Google Books—What's It Got For Teenagers
Cool Stuff Google Books Offers Teens and Young Adults
Sep 25, 2009
It's true that almost all of Google Books' “full view” books have expired copyrights; so most of them are from the 1930's or before, but these 1+million books and magazines actually have a lot to offer even the trendiest teens.
Use Google Books for Homework Help
Google Books for Reference
Google Books has a helpful section titled “Highly Cited Books” which features books so impressive that every great thinker quotes them (Socrates, anyone?) Teens who want to sprinkle intellectual citations throughout their homework (or who want to cross-reference the teacher's seemingly random ones) should go here.
Speaking of reference,Google Books has a lot of instantly-accessible reference books for homework assignments featuring current topics like “mass media criticism” and “women's rights.” Google Books also offers magazine archives for reference including: LIFE, Popular Mechanics, PC Magazine, and more.
Google Books for Classic Literature
Google Books offers the full text of the books “most likely to be assigned by high school literature teachers and college professors” including ancient texts (think Homer, Virgil, and Plato), classic literature (Animal Farm, Great Expectations, and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea), and all the Shakespeare and O. Henry a teacher could assign. As a bonus, many classics are free e pub downloads to grab and go.
Google Books for Foreign Language Class
Foreign language students, listen up: Google Books has books written in French, Spanish, and German to name a few. Need foreign language practice? Want extra credit? Read a book in another language at Google Books.
Google Books for Any Kind of Homework
Google Books has books on grammar, philosophy, economics, political science, physics, chemistry, biology.... even enough pages of Danica McKeller's book Math Doesn't Suck to help middle school students get through tonight's assignment. Whew.
Google Books for Mind-Numbing Entertainment
When the homework is over, teens with brain overload can read the infamous tabloid Weekly World News, or check out the Google Books humor section, or better still, dive into the tons of fiction Google Books has to offer. It's true that books still under copyright aren't offered in their full versions, but Google Books offers hundreds of pages of many new books in preview (not just a few pages like the online bookstores) so teens can really get a good read before they buy a new book. Not ready to buy? No problem; Google Books has a “Find in a Library” link for each previewed book and it'll show readers where to borrow the book locally.
Google Books for Cultural Literacy—Use Google Book Search to Get a Clue
Does the horror film Lady of the Lake have anything to do with the same-titled book by Sir Walter Scott? Is the popular film War of the Worlds starring Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning as good as the book (by HG Wells)? And why did the psychedelic rock band Velvet Underground write a song inspired by the book Venus in Furs (and why were there 4 film adaptations of a book you've never heard of, and why does the narrator in the introduction of this “R” rated cult classic sound disturbingly like Lemony Snickett... hmmm?) Find out at Google Books.
Google Books Gets Current With E Pub
If Google Books seems kinda relevant now, wait till you hear this: Google Books + EPUB + Sony Reader = thousands of books and with no bookshelf required. Teens with no place to store books (or no ride to the library) can download tons of e pub books onto their laptops to store and read whenever, even print them from pdf files and mark them up. Or, e pub books can downloaded to, stored on, and read on a Sony Reader (or at least a dozen other eBook readers). And Google Books for Mobile makes e pub books available for android and iphone users.
Yup, Google Books went tech. It's not your grandma's library. You gotta try Google Books and see for yourself.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
