Learning from ebooks

Learning from ebooks

This story explains how ebooks came about and how interesting and useful they've become. Also, check out some websites where you can download ebooks. By dushyant khilnani

In today’s world most ebooks are made in the PDF format (Portable Document Format). This format was created in the early 1990s by Adobe Systems. As Adobe gained popularity with their ever-growing range of products, so did the PDF file format. This format is the milestone in the ebook business. There are other ways in which ebooks were and still are distributed and downloaded, such as plain text files, Word documents and such. Even CHM—Microsoft’s proprietary file format which is used for help files—is often used for ebooks. CHM and most other formats are mainly used to avoid incompatibility. Reading them is not limited to the confinement of a desktop PC or a laptop. There are physical portable readers available such as the Amazon Kindle—developed by Amazon for reading ebooks and other digital documents. Even smart phone users aren’t deprived, just install compatible software such as a PDF reader—Kindle For iPhone is available—download ebooks on your phone, and you’re set.

Today, while tons of websites offer free ebooks, some books need to be bought. The oldest ebook project is www.gutenberg.org. From the overwhelming riches of content on this website, you can download any ebook for free. You name a subject and you’ll find books pertaining to it, and their database dates back to the really olden times. You can download comic books and fairy tales that you might have read in your childhood. So imagine how old-school these books are!

But now let’s quickly transition into the current ebook forms of today, and logon to www.myebook.com. Websites such as MyEbook let you read ebooks straight from a browser using a Flash interface. You can actually flip pages with the click of a button. There’s no third party software needed, apart from the flash plug-in for the browser. Furthermore, you can even create your own ebooks for others to read. We’d recommend you to visit both these must-see websites, especially if you want to see how far the ebook-craze has come. Most of us might be aware that the term ebook stands for electronic book or eco book—as one of the online articles suggested. But if you want to know the history and popularity of ebooks, read the entire article at www.articlesbase.com/ebooks-articles/the-history-and-popularity-of-ebooks-481506.html.

Speaking of history be it any field, mathematics, science, entertainment, arts and literature, business, comics, computing, aeronautics, geography, health, humor, you name it and ebooks for all subjects are available online. Just enter the relevant keywords in a search engine, such as Google, and you’ll certainly find what you’re looking for. The beauty of ebooks is that be it domestic or international, you can read matter from anywhere in the world and on any subject. Magazines, tutorials, user manuals, guides, research and study material, case studies, the list goes on and on.

But there are some websites that misuse this wonderful medium and distribute ebooks of copyrighted material illegally such as torrent sites. We strongly recommend you go through legal channels when downloading anything, as illegal websites can con you and you may even fall prey to virus attacks and hacking.

Education is one of the main reasons ebooks have become so popular. We’d say that being literate and being educated are two sides of the same coin. Schools and colleges make you literate and impart education in limits. But the completion of your academic career limits your education unless you choose to educate yourself through books or practicalities. And in this fast-paced world of ours, ebooks are simply an excellent way achieving that higher education.

cointain from www.chip.in