Google has decided to take a nod from Project Gutenberg and start offering free, out of copyright books for download. The improvement that they have made over the otherwise spectacular Project Gutenberg is one of style. Google’s offering gives you the books in a very readable, very printable .pdf format.

If you search for a book that is still under copyright you will be presented with a small amount of information about the title as well as snippets of text, in some cases.

With extremely valuable projects like Gutenberg having spent years transcribing books for little more than a digital pat on the back, I have a problem becoming overly enamored by this new Google offering.

Still, if Google’s image gets a few more people to read a classic, it is well worth it.

[The picture is from a library at the University of Kent]