The official WSU Common Reading 2024-25 book is: How the Other Half Eats: The Untold Story of Food and Inequality in America.
All freshman students should have received a print copy of How the Other Half Eats, but there may be times when you may prefer to read an ebook copy of the book (you can highlight and annotate it and export them to email, for example). The WSU Libraries has it in ebook format through the ProQuest EBook Central interface for up to five readers at a time. This tutorial will walk you through the process of accessing and reading it. Information is provided in text with screenshots as appropriate; there are also short screencasts that demonstrate specific processes. Note: The screencasts will be suing last year's book for now.
Please note that this year's book has no chapter or page downloads, only 16 pages to copy as text (and copying a sticky note counts as a page so you'll want to export them as text instead (or use your smartphone to take a picture) and can only be downloaded for one day. Seriously, I recommend the web or tablet browser experience over the downloading experience.
How can I read this book? These are your options, and you will see advantages and disadvantages listed below.
- You can read it on your laptop/desktop or tablet directly from Search It, using the Ebook Central browser interface (This is the recommended way. Any annotations (just notes, not highlights) you make can be exported and downloaded as a text file but both notes and highlights also stay in the book, which is linked to your account - this is important, because you can only "check out" the book for one day at a time so you may want to revisit your notes and highlights).
- You can download it to your laptop/desktop and use Adobe Digital Editions to read it. It downloads in EPUB format, so pages are flowable to fit your screen. You can only download it for one day.
- You can read it on an iPad or iPhone using Bluefire Reader. It downloads in EPUB format, so pages are flowable to fit your screen. You can only download it for one day.
Screencast Demonstrations:
- Screencast of how to download and read it on your desktop, laptop, or tablet browser (Note: this is probably the best way to read it): screencast link (currently this and all other screencast videos this are for last year's Common Reading book, but it will be updated shortly, and it works exactly the same - except you have no page downloading and only a limited copying allowance).
- About downloading Adobe Digital Editions for desk/laptop, accessibility options, and whether or not to authorize it with an Adobe ID (only use an Adobe ID if you want to transfer the ebook to a Nook or other e-reading device): screencast link
- Screencast of how to download and read it using Adobe Digital Editions on your desktop/laptop: screencast link
- Screencast of how to download and read it using Bluefire Reader (not Adobe Digital Reader!) on your iPad or iPhone: screencast link
- Note - I forgot to talk about how you DO need an Adobe ID for reading this type of library ebook on your phone or tablet. Here is the link for creating one - when you download and open Bluefire Reader you will be prompted to add it. Why not Adobe Digital Editions? ADE is a *horrible* experience!
- Screencast of how to download and read it using Adobe Digital Editions on an Android phone (Adobe ID and authorizing required): screencast link Not recommended!
Reading It Online in ProQuest Ebook Central on Your Desktop/Laptop/Tablet/Smartphone Browser (Easiest)
Advantages:
- You can bookmark pages, highlight text, and make annotations (pop-up notes or "sticky notes").
- Your bookmarks, highlights, and annotations are automatically saved and associated with your WSU email-based account, so they are accessible any time. Annotations (in this case, Notes) can be exported as text (they will include citation elements and the page where you placed the annotation).
- Ebooks can be saved in a Bookshelf for easy access later - this is where you go to export your annotations.
- You can copy up to 16 pages - this will capture all the text on a page as text, along with the citation. You can then paste the text in a document, email, etc. Note that if you copy a highlight, it will count as one page towards your 16 regardless of how much you copied.
- You can search within the entire book once you select "Read Online" or open any specific chapter online.
- Accessibility: See the tab on this guide.
- Note: If you want to read it directly on a tablet or smartphone you can access the book through Search it and then read it online and thus have a more readable experience. The experience will be just like reading it on a laptop/desktop, accounting for differences between browsers. (Actually, I thought the reading experience was actually better on my iPad Air 3 - the text looked crisper than on my monitor.) HOWEVER, in the tablet browser version you can't copy or highlight any text, although you can add sticky note annotations.
Disadvantages:
- Reading it on your desktop or laptop browser screen may not be as intuitive a reading experience.
Downloading it to a Desk/Laptop Using Ereading App Adobe Digital Editions (Macs, Windows)
Advantages
- Possible better reading experience
- You can still copy text and paste it into a Word document subject to the 16-page/highlight limit.
- You can highlight and use comment boxes within ADE
Disadvantages
- You will need to download Adobe Digital Editions. Note, you do not need an Adobe ID! You will be able to authorize Adobe Digital Editions on your device without one (authorizing is required because of Adobe’s digital rights management (DRM)).
- Highlights and annotations can't be exported and are not saved once the book is returned, so if you download the book, return it, and then download it again, you won't have access to previous bookmarks, highlights, and annotations. This can be solved a bit by copying your annotations and citation info into a document (or just not using annotations ;-).
Downloading it to an iPad or iPhone using Bluefire Reader (because Adobe Digital Editions for iPad/iPhone is *terrible*)
Advantages
- You can search, highlight, and make notes
- Notes and highlights can be exported
- A good reading experience
Disadvantages
- To read a library ebook of this type on a phone or tablet you must create an Adobe ID and authorize Bluefire Reader with it.