For Any Project Gutenberg User

[Robert11]

Hi,

Have a new iPad3.

Looking into the downloading of free books into it, and have, of course, looked at Project Gutenberg.

I wanted to download "Leonardo DaVinci Complete Notebooks".

Apparently, the format options are epub which has no pix, it says.
But there is also an HTML option with, presumably, pix.

The ePub seems to work; downloads to iBooks just fine, but the HTML will not.

Very confused.

Are all their ipad downloadable books (only) in ePub format ?
If so, then why bother putting the HTML option there at all ?

If anyone could explain all of this for me, would be most appreciative.

BTW:

- is there an APP for them, or does everything have to be done your Browser ?
- is there any "better" source for downloadable free books; hopefully of more recent vintage ?

Thanks; appreciate the help,
Bob

 

[KevinJS]

PG existed long before iPads, so the different formats have grown up over time.

I'm an occasional contributor to Distributed Proofreaders which is where PG gets its books from. If you have a dig around the DP website it might give you some answers.

Sent from my iPad 4 HD mini

 

[KevinJS]

Just noticed your comment about "books of a more recent vintage", so I'll explain PGs angle here.

First, I don't know of anywhere for getting free, recent books.

Every book available from Project Gutenberg is out of copyright, and is therefore, public domain. This means they are all safe to download. There are some very interesting books available, or being worked on for inclusion, such as one which I was helping to work on about a year ago about an English guy's contemporary history of revolutionary France.

Also, some of these books are very rare, so once PG has them, they are preserved and available to far more people than would otherwise be the case.

Hope this explanation helps.