Google lets you join its book club, through your phone
In a few years from now, the digital tide will turn and Google will become evil. It is inevitable the search giant is going to pull a HAL, given the sheer amount of the world’s information it contains in its data centres.
But before it flicks the switch, jacks into our brains and pumps SEO-flavoured Kool Aid into our veins, we can all enjoy one of the ripest fruits of Google’s digital odyssey so far: Google Books.
The idea is simple: using the Cloud, Google allows you to access pretty much any book you want on any device that’s connected to the internet. So, if you start reading, say, 120 Days Of Sodom – that Marquis De Sade has such a way with words – on your computer through Google Books, then theoretically you can pick up where you left off on your smartphone, or your e-reader. Yes, like if you buy a real book, put it down with a bookmark in, only to pick it up where you left off later on in the day – there’s no need to be pedantic.
The Android app is a small piece of this literary puzzle. Download it and you can store up to 16,000 ebooks, change the size of the font to your liking and there is even a night reading mode – ie, the handset’s light gets a bit brighter.
As with all of Google’s apps, Google Books is a joy to use. The UI is simple and downloading premium books is easy; maybe too easy as we got a little trigger happy and decided to procure the whole collection of Barbara Cartland novels on offer.
How the hell she wrote over 560 novels and still managed to find time to buy all that pink we will never know.
Download this app: Google Books for Android
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