At first glance, Book-bot.com seems very simple. That's because it is. Drawing from Project Gutenberg's database of books which are no longer copyright protected, this site strives to give the user a simplified, no-fluff online reading experience. And frankly, this is what a serious reader wants. There are no blinking images or long-loading flash animations vying for your attention or your bandwidth. Instead a small set of modest text ads sit near the top of the page. Currently, the site holds a bit over 14,000 books. They proudly feature such time-honored authors as Dostoyevsky, Twain and Lewis Carroll. The ajax interface quickly serves up one page at a time and offers two large and easy-to-see buttons to "turn" the pages. Registering with an email address will grant the user automatic book marking. In other words, if they leave and come back later, the site will automatically remember the page they last looked at in each book.
"We have 14571 books (and counting!) but here are some of the more famous ones. If you know what you want, try our search box, or feel free to browse by author or title."
Super clean and straightforward reading experience appeals to serious readers. Fast load times and easy navigation are a huge plus.
Will users prefer their more convoluted sources of these available titles which offer downloadable versions too? Also, while the size of the collection is impressive, 75+ year old books are, well, kind of old. Would this format attract new authors (and new users)?
