Two eBook questions

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1) My mother is 88 and loves to read. I don't know that she could handle a Blackberry phone but is there a book-reader type device that she could use besides a cell phone, that she could sync with her computer and get books online. Maybe a little larger device with a bigger screen?

2) Can someone give me step-by-step instructions on how to download a free book from the Gutenberg book site (link below). I have the Mobi-reader already installed on both my desktop and BB Curve 8330. Thanks

Main Page - Gutenberg

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There are several stand alone ebook readers out there, I haven't personally used any of them but I know someone who uses Reader Digital Book and really enjoys it. In fact he doesnt go anywhere with out it.

As long as you download a plain text version of the book from your website, Mobireader should be able to read it and send it to yuour phone just fine.

Downloading from Gutenberg is pretty straight forward.

Start with Search, Author or Title should bring up the resulting matches as links.

Click on a link and it will open a download page with a Bibliographic Record. At the bottom of the page, Formats Available For Download ...

Choose from the available formats and Main Site or Mirror Sites. Now for the tricky part, do not use the normal left click. Instead, click the right button and select "Save Target as ...".

Plenty of eBook readers to choose from, most are novel sized for easy reading.

Amazon.com: eBook Readers - Office Electronics: E Book Readers & More

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I appreciate what information you gave me but....

I don't know which options to choose, or where to go from right clicking....save target as...what? I ended up trying to email it. (OTA?) I think it tried but said the file was too large. I have 8 megs and told it to use mass storage so shouldn't it have worked? Anyway....

I'm not sure I did things right from where the poster above left off. I've never downloaded anything before. If Stoner or someone else who uses Gutenberg can just give me their own step-by-step to the end I think I can catch on. Sorry I'm dumb. Thanks

Edit: Actually it did email, but it's in text form. Oh well.



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Originally Posted by cbmember

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1) My mother is 88 and loves to read. I don't know that she could handle a Blackberry phone but is there a book-reader type device that she could use besides a cell phone, that she could sync with her computer and get books online. Maybe a little larger device with a bigger screen?

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I have the Amazon Kindle and I love it. It's expensive ($400) but it's so easy to use and not at all intimidating to someone who is less familiar with technology. It's very much like reading ink on paper. (The screen is not backlit.) It's easy to change the font size. You do not even need a computer to download books, which are sent via Whispernet directly to the Kindle. (Unless you live in Alaska or Wyoming or out of the U.S.)

You can buy books directly from Amazon, usually for under $10, even for best sellers. You can also read DRM-free Mobipocket books, so you could take the Project Gutenberg books you made into .prc format and have them sent to the Kindle for 10 cents each, or manually transfer them to the Kindle via USB - but it might be easier for your grandmother if you just had them sent to her Kindle.

It's so easy to use that I forget I am not reading a real book and often reach up to turn a page!

I am happy to answer any other questions about the Kindle - I am delighted with mine!

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I just discovered those Kindle, Cylink, iLiad, eInk, Sony reader, etc, devices today and now I want one too! Even though I could get books on my Blackberry if I only knew how. :rolleyes: I have two books sitting on my desktop and don't know how to get them into my Blackberry. Maybe I need to post this on every forum here, surely somebody around here knows how to download? Or is that upload?

I'm glad you're enjoying your Kindle. I can only imagine. There's just nothing quite like reading a good story, is there. I'll remember you when I'm in the market for purchasing a device! :)

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Well, I must say I am puzzled about getting a book to my Blackberry too. I went to Project Gutenberg, saved the text version (I right clicked and chose "Save Link As" in Firefox and gave the file the name of the book. Then I went to my desktop MobiPocket Reader and clicked "import" up at the top and then chose "Text Document" from the dropdown menu. I then selected the text file I had just saved and clicked "Open."

The book immediately showed up in my desktop MobiPocket Reader, looking great.

Then I couldn't get it to go to my Blackberry. I clicked "Send" but it took a long time to see my Curve, which I had connected with the USB port. It finally saw it as "removable storage" and I was able to transfer the converted file to my Blackberry, where I can see it in the ebooks folder. But I can't access it from my Blackberry MobiPocket Reader.

So maybe someone will see this and help both of us!

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EDIT: I'm writing this after I posted what's below because I just found a book I'd downloaded...it appears in a NEW ICON on the Main screen of my BB. So although this book does NOT appear in MobiPocket Reader in my BB, it shows up by itself with a new ICON. This book has its own Reader called BDicty, and I did nothing besides click the links for both the book and the reader from an email. This had to have been an OTA download. I wonder if the other books or the Links to them could be sent to our email, and opened from our BB phones?

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Boy oh boy, you've given me hope. You're so close.

I have a Notepad document that I use to do copy/pastes from this forum so I can quickly reference answers to questions posted that I know I'll need later. Below are parts of 2 posts I had copied, and if they make sense to you, go for it. I think you might have gotten as far as the first one did though. Anyway, if it helps, come back and explain it all to me. :D Here goes:

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(1) Open up the desktop reader on your PC. Drag your ebook file that you already have into the desktop reader. As long as it is a supported format it will do what ever it needs to do and and it will be in your library. Now, with the desktop reader open connect your BlackBerry to your PC. MobiDesktop Reader should recognize the device and ask to sync. At this time I think you can choose what titles you want on your phone.

(2) You can use any ebook with mobipocket as long as you have the mobidesktop reader (to sync your phone and convert the files) and they are in the correct format. Many formats are proprietory like Microsofts .LIT. You can't use because MS owns that format. There are third party converters that can convert .LIT to .TXT so they can be used on mobipocket. I download most of my ebook via torrents or peer to peer sharing and they work great for me. They are free for me except for the time it takes to convert those that need it. I also posted in here a list of free ebook websites.

I'll be back tomorrow for your total solution! :D

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I found a terrific site for downloading FREE eBook CLASSICS:

Diesel eBooks:
download ebook at Diesel eBooks

I've had great success today downloading books but I need to download one more and PAY ATTENTION to how I did it so I can tell others who don't know how. I did have to unplug my phone from the computer and also do a soft reset to get the books to show up but that wasn't too big a problem. I'll be back to give some directions to others about downloading these books when I get it all straight.

OK....I'm putting the steps I went thru in the post below this one.

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READ THE P.S. at the Bottom FIRST


Diesel eBooks:
download ebook at Diesel eBooks

(There's a quirk with a few of the books, that when you click on the book, a page with html comes up....I don't know what to do with that. But with all 5 books I chose, things worked fine.)

1 - I start with my BB plugged into the computer.

2 - Click once on a highlighted book.

3 - In the box that comes up, I click to Open with the default, which is "Mobipocket.ebook". I then click on the book again and this time choose to Save to Disk. (that might not be necessary)

4 - I then unplug the BB from the computer and that prompts a big box to come up (Mobipocket Reader I think) which asks if you want to Send the book to your device. Choose Okay, and the book will now appear in your Mobipocket Reader box.

5 - In the Mobipocket Reader box, Click on Send on the toolbar above.

6 - Give it a moment or two, then it will appear in your BB, but only when you unplug the BB from the computer.


I think you can probably choose more than one book at a time, then the Reader will show them all and ask if you want them sent.

If someone knows a better way, do chime in here and let us know. There's not much to it, but it took me 3 days to figure it out, about par for me. :)

P.S. I just chose another book to download and this time it was much easier..... I plugged in my BB to the computer, clicked on the book, chose to save it to disc and open it with MobiReader....then the MobiReader Box automatically came up with that book in it, so I just clicked Send and it did. It showed up as soon as I unplugged the BB from the computer.



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Do everyone a favor and do not get your grandmother a Blackberry. For reading documents it sucks. It will suck until the Blackberry OS 4.5 as much as the fanboys want to tell you how easy it is... it isn't. Blackberries are good for some things but are terrible with regard to attachments and reading documents.

What you should do is get her either a Pocket PC or Palm OS device. They are much easier to use and come with Documents To Go. Every document she downloads is easily viewable. Even better, if it's a PDF she can zoom in on small text and get full resolution (this is probably too advanced.) There are TONS of easy to use readers for the Palm.

Hi, u can also buy ebooks off the cberi site, is very simple. But u have to use dtm to add book, u add one at a time. ie , when u finish one book u just select another. Is very simple, i too am new to bberi but this site is soooooo helpful. Roll on