Don't be suckered into using these CONTROLLED, PROPRIETARY FORMATS. By using these formats, you would be giving FULL INFORMATION to Microsoft and Adobe regarding what kinds of books you download and read. Also, you would be strengtening their market position in the newly emerging market of e-books, and thereby supporting the loss of your rights as a reader, as a consumer, and as a citizen.
Instead, use and support FREE, OPEN FORMATS. These formats include standard ASCII text, unencrypted pdf, standard Postscript, among others.
Below is a brief list of websites where you can find ALL of the above books and THOUSANDS MORE in FREE, OPEN FORMATS, UNCONTROLLED BY GREEDY MONEY-GRUBBING CORPORATE INTERESTS.
When you use these FREE, OPEN FORMATS, no one will ever know which books you are downloading, you will not have to "authenticate" your reader software at any point, and you are free to share these e-books with any and everyone you choose.
These FREE, OPEN FORMATS allow you to exercise your fundamental right to lead a private life, your fair use right to share your favorite texts with your friends and family, and to excerpt parts of the text for academic, satirical or critical purposes. The aforementioned are valuable rights protected by the American Constitution.
However, the CONTROLLED, PROPRIETARY FORMATS used by Microsoft and Adobe STEAL THESE VALUABLE RIGHTS FROM YOU. If you use and support these corporate formats, YOU WOULD BE WILLINGLY GIVING UP YOUR RIGHT TO LEAD A PRIVATE LIFE, YOUR RIGHT TO SHARE, AND YOUR RIGHT TO MAKE FAIR USE OF INTELLECTUAL WORKS.
Be smart and don't willingly give up your rights as an e-book reader. Shun CONTROLLED, PROPRIETARY FORMATS. Support FREE, OPEN FORMATS.
Here are a number of e-text libraries that use FREE, OPEN FORMATS:
[L]http://www.infomotions.com/alex/[/L]
[L]http://www.keele.ac.uk/depts/as/Literature/amlit.html[/L]
[L]http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/[/L]
[L]http://www.bibliomania.com/[/L]
[L]http://www.ipl.org/reading/books/[/L]
[L]http://www.gutenberg.net/[/L]
[L]http://www.bookwire.com/links/readingroom/readingroom.html[/L]
[L]http://tech-two.mit.edu/Shakespeare/works.html[/L]
[L]http://eserver.org/[/L]
[L]http://www.etext.org/index.shtml[/L]
In the words of Gandhi, "Slavery in a pretty, skinnable interface with full antialiasing support is still slavery."
- Wagner