E-Reads™ is
...a trail-blazing reprinter of out-of-print genre and general fiction and nonfiction by leading authors. Our books are available in all e-book formats and paperback. Read the latest publishing news and provocative blogs by top commentators in the traditional and digital publishing fields.
Thin Air
George E. Simpson
It's a mystery that dates back to World War II--what happened to the USS Sturman and its crew. For Naval Investigator Nicholas Hammond, the search will challenge him…and the answers will, like bodies floa...
Shadow of Ashland
Terence M. Green
“THE BOOK YOU HAVE TO READ”–Entertainment Weekly
"Things have to be settled, or they never go away."
Only weeks before she dies in March, 1984, Leo Nolan’s mother shows her son a rose she says w...
The Longest Way Home
Robert Silverberg
"What wonders and adventures he has to tell us," is how Ursula K. LeGuin characterized the world of Robert Silverberg, and in The Longest Way Home, he takes readers on another dazzling odyssey.
Joseph, jus...
Marriage Is a Bad Habit
Ruth Dickson
When Ruth Dickson released her 1967 book MARRIED MEN MAKE THE BEST LOVERS, it went off like a bombshell. Defenders of the “sanctity” of marriage rose up to dismiss her frank, innovative, thoroughly resear...
Orion's Dagger
Paula Downing King
With ORION’S DAGGER, Paula E. Downing presents the thrilling final installment of THE CLOUDSHIPS OF ORION trilogy, which Starlog magazine called “special...a thoroughly engrossing story.” The trio wa...
Fair Warning
George E. Simpson
America is set to finally end World War II with a devastating act--dropping the atomic bomb over Japan. But what if a secret mission was set in place to alter the course of history? In this fast-paced, and i...
Rogues of the Black Fury
Travis Heermann
When a band of shadowy fanatics abducts Javin Wollstone’s little sister, Bella, from his care, his only hope to bring her home is turning to a hard-bitten band of special warriors, the Black Furies, led by C...
The Sudden Star
Pamela Sargent
The appearance of a white star bathing the world in a deadly glare turns Earth into a nightmare of fear and death. Rape and murder are as common as suicide. Medical help is allowed only for certain diseases, a...
Philosophy and the Challenge of the Future
John Lange
The sciences, as opposed to politics and religion, have their roots in philosophy. Philosophy has been spoken of as the mother of the sciences, although she is, in many cases, more of a grandmother or grea...
The Man in the Moon Must Die
Jeff Bredenberg
What do a cunning old man, a code-slopper gone rogue, a pair of lowlife tech-runners, a sexually frustrated AI, and a hermaphrodite underworld boss have in common? They're all out to get Benito Funcitti, ow...
FEATURED TITLES
Rivals
Janet Dailey
Flame Morgan, the high-class v-p of a San Francisco ad agency, is instantly attracted to Chance Stuart, a wealthy, powerful land developer. Chance romances her lavishly but withholds a damaging secret duri...
To The Vanishing Point
Alan Dean Foster
The Sonderberg family doesn’t know it yet, but this isn’t going to be any ordinary road trip. After they pick up an unassuming hitchhiker, a quiet drive down Interstate 40 becomes a trip into an alterna...
Watchtower
Elizabeth A. Lynn
In a land brought to life by warriors and lovers, war and honor, the legendary tower, Tornor Keep, is invaded by raiders. No longer the watchtower at the winter end of a summer land, Tornor turns to a young ...
The Road to Victory
David Colley
The Red Ball Operation, the vital train of supplies improvised by American troops during the invasion of Europe, was one of the GIs' bravest exploits, without which World War II would have dragged on at a ter...
Colorado - After the Storm
Janet Dailey
Lainie MacLeod's mother wants only the best things in life for her beautiful daughter. And for a while, Lainie has it all, including the perfect husband. Rad MacLeod was the most handsome, nicest guy in Denver...
This Kind of War
T.R. Fehrenbach
THIS KIND OF WAR is the most comprehensive single-volume history of the Korean-American conflict that began in 1950 and is still affecting United States' foreign policy. Fifty years later, not only does this e...
Stage Door Canteen
Maggie Davis
New York City, the capital of the free world, is dark, its lights turned off as enemy submarines lurk offshore, as close as Coney Island. Three men--a gunner from a B-17 bomber who‘s a national hero, a magaz...
The Book of Kells
R.A. MacAvoy
An unusual and original work of fantasy from the acclaimed author of Tea with the Black Dragon.A contemporary man, John Thornburn (a meek, non-violent and unpredictable artist) and woman, Derval (his tough,...
People of the Sky
Clare Bell
Old technology survives and even thrives on the challenges of a new planet populated by ancient human spirits.
Kesbe Temiya, a freelance flyer, accepts a commission to deliver an ancient-but-restored C-47 ...
Alone in the Ashes
William W. Johnstone
America the beautiful has gone hellishly awry. Nuclear war has descended on Main St. USA and left two things in its horrible wake: apocalyptic anarchy and Ben Raines, a lone patriot with a compulsion for ...
This Business of Publishing
Richard Curtis
THIS BUSINESS OF PUBLISHING has been hailed by literary agent Michael Larsen as "must reading for writers, agents and anyone else who cares about the future of publishing." It reveals the unique perspective o...
Appointment in Jerusalem
Max I. Dimont
Biblical historian Max Dimont, author of the classic JEWS, GOD, AND HISTORY, explores the mystery surrounding the predictions Jesus made about his fate. Examining the gospel, Dimont recreates the drama in thr...
Sounding
Hank Searls
"He had a brain biologically identical to man’s but seven times its weight and volume," writes Hank Searls of a massive, aging sperm whale whose compassion, fear, and anger at man’s attacks on his kind dri...
Bran Hambric: The Farfield Curse
Kaleb Nation
What if your mother was a criminal? What if her crime was magic? What if magic ran in the family?
Bran Hambric was found alone in a locked bank vault when he was six years old. He doesn't have a clue ho...
Hyperthought
M. M. Buckner
Hyperthought recounts the adventures of a young man who trusts an unscrupulous doctor to enhance his brain function, and of a young woman who tries to save him.
The year is 2125, and the Earth has und...
Perhaps Apple boss Steven Jobs’ declaration that “People don’t read anymore” does not rank with Neville Chamberlain’s “Peace for our time” speech in 1938, just before Germany invaded Czechoslovakia. But it is not out of line to mention both in the same breath to exemplify how colossally wrong smart people can be.
Jobs made his scornful comment in response to a question about the Kindle. “It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is; the fact is that people don’t read anymore,” he said. “Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year.” Aside from offending every literate person in the United States, including those who read one book or less every year, Jobs appalled everybody in the e-book business. They had looked to him to do for reading books what he had done for listening to music. By implying he was not entertaining a book-reading platform for the iPhone, he slapped the collective face of the e-book business. Thwarted by his hostility to an iPhone reader, customers turned to the Kindle to fill the e-book vacuum. Jobs could not have boosted the Kindle any more effectively if he had bought a controlling share of Amazon.com.
Fortunately, a number of determined and enterprising programmers took it upon themselves to spec – or hack – a reader application for the iPhone. And even more fortunately, Jobs did not discourage them. One hopes he realized he had spoken recklessly.
Which brings us to the Stanza, Lexcycle’s free e-book reader now in use on the iPhone and iPod Touch. Charlie Sorrel writes in Wired, “Stanza has been downloaded almost 600,000 times, and users are in turn downloading 50-60,000 books a day.” The key to this breakthrough is a partnership between Lexcycle and the online e-book seller Fictionwise.
Aside from the satisfaction of seeing Steve Jobs proven wrong, it’s also inspiring to see Fictionwise taking this initiative. We at E-Reads are big fans of Fictionwise. It is our principal e-book distributor and a major reason why this industry is beginning to thrive.
To paraphrase Neville Chamberlain, “There will be e-books for our time.” No thanks to Steve Jobs.
RC
Perhaps Apple boss Steven Jobs’ declaration that “People don’t read anymore” does not rank with Neville Chamberlain’s “Peace for our time” speech in 1938, just before Germany invaded Czechoslovakia. But it is not out of line to mention both in the same breath to exemplify how colossally wrong smart people can be.
