I mentioned the Baen Free Library before discussing its support of fair-use. Further investigations of reading books on using PDAs has proven to be highly addictive. There is a fee-based system, Webscription.net where electronic copies of many of Baen’s holding can be bought and downloaded for $4 or $5 (US) each.

Other options include:

• OmniRead which hosts a large collection of books from a variety of publishers with a corresponding variety in prices. Most seem to be the same price or only slightly lower than the print version, even differing between the hard and paperback versions.
• eBookLocator is a search engine specifically for eBooks. The fields available include the title, author, publisher, subject kewords, and the electronic format.
• KnowBetter Lending Library is an actual ebook lending library. You register (for $20 US/year) and “borrow” up to 2 books at a time for 3 to 14 days. After the time is up, the electronic copy self-destructs. They seem to have gotten around the copyright problem by only “checking out” their books to one person at a time, complete with waiting list. The library is apparently an advertisement for the Libwise software, which is said to make it easy for traditional libraries to set up their own electronic lending versions. The whole thing is a subsiduary of Fictionwise.com, another eBook vendor.