Sony Reader to Offer 500,000 Public Domain Titles Via Google Books

Sony and Google announced that they will now offer 500,000 free e-books for the Sony Reader, culling free titles from Google Book’s giant database of public domain books.

In a LA Times feature, former Publishers Weekly editor Sara Nelson wrote that the new feature “appeared to fall short of the publishing industry’s expectations.” Some had hoped that Sony would develop a wireless download method for the reader, a feature that the Kindle 2 offers.

Here’s more from the article: “More than a year ago, David Young, chief executive of Hachette Book Group, gave Readers, not Kindles, to his staff…’I like my Kindle,’ he said, ‘especially the ease of the download, which is brilliant, but for reading books and manuscript, I find the Reader more satisfying. I like its heft and prefer the page-turning buttons.’” (Via Sarah Weinman)

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