San Diego — Sony said its eBook Store will include more than 500,000 free books from Google, starting today, that are optimized for the Sony Readers.
The public domain books bring Sony’s total of such free books to 600,000.
“We have focused our efforts on offering an open platform and making it easy to find as much content as possible,” said Steve Haber, president of the digital reading business division for Sony. “Working with Google, we can offer book lovers another avenue for free books while still providing a seamless experience from our store.”
The books from Google include “The Awakening,” “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” and “Black Beauty.” They also include “Sense and Sensibility” and “Emma” by Jane Austen.
The announcement follows the recent release of the Kindle 2 by Sony’s chief rival in the e-reader market, Amazon.com.
