reading

As you've probably heard by now, Amazon just cut the price of the Kindle 2 to $259. Definitely a step in the right direction, but still too rich for my blood.

Now, $219 shipped for a refurbished Kindle 2? That's a deal worth considering.

This is the first time I've seen a refurb offer on the famed e-book reader, though, as it turns out, you can also get a 1st-generation Kindle for just $149 (!).

Both models come from Warehouse Deals by Amazon, meaning they're eligible for Amazon customer service and covered by a 30-day return policy. … Read more

If you're an avid reader, and you don't want to pick up a Kindle or a book from your local library, several Web sites let you read while you're surfing the Web.

Admittedly, the experience is less than ideal. Those of us who already spend time staring at a computer screen for work don't necessarily want to stare at a screen to read a book. I should also note that not all the books the sites offer will feature the kind of content you love. Many of the services offer many out-of-print books or classics due to copyright disputes. That said, using these sites, I still think you will find at least some titles that will suit your fancy.

Alex Catalogue of Electronic Books: As someone who focuses much of my time reading history and philosophy works, Alex Catalogue of Electronic Books is an ideal site for me.

The majority of titles on Alex Catalogue of Electronic Books includes great literary works over the past few hundred years. The site also has prominent titles on Western history and philosophy. They range from books by Niccolo Machiavelli to Ralph Waldo Emerson. When you click on a title you're interested in, the site quickly delivers the text.

I was generally impressed by the Alex Catalogue. Although I would have liked to see more historical content on the site, the books that are available were worth checking out. And thanks to a quick load time, it made the site all the more useful. You can also print the texts so you don't need to sit at your computer screen to read them.

AskSam: AskSam is an interesting site. It doesn't feature nearly as many books as I would have liked (in fact, it has just a handful of classics), but it makes several documents available that make it a viable alternative for those who aren't necessarily looking to read an e-book online.

When you first get to AskSam, you'll see a listing of some of the "classics" it has available. When you click on those titles, you can typically read them on the site. A few books require you to download the text, but those are few and far between. Overall, the selection is poor. I would have liked to see more books. But in the end, it didn't detract too much from the service.

I found that AskSam's extras provided the most value. They include several interesting documents, like a collection of all the speeches President Barack Obama has recited, legislative texts, transcripts on important political events, and more. It's a nice collection to sift through. And if you don't want to read them online, they can all be printed out from your browser.… Read more

This is a fun little piece of freeware that uses some basic personal information to predict the compatibility of two people based on their Chinese zodiac signs. The simple interface could not be easier to navigate, and the layout of the compatibility reports is easy to read.

There aren't too many bells and whistles with MB Chinese Zodiac Compatibility, but its reports are fairly comprehensive. Each partner is analyzed separately based on his or her birthday, and the couple's overall compatibility is rated and explained. There's plenty of detail about the various birth years; we especially liked … Read more

MLEditor Standard Edition lets users read and edit text files in a language code other than their operating system's native language code. It is a multilanguage text editor, word processing, and code-conversion tool that also specializes in professional-quality conversions between Simplified and Traditional Chinese. It will work with all the languages supported by Microsoft Windows, including Japanese, Korean, Russian, Turkish, Arabic, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, Thai, and many others. It supports conversions between Unicode, Unicode BE, ANSI, and UTC-8. The word processor includes several unique features, such as dual-area Control Editing, Batch Replace, a text file previewer, desktop sticky notes, … Read more

Wilson is "out sick" today, but we're lucky to have Ms. Natali Del Conte nearby to replace him on the show. She was working out of the office last week, so we take this opportunity to update ourselves on all things NDC and you'll be surprised to hear of the changes coming to Loaded. We're so proud of her. Congrats, Natali!

We officially kick off this Monday episode by defining the Web's trendiest new buzzphrase, "augmented reality." We're not sure who came up with it, but it's all the rage in the world of iPhone apps. For example, Yelp built an Easter egg into its app that uses the smartphone's GPS to superimpose digital data onto the world through the camera, making it easy to view restaurants, taxis, bathrooms, and subway information around you. We think it's pretty cool, but Gawker has its own application ideas, like an app called ClubLech, which uses facial recognition and user-inputted data to identify all the singles in a room. Sounds creepy and, like a lot of technology, it takes the fun out of getting to know someone in person. Plus, who wants a digital sign superimposed over their head pointing out their depressingly single relationship status?

Are you having a hard time saying goodbye to "Reading Rainbow?" We are, too. The show has been on the air for 26 years and just recently celebrated its final episode on August 28. We're sad to see a relic of our childhood go the way of the dodo, but it makes perfect sense, since we're pretty sure kids are just illiterate now, so why have a show to promote books? But don't take our word for it; just ask a kid to define the word "Scholastic."

If you want to get your voice mail heard on the air, just give us a call at 1-855-404-CNET and tell us what's on your mind! Could be something about one of our shows, maybe one of the hosts, or just something random that popped into your head. We'll take them all!

PDF Annotator is a powerful program that allows users to make a variety of different kinds of notes on PDF documents. The program's many features and intuitive interface make it a great choice. We wish we'd had it when we were in grad school!

The program's interface will be familiar to users of Microsoft Office products. Nearly all of PDF Annotator's features are accessed through the program's customizable toolbars. Although it may not be immediately obvious what all the little buttons do, a few minutes of playing around with the program makes most functions clear. … Read more

Teachers can test their reading and writing students' skills with Edit Prep. The program creates worksheets that students can proofread for correct punctuation and grammar usage, or read for contextual clues to test their reading comprehension skills.

We tried each of Edit Prep's three sections: Proofreading, Comprehension, and CLOZE Worksheet, which deals with finding contextual clues in passages of text. The program has a selection of sample text from well-known works of literature from which you can generate worksheets, or users can import passages from sources outside the program. We think teachers will enjoy this option, because they can … Read more

Dear e-book publishers: stop gouging us.

Look, I'm your biggest fan. I've been reading digitally distributed fiction and non-fiction since the early days of the PalmPilot.

The most frequently used apps on my iPhone, bar none, are Kindle, eReader, and Stanza.

But I'm getting increasingly frustrated with e-book prices, which rarely represent a savings over their print (aka dead-tree) counterparts.

Case in point: I just read a glowing review of Jonathan Tropper's "This is Where I Leave You." I'm sold; I want it. But something's amiss here: Amazon's hardcover price is $15.57, while the Kindle edition sells for $14.01.

Now, I understand books cost money. There's editing, publishing, and distribution. Paper, ink, trucks, gasoline. Storage, shipping, shelf space, sales staff. And the countless people involved in all those transactions.

E-books, on the other hand, consume zero trees. They weigh nothing, occupy no physical space, and don't get shipped in the traditional sense. Middlemen are few and far between. So you're left with, what, editing costs and the pittance you pay the authors?

Explain to me, then, why the e-book edition of "This is Where I Leave You" sells for $14.01. The $.01 suggests there must be some calculation at work, some formula you use to determine that Kindle and iPhone owners get to save all of a buck-fifty-six when they read green.… Read more

MB Learn Palmistry is a simple program aimed at teaching and testing users on the world of palm reading. With excellent pictures and a simple design, users will be closer to unlocking the meaning of hands and palms with this download.

The interface is particularly simple, considering the complicated terms people will learn. With simple pictures, definitions, and commands, the program is so simple that users will not need the online Help file for guidance. The program consists of two distinctly different functions: tutorial and testing. The tutorial is a series of a few dozen screens featuring different aspects of … Read more