ebooks on the bus

It is our firm belief that people who consider riding the bus as a waste of time just haven’t yet realized all the ways that a bus commute can be productive. There is a long list of activities can be accomplished during your bus commute. We’ll post a few of our favorites over the next few weeks and would encourage readers to submit their own transit time productivity tips.

Reading is a pleasant way to pass the commute. It’s easy to pop off into another world for a few pages and let the miles roll by. It also keeps your mind off any delays. A good old paperback is a great bus companion. But we tend to forget such luxuries or don't have extra space in our pocket. If you already carry a cell phone, blackberry, or PDA, ebooks are a great alternative. You can download a lot of them free, too!

Here are a few resources for free ebooks that you can try out on your next bus ride (if your not too busy working on other things or enjoying the view).

Daily Lit will send a small chunk of a book to your email account on a regular schedule that you set up. If you have access to email on your mobile phone or PDA, you can get a transit trip sized reading sent to you every day. They offer about 200 books right now.

Manybooks offers tons of books in 15 different formats, so you are bound to find something that interests you and that works with your PDA. They have books in more than 30 languages and dozens of categories. They currently have just under 1,000 15,000 titles, but they seem to add 5-10 new ones every day.

Abracadabra! The story of the Beatles’ Revolver (PDF only)

Cory Doctrow offers up his scifi books in multiple formats.

You need to figure out which format matches the software on your device. We aren't providing a HowTo simply because there are so many options. If your phone or PDA doesn't come with some kind of ebook reader software, a quick search on Google should turn up a bunch of free options.

We use the mjbookmaker to convert ebooks into bite sized programs for java phones. It has a basic set of features and automatically saves your place on exiting. Quick and easy.
Palm offers the free PalmReader for Palm users.
Plucker is another Palm option.