing Ali</i> by Stephen Brunt. "Ali's own story has been told repeatedly, but the stories of those who faced him have been mostly ignored. For each, the moments alone in the ring with Ali changed their lives. Facing Ali tells the stories, in the fighters' own words, of fifteen men from around the world, from famous names like Joe Frazier, George Foreman, and Henry Cooper, to lesser lights like Tunney Hunsaker and Jurgen Blin and George Chuvalo. Facing Ali offers a unique perspective on what it was like to fight Ali, and gives new insights into the character of a man who is arguably the most recognized man on the planet." <br /><br /><i>Rabbit Run</i> by John Updike is a modern classic, (one which I've never gotten around to reading). "In Rabbit Run, Harry Angstrom is a star basketball player in high school and that was the best time of his life. Now in his mid-20s, his work is unfulfilling, his marriage is moribund, and he tries to find happiness with another woman. But happiness is more elusive than a medal, and Harry must continue to run-from his wife, his life, and from himself, until he reaches the end of the road and has to turn back.... "<br /><br />Finally, there's the classic <i>Don Quixote</i> by Miguel de Cervantes. This book is of course available in the public domain, but the commercial version offers lots of nifty extras: "This Modern Library edition presents the acclaimed Samuel Putnam translation of the epic tale, complete with notes, variant readings, and an Introduction by the translator."<br /><br />Happy reading!

[upplepop]

Thanks Microsoft, I'm building up quite a library with all these free books! :D

[bblock]

Of course, I've forgotten to check every week, so I'm pretty sure I've missed a few. Does anyone have or know where to find:

a) the complete list of books that have been offered thus far, and/or
b) a way to get the ones that are no longer available?

I know you can't get the old ones from the site - it explicitly says so.

Thanks,
Bryan

[Crystal Eitle]

Of course, I've forgotten to check every week, so I'm pretty sure I've missed a few. Does anyone have or know where to find:

a) the complete list of books that have been offered thus far, and/or
b) a way to get the ones that are no longer available?

I know you can't get the old ones from the site - it explicitly says so.

Well, if there's something you really really want to read, you can always buy it, you know. Here's a good place to do a search - it's even formatted for PPC: http://www.mslit.com/ppc/

Week 1:
Candy and Me
Last to Die
A Short History of Nearly Everything

Week 2:
Open Innovation
The Joy Luck Club
I Am Madame X

Week 3:
The Face in the Frost
The Flying Book
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Week 4:
WildFire Book One
Beach Music
Persuader

Week 5:
Amsterdam
The Killing Hour
The Disowned Self

[bbarker]

When I click to download the books it opens them in MS Reader on my PC. How do I get them to my Pocket PC?

Also, as the book opens on my PC there's a message about text-to-speech not working on "owner exclusive" books or something like that. What it it talking about?

[upplepop]

When I click to download the books it opens them in MS Reader on my PC. How do I get them to my Pocket PC?

The books (.lit files) can be found in your My Documents/My Library folder. Just copy them to your Pocket PC when it's connected to your PC.

Also, as the book opens on my PC there's a message about text-to-speech not working on "owner exclusive" books or something like that. What it it talking about?
I believe this is referring to the feature in Windows XP that can play back printed text as a voice you can hear. Evidently, you can't use text-to-speech with these books. Don't worry about it, I doubt you use that feature anyway.

[bbarker]

Thanks!

It's irritating that the download process doesn't allow you to specify where you want to put the book. I guess it would be okay if it at least told you where it was going.

[ntractv]

This week's MS Reader promotional eBooks are up. As always, it looks like there's something for everybody.

Can you post the link? I have tried searching MS's site but could not find it.

[upplepop]

This week's MS Reader promotional eBooks are up. As always, it looks like there's something for everybody.

Can you post the link? I have tried searching MS's site but could not find it.

He posted the link right above the line of text you quoted! You could also get there by clicking on the title of the news item. The books can be found at:
http://www.microsoft.com/reader/promotions/free_shop.asp

[Kati Compton]

He posted the link right above the line of text you quoted!
Crystal's a "she", btw...

[beq]

I'm getting annoyed w/ that text-to-speech plugin always popping up the warning msg, might have to uninstall it from the desktop...

I've only read Wildfire Book One so far (so-so, what do ya'll think?). Overall I haven't yet experienced a fatal MS Reader DRM error on my 2210, but occasionally in the middle of reading it would start popping up msgs about activation failures and sometimes the text content formatting would be messed up or just shows blank and refuses to go on. But closing the program (or even soft-resetting if necessary) than re-opening would fix it -- I haven't had to actually reinstall MS Reader on my PPC yet...

But I did have to reinstall once on my desktop already because of mysterious activation failure when opening a DRM .lit, a couple of weeks back I believe...

Sampling these probs is turning me off DRM .lit (or maybe secure formats in general) -- I read the free Hominids excerpt from Fictionwise but haven't bought the full-length DRM .lit (even though I'm dying to read the rest). I think I will try other secure formats besides MS Reader first...

In the meanwhile I'm sticking to Fictionwise's unsecured selections ("Multiformat"), though more and more of the good stuff are secured only. But definitely check FW's Hugo/Nebula winner/nominated stories (starting w/ the free currently-nominated promotion) -- I just finished Creation short story, man it's good :)

P.S. How many more weeks will Microsoft's promotion run, I'm curious?

[dh]

Sampling these probs is turning me off DRM .lit (or maybe secure formats in general) -- I read the free Hominids excerpt from Fictionwise but haven't bought the full-length DRM .lit (even though I'm dying to read the rest). I think I will try other secure formats besides MS Reader first...

That's why I have converted all the books I have bought into non-secure .prc books that can be read with ubook or MobiPocket Reader.

Both of these readers are much better than MS Reader and I will be able to read my books on any computer or PDA I might have in the future.

It was nice reading about 'Enery today I must admit. It's showing my age, but I remember the punch that floored that loudmouth. :D

P.S. How many more weeks will Microsoft's promotion run, I'm curious?
I seem to remember the promotion runs until November. If that is the case, a chance to get quite a few more good books before they are done.

[n4cer]

Thanks!

It's irritating that the download process doesn't allow you to specify where you want to put the book. I guess it would be okay if it at least told you where it was going.

Open My Computer
Click Tools | Folder Options...
Click the File Types tab
Scroll down to and click the LIT extension
Click the Advanced button
Check the "Confirm open after download" checkbox
Click OK
Click OK

Now download a book. The usual dialog should appear.

[Foo Fighter]

I'm getting a strange error message when I copy the lit file I downloaded onto my PPC. When I attempt to open the book in MS Reader (PPC) a pop up message says..."Microsoft Reader is no longer able to access the book"

[dh]

I'm getting a strange error message when I copy the lit file I downloaded onto my PPC. When I attempt to open the book in MS Reader (PPC) a pop up message says..."Microsoft Reader is no longer able to access the book"
I had the same error a couple of weeks ago. It seemed to me that Reader had gone back to the old version still sitting in ROM.

Reinstalling the upgrade and going through the activation got it working again.

[Jason Dunn]

When I click to download the books it opens them in MS Reader on my PC. How do I get them to my Pocket PC?

Can you right-click and do a SAVE AS?

[ctmagnus]

When I click to download the books it opens them in MS Reader on my PC. How do I get them to my Pocket PC?

Can you right-click and do a SAVE AS?

The links open a new window, from which the download initiates. The trick is to set the LIT file extension to confirm open after download.

[Jason Dunn]

The links open a new window, from which the download initiates. The trick is to set the LIT file extension to confirm open after download.

Oh, that problem. I hate it when they do that. Ok, to change the file type to give you the save as prompt...

- Go into a folder on XP, any folder
- TOOLS > FOLDER OPTIONS
- FILE TYPES
- file LIT in the file list
- Click on ADVANCED
- then check the CONFIRM OPEN AFTER DOWNLOAD box

That should do it!

[beq]

Open My Computer
Click Tools | Folder Options...
Click the File Types tab
Scroll down to and click the LIT extension
Click the Advanced button
Check the "Confirm open after download" checkbox
Click OK
Click OK

Now download a book. The usual dialog should appear.
Ok, to change the file type to give you the save as prompt...

- Go into a folder on XP, any folder
- TOOLS > FOLDER OPTIONS
- FILE TYPES
- file LIT in the file list
- Click on ADVANCED
- then check the CONFIRM OPEN AFTER DOWNLOAD box

That should do it!
Uh, can we chastise an admin (or rather, THE admin)? :) Nah I'll just leave it to Steve...

P.S. W/ the DRM .lit error, try closing/reopening the program first (or even soft-resetting in between) -- so far doing that managed to self-fix my problem (which has occurred several times already on the PPC) so I haven't yet had to reinstall (knock on wood). But as I mentioned in my earlier post I've had to reinstall on the desktop...

[beq]

Sampling these probs is turning me off DRM .lit (or maybe secure formats in general) -- I read the free Hominids excerpt from Fictionwise but haven't bought the full-length DRM .lit (even though I'm dying to read the rest). I think I will try other secure formats besides MS Reader first...

That's why I have converted all the books I have bought into non-secure .prc books that can be read with ubook or MobiPocket Reader.

Both of these readers are much better than MS Reader and I will be able to read my books on any computer or PDA I might have in the future.

It was nice reading about 'Enery today I must admit. It's showing my age, but I remember the punch that floored that loudmouth. :D

P.S. How many more weeks will Microsoft's promotion run, I'm curious?
I seem to remember the promotion runs until November. If that is the case, a chance to get quite a few more good books before they are done.
Lest I forget (which I'm prone to), thanks for the info :) Oh great but now I'm scared I will violate the excessive quoting rule...

[ctmagnus]

Lest I forget (which I'm prone to), thanks for the info :) Oh great but now I'm scared I will violate the excessive quoting rule...

Don't worry... It hasn't even hit five layers yet. ;)

[felixdd]

Aww man! I missed out on Joy Luck Club and Hitchhiker's! :(

[ctmagnus]

Aww man! I missed out on Joy Luck Club and Hitchhiker's! :(

I thought I only missed one week (the one with HHGTG :( ) but it turns out I missed two. So I set up a reminder in Outlook to go off on my Pocket PC every Friday to remind me about the new books. ;)

[beq]

Oh I was wrong before when I said I'd only read Wildfire from the lot, turns out The Face in the Frost that I'm reading now is not from Fictionwise :)

[bbarker]

Thanks!

It's irritating that the download process doesn't allow you to specify where you want to put the book. I guess it would be okay if it at least told you where it was going.

Open My Computer
Click Tools | Folder Options...
Click the File Types tab
Scroll down to and click the LIT extension
Click the Advanced button
Check the "Confirm open after download" checkbox
Click OK
Click OK

Now download a book. The usual dialog should appear.
Except that doesn't address my issue. I said I wanted to specify where the file would be saved or at least be told where it was going. I'm looking for a dialog box before the download starts so I can say where to put the file.

[ctmagnus]

Except that doesn't address my issue. I said I wanted to specify where the file would be saved or at least be told where it was going. I'm looking for a dialog box before the download starts so I can say where to put the file.

Jasons instructions (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=148837#148837) will let you do that.

[bbarker]

Except that doesn't address my issue. I said I wanted to specify where the file would be saved or at least be told where it was going. I'm looking for a dialog box before the download starts so I can say where to put the file.

Jasons instructions (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=148837#148837) will let you do that.
No, actually Jason's instructions are the same as the others. As far as I can tell, they simply let you specify that you want to be asked before opening the file, but AFTER it's already downloaded. I don't see where it lets you specify where the file will go on your computer. It also doesn't tell you to where on your computer the file was downloaded.

Am I missing something?

[dh]

Except that doesn't address my issue. I said I wanted to specify where the file would be saved or at least be told where it was going. I'm looking for a dialog box before the download starts so I can say where to put the file.

Jasons instructions (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=148837#148837) will let you do that.
No, actually Jason's instructions are the same as the others. As far as I can tell, they simply let you specify that you want to be asked before opening the file, but AFTER it's already downloaded. I don't see where it lets you specify where the file will go on your computer. It also doesn't tell you to where on your computer the file was downloaded.

Am I missing something?

I agree, it doesn't seem right. However if you follow these instructions you will get the choice of opening or saving the file before the download takes place. Just click on save and put the file where you want it.