not software, but- Baen eBooks Free to Disabled Readers

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not software, but- Baen eBooks Free to Disabled Readers

(19 posts) (8 voices)

Started 16 years ago by goodgotd
Latest reply from RunesageMagik

goodgotd
Member

any disability- I've simply got spinal damage, and I had no problem!

11/14/2006
Baen Books Free to Disabled Readers

Baen Books (www.baen.com), a publisher of science fiction, will provide its books to fans who are blind, paralysed, or dyslexic, or are amputees, in electronic form free of charge, effective immediately.

Baen Books is making this offer in recognition of Veterans Day, and all our disabled military veterans. Many Baen authors are veterans themselves, using a military setting as the setting of their tales. Right now convalescing vets might welcome an exciting, fast-action tale to pass the time.

Jim Baen, founder of Baen Books, who passed on June 28, 2006, decided to "provide each challenged reader with a permanent pass" to the regular e-publication of Baen’s new books. His successor, publisher Toni Weisskopf, is implementing his idea with this program.

Since 1999, Baen has published its new books as ebooks each month, in several formats, with no Digital Rights Management, through WebScriptions (www.webscriptions.net), for a small fee. Now, this service will be available at no cost to the disabled, who must apply for this privilege.

Applications will be processed by ReadAssist (www.readassist.org), a volunteer group devoted to helping disabled readers find the books they want in the form they need, and join the community of fandom. The application form has been set up by ReadAssist, and can be found through either WebScriptions or ReadAssist.

Posted 16 years ago #
Violet4714
Member

thanks, goodgotd...
i copied that & gave it to my mom to take to some friends at church tomorrow ( today, actually :/ )...i don't have the e-mail addresses to send it to them...
it will give a couple of people new reading material, & the opportunity to discuss something other than "why isn't your daughter here today?"...

Posted 16 years ago #
goodgotd
Member

Sure has kept me a lot closer to sane when it got to the point I couldn't afford even used paperbacks, and with Firefox and the NoSquint plugin, I can leave my hated reading glasses off most of the time. I tear through a book or 2 a day, and this rinky-dink backwater library system just doesn't have near enough content. (Douglas County, Oregon)

Posted 16 years ago #
maizeydaze
Member

A nice site for downloading free Ebooks is WOWIO at http://www.wowio.com/index.asp . These books are available to everyone. You only have to register for a free account. You can place up to 500 books into your download queue then download up to three titles per day. You can search by Title, Author, ISBN or Keyword and/or browse by Category then view by Subject and/or Publisher. Among the ebooks that I've downloaded were several photography books, five Kurt Vonnegut classics and some magazines. So far I've been pleased with their sevice. Only wish I had a laptop so I could leave my desk to read!

Below is the text from their "About" page.

"WOWIO opened on the World Wide Web in August 2006 endeavoring to dramatically expand access to important written works by eliminating the economic, geographic, and logistical barriers of readers while also ensuring that content owners are fairly compensated.

WOWIO is today the only source where readers can legally download high-quality copyrighted ebooks from leading publishers for free. Readers have access to a wide range of offerings, including works of classic literature, college textbooks, comic books, and popular fiction and non-fiction titles.

WOWIO is a privately owned company with headquarters in Houston, Texas."

Posted 16 years ago #
AlexSJ
Member

While WOWIO sounds like a great thing, it is currently only available to people living in the US.
Pura vida, AlexSJ

Posted 16 years ago #
RunesageMagik
Member

Oh, maizeydaze, can't believe that site got by me what with all the surfing I do. Hope you realize that when combined with NetFlix' Instant Movie Download, your putting the WOWIO Instant Library at my fingertips means the death knell for me getting anything accomplished, businesswise. :^0

Posted 16 years ago #
dnsyl57
Member

WOWIO looks good - hope they open up to Canada soon.

There are also some free books available at;

http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

Due to copyright laws they can only offer titles in the public domain but some of you may find some gems.

Posted 16 years ago #
goodgotd
Member

I forgot to post the free library- anyone welcome- http://www.baen.com/library/

as well as the hosted bound-in free Baen CD content: http://baencd.thefifthimperium.com/

here you can get them by bittorrent: http://oberon.zlynx.org/

(legit torrents! up the MPAA & RIAA & AT&T & Comcast!)

all "may be copied and distributed but not sold"

and contain complete series, and so on.

I should have thought of all this when I saw the free magazines.

BTW, It's not just Baen at webscriptions- the publisher list now includes:

Baen Books
Del Rey
Meisha Merlin
SRM Publisher
Subterranean Press
Tor Books

Yes, RunesageMagik, I'm trying to drive you to poverty.

Posted 16 years ago #
goodgotd
Member

maizeydaze
. Only wish I had a laptop so I could leave my desk to read!

if you graze in the not-new stuff, you can come up with a perfectly adequate book-reading laptop for less than a hundred clams on ebay- delivered- and some new and refurbs are getting right inexpensive, too.

that's where this one came from.

Posted 16 years ago #
goodgotd
Member

btw, changed titles and forums and pasted the wowio and free library stuff to http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2501?replies=1#post-16067

Gutenberg I thought most had heard of- but I could be wrong. feel free to add.

Posted 16 years ago #
maizeydaze
Member

RM, sorry about you recent lack of productivity. I can only add more to it by posting more sites with links to several thousand more ebooks. I’m posting them on the new thread that goodgotd started for this subject.

Goodgotd, I certainly will keep the prospect of a cheap laptop in mind but I’ve recently become unemployed (due to downsizing) and must watch my pennies. Now would be the best time to have a laptop, with all my free time. I would like to find one that is capable of running graphics programs and watching movies. There was a nice HP on sale at Circuit City last week but I had to get a new monitor instead because my old CRT finally bit the dust. Got a clearanced LCD widescreen but then had to order a new graphics card because my onboard card doesn’t have the correct resolution. I haven’t looked inside my PC yet but I may have to get a bigger power supply to run the new card. It’s a vicious circle!

Posted 16 years ago #
RunesageMagik
Member

maizey, never allow my rants to discourage you from posting 1000's of good timesuck sites & appls! Trust that the irony, nea hypocrisy, of my own rants does not escape me... were I not ranting, I could be working. :-)

Wonder if Wowio will accept my driver's license if I blur out all personally identifying info and paste this over my photo?

Posted 16 years ago #
ldahl
Member

No, somehow I don't think so RunesageMagik; I think they will send the Smiley Police after you for impersonating an Icon!! There are laws against that, don't you know!!:D

Posted 16 years ago #
goodgotd
Member

FWIW, this laptop plays music/movies (no dvd, though) and isn't bad at graphics as long as you don't need speed or more than 4 megs of dedicated vid memory. To-do, (deskmate) web browsing, email, voice over ip- I use 'rm all over a usb network adapto and win2k.

the same series runs winxp fine, even Office. and what you can get for a c-note keeps getting better.

Posted 16 years ago #
maizeydaze
Member

goodgotd, thanks for the info. I'll start nosing around ebay for that kind of deal. Tax refund will be coming soon!

Posted 16 years ago #
ldahl
Member

This is a free audio book site, it seems to be high quality.
http://literalsystems.org/abooks/index.php

Posted 16 years ago #
graylox
Moderator

thanks, got a scifi and found the text at Gutenberg

Posted 16 years ago #
goodgotd
Member

BTW, there's a new CD image posted at http://baencd.thefifthimperium.com/ - the RCN 'when the tide rises' cd.

Posted 16 years ago #
RunesageMagik
Member

A due diligence search didn't find these two seeds that Johnny Appleseed had in his pouch. Should be helpful for anyone sitting in the shade near a pond (if the glare isn't too bad)... QUACK! :-)

Seed 1 - E-books Galore! A Blogalog listing 10 pages of free e-books and sites. (some are familiar to this thread)

Seed 2 - An educational site where you can "read more than 3,700 books online FREE!" (or access more than 1900 PDFs now available for sale) - Natl Academies Press

Right at the top of that site is one book the luddites on the Kansas State Board of Dark Ages Education should read. - SCIENCE, EVOLUTION, AND CREATIONISM.

Posted 16 years ago #

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