Haven’t used it for 6-8 months. I used to be able to search for, read and/or download books that are no longer copyright protected.
There used to be an option to only pull up full books and an advanced search feature.
It looks like some of those things can be done if you register for and use Google Play … what’s that all about??
I don’t see a way to reach it from the actual Google Books page, but it’s still there and it still works without signing in. (link)
After you enter a term, the hits page displays with a horizontal menu at the top.
Clicking on “Search Tools” brings up a submenu that allows you to choose only books with Preview, limit dates, and types of material to search, among other options. It’s essentially the same choices that used to sit on a vertical bar to the left of the results.
Rubixcube simulposted. That page is Advanced Book Search. There is a parallel page for news at https://news.google.com/news/advanced_news_search.
Thanks for the info and links to the advanced search page. Turns out that I do have a gmail account which is all that I needed to proceed and “buy” a free book.
After doing so I looked all over to determine how to download it and transfer it to my kindle fire but I couldn’t figure that out.
I did log onto the Google Play website with my kindle and can read it that way but there must be a better way.
Also … I used to be able to pull these kind of books up as a pdf, save them on my laptop, and then print a hard copy. Are those days gone?
My impression is, yes, several out-of-print books that, some time ago, I did download for free from Google Books as PDFs, now no longer seem to be available for download, at least not for free. (I am not sure, but I think some of them may not even be available in full for free on screen any more.)
Are you saying that there are some free books available if you are signed on to Google Play? I have never used Play, so I would be interested to know how one searches for these. Do you need something like a Kindle to use it or can you read on the computer?
Remember that I’m talking about books that are 100 years old… civil war memoirs mainly. Yes… they do seem to still be available for free but you have to sign into Google, go to their Play site and read them while on-line. I can’t figure out how to transfer them to my reader.
The definitive place to go for public domain books is Project Gutenberg. It’s been around since 1971, and most books are available in plain text, html, epub with or without images, Kindle with or without images, Plucker, and QiOO mobile (works on a lot of cell phones). Most of the PD works available on Kindle, Sony Reader, etc. came from PG in the first place.
This used to be true, but Google Books has far more public domain books available today. You may not be able to download them in the same variety of ways, but if you need to consult them or search in them or read them online, there’s no comparison.
I’m told that Google Play and Kindle Fire are not compatible. Can anybody confirm? I still can’t find a procedure to send the book to a tablet of any kind.
Also can anyone confirm that a pdf is no longer an option.
I knew that as soon as I posted the above I’d go back to the site and figure something out… that’s why I posted it!
Once the book appears in your My Books section of Goggle Play you can click on it and then click a How to Read tab where there are a number of options including a pdf.
Not at all. I can find downloadable pdf books without being signed in.
https://www.google.co.uk/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=civil+war&tbs=,cdr:1,cd_max:Dec+31_2+1900&num=10
Go to any book that has a “read” link. (Some are only snippet view)
e.g. :
Now go to the control at the top right of the page, looks like a cog wheel. Click on that. It gives you a menu with “download pdf” as one of the options.
Yes, I think that is more or less how I have done it in the past. However, as I said earlier, it is my impression that many books that were formerly available this way no longer are. Thank you, however, for demonstrating that some still are.
I rather think it may make a difference whether one is searching via google.com (the U.S. site) or google.co.uk (which Google forces you to use if they detect that you are in a UK location). It is hard to be certain, but my loss of access to certain things seemed to coincide with my move from the US to the UK last year. One could probably work around this with a proxy, but that is a pain, and doubtless will only make a difference in a very small proportion of cases.
The other question is, are the books that can be found via Peter’s method all the same books that What the … !!! is finding via Google Play, or are some accessible one way and some another? If I join and then search Play, might I find certain free, out of print works that I would not find (or would not be able to view) otherwise, or will I always be able to find something, if it is available, from a regular Google search?
Come to that, will I even be able to find books on sale via Play from a regular Google (or Google Books) search?
Alas… the “cog wheel” is the key… thanks !!!