Test Drive: Google Books

Sometimes when it's slow or I'm on break at work I will read old classics on Google Books. For instance, I read Jane Eyre on Google Books. How it works, I believe, is that Google got permission from various institutions, such as Stanford University, to scan and make available some of their books. This is a great idea!

However, they do have to be aware of copy-right laws so be aware that only older classics (think books written about 100 years ago) are available in Full-view only. There are a lot of books out there that you can preview a few pages though which is kind of nice. Anyway...I decided to show you what a Google Book looks like.

Here's a version of Jane Eyre. The book was published in 1890 and scanned. You can view a page at a time, or as a book like this:

You can zoom in or zoom out. You can word search (right now "Jane Eyre" is being searched and is highlighted). It's also kind of neat because it scans the whole book...cover, illustrations, everything. And every now and again you see something weird...like this:

Ha ha. Someone didn't move their hand fast enough. But it's also nice because in old editions you can find some great illustrations. For example, a 1920's version of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland:

Anyway...check out Google Books sometime when you are bored of browsing through the Internet.