- Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens
- Lost Illusions by Honore de Balzac
- Old Times: A picture of social life at the end of the eighteenth century by John Ashton (1885)
Classics and interesting works of non-fiction are readily available in a variety of formats from the standard epub to PDF's and Mobi or AZW, specific for the Kindle. The easiest way to view PDF's not formatted by a publisher is to switch to the landscape view on the Kindle, otherwise when you zoom in you will cut out much of the text.
New ebooks
Public libraries are now a good resource for ebooks which are borrowed like a print book. All you need is an ebook device (or a smartphone, ipad etc) such as the Kindle and the appropriate ebook format. Unfortunately, the only formats available are Adobe epub, and PDF which must be viewed in Adobe Digital Editions, which the Kindle doesn't support. The Kindle format is only provided to libraries in the USA.
Overdrive is the main way to access ebooks. You may not be able to download ebooks to your Kindle but you could read them on your computer or smartphone/Blackberry. Enquire at your local library for more details.
Although this is disappointing for Kindle users outside of the USA, ebooks tend to be cheaper than print books and in time Overdrive may expand outside of the USA.
Why I bought a Kindle over other ebook devices
So why the Kindle? I looked at Sony devices, the Kobo and many others. But in the end the Kindle's black and white non-reflective screen, popularity and reasonable price won me over. Sometimes I regret not being able to view the more popular formats on my device but I love my kindle (2nd generation) and I believe it is still the better device on the market. I just hope the industry realises this and stops allowing Adobe to take over this ebook wonderland.
