Friday, April 11, 2008

Google Library Review


So I think I'm going to read some Thomas Hobbes and John Locke (Yes, Hobbes from Calvin and Hobbes, and John Locke from Lost).

I was made aware of them during my Political Science class, and seeing as they're the fathers of western political philosophy, I thought it'd be good to read their stuff.

So my search started with Amazon, but I quickly remembered that Google has digitized loads of books (especially old books), so I headed over to Google Book Search, quickly found what I was looking for, and added my selections to 'My Library'.

After all of this I started reading through the books and was very impressed, all of the chapters had links from the table of contents, and it seemed very easy to navigate. Google has options to review, tag, add labels, and add notes; this was great.

Well I started reading the first few pages of the book, and I continued to think everything was great, until I decided I was finished reading for the day, and started looking for a bookmark feature, something to mark where I left off so I didn't have to remember the page number or something silly like that. I mean come on, it's Google, the Grand Master of remembering things so you don't have to. But I couldn't find it!

There is no feature to bookmark, mark, tag, remember, anything! (Unless I'm an idiot and simply can't see it!) I really think there should be something to mark where you left off, so when you want to keep reading you can simply continue where you left off, seems reasonable right?.

Pros:
Allows you to read books for free
Table of Contents has links to chapters
Searchable
Reviews/Reviewable.
Google is digitizing the classics.
RSS feeds of your library.

Cons:
No bookmarks!

I still recommend Google Library, because I think it's great they're converting classics into electronic copies, which doesn't undergo yellowing due to oxidation like lignin-based paper does.

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