Book Club

GENERAL BOOKS LLC

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Book defects
You may find numerous typos, text or illustrations missing from the book you bought. If so, we understand how annoying that can be! That's why we provide a copy of the original book without typos absolutely free of charge. Simply enter the bar code number (ignore the "90000") from the back of the book here to download it:

You can also find other editions of the book by using the search box at the top of the page. You can then get a free trial membership in our book club to download it and many other books also free of charge. Simply enter the bar code number from the back of the book here for your free membership:

We made this book exclusively for you using patented Print on Demand technology.
First we scanned the original rare book using a robot which automatically flipped and photographed each page.
We automated the typing, proof reading and design of this book using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software on the scanned copy. That let us keep your cost as low as possible.
If a book is very old, worn and the type is faded, this can result in typos or missing text. This is also why our books don't have illustrations; the OCR software can't distinguish between an illustration and a smudge.
We understand how annoying typos, missing text or illustrations, foot notes in the text or an index that doesn't work, can be. That's why we provide a free digital copy of most books exactly as they were originally published. And we provide a free trial membership in our book club so you can get free copies of other editions or related books.
OCR is not a perfect solution but since many of our books only sell one or two copies a year, we would have to charge hundreds of dollars a copy otherwise. So we warn readers on our website and in the descriptions we provide to book sellers that our books don't have illustrations and may have numerous typos or missing text. Of course, if you didn't see the warning you may feel ripped off for which we appologize.

Cancelations and refunds
To return a paperback book, please contact the book seller directly.
To cancel a book club subscription, please log into your Paypal account. We can't refund book downloads or partly used book club memberships. But if you download the wrong book by mistake, you can send us its download URL and a description of the problem along with the download URL of a replacement book you would like, using the form below. We may change your order to the replacement book so you can download it instead.

Email us

Could you please be so kind as to review our list of Frequently Asked Questions below before contacting us, if you don't mind?

Paperback FAQs | Download & Book Club FAQs

How do I download a free PDF copy of my paperback?
Simply enter the barcode number from the back cover of the paperback in the Free Book form on our home page. (If you bought a Kindle version of the book from another publisher that won't work unfortunately--even if their Amazon listing says otherwise.)

Why are there so many typos in my paperback?
The book descriptions we ask booksellers to display prominently warn that our books contain numerous typos. We created your book using OCR software that includes an automated spell check. Our OCR software is 99 percent accurate if the book is in good condition. However, with up to 3,500 characters per page, even one percent can be an annoying number of typos. We would really like to manually proof read and correct the typos. But many of our books only sell a couple of copies so that could add more than a thousand dollars to the cover price. And nobody wants to pay that. If you need to see the original text, you can download a copy for free.

Why is the index and table of contents in my paperback missing (or not working)?
The book descriptions we ask booksellers to display prominently warn that our books are not indexed. After we re-typeset and designed your book, the page numbers change so the old index and table of contents no longer work. Therefore, we usually remove them. Since many of our books only sell a couple of copies, manually creating a new index and table of contents could add more than a hundred dollars to the cover price. And nobody wants to pay that. If you need to see the original index, you can download a copy for free.

Why are illustrations missing from my paperback?
The book descriptions we ask booksellers to display prominently warn that our books are not illustrated. We typeset our classics paperbacks using OCR software. Therefore, they don't have illustrations. We would really like to manually scan and add the illustrations. But many of our books only sell a couple of copies so that could add hundreds of dollars to the cover price. And nobody wants to pay that. If you would like to see the original illustrations, however, you can download a scanned copy of the original book for free by using the form on our home page.

Why is text missing from my paperback?
The book descriptions we ask booksellers to display prominently warn that our books may be missing text. Unfortunately, all or part of a page is occasionally missing from our copy of a book. Or the paper may be so discolored from age that you can no longer read the type. We would really like to track down and buy multiple copies of those book to compare and manually proof read and correct any missing text. But many of our books only sell a couple of copies so that could add hundreds of dollars to the cover price. And nobody wants to pay that. If you would like to read the original scanned book, you can download a copy for free.

How can I check the quality of a paperback before buying it?
Simply click the details link on our search results page to see a random 2,000 character except from the book.

Can I buy a paperback of the scanned book rather than your re-typeset version?
We have tried reprinting books without re-typesetting them, but the discolored paper and faded type of the original copy creates printing problems. Sometimes the original book (which usually comes from a library) even has hand written notes, underlined sentences, or paragraphs highlighted in yellow. Reprinting all that as is, looks really bad. If we only expect to sell a couple of copies, retouching hundreds of pages could add hundreds of dollars to the cover price. While most people prefer we re-typeset and design a book (with some exceptions), we continue to develop the technology necessary to restore the original rare book so we can reproduce it as is. Hopefully, we can offer that service in the future, but not yet.

What would it cost to manually retype, proof, typeset and design a book for me so it's perfect?
Proofreading a book alone can cost $13 or more per double spaced page. So a 200 page book could cost $2,600 plus typesetting and design and printing costs. Therefore, it would be less expensive to download a scanned copy from our website for free and take it to a copy shop instead. Alternatively, you could do the proof reading and just pay us the cover price to print and bind it for you.

Something is missing from the book I downloaded. How can I see it?
You could search Worldcat for the closest library. Unfortunately, we don't keep the original books.

How can I help?
Some kind readers have offered to correct the typos in a favorite book. The best place to do that is Wikisource. By typing a correct version of the book there you make it available to everyone in the world. Furthermore, other readers can help you with the job of proof reading. To automate the task, simply download the scanned version of the book from our website. Open the PDF with Adobe Reader or Adobe Acrobat. Highlight the text with Select All from the Edit menu. Create a web page for the book. (See Wikisource instructions.) Select Paste from your browser's Edit menu to paste the book into Wikisource. You and other readers can then proof read and correct the book. Distributed Proofreaders provides a similar service but you need to email a scanned copy of the book to them first to get their approval.

How did you get permission to publish a book by an ancestor of mine?
The book is likely in the public domain in the USA and, therefore, anyone is allowed to publish it without permission. Please see the list of what books are in the public domain.

Why should I pay you for a book that's in the public domain?
If you like to read on a computer and can find a free copy on the internet, there's no reason to buy one of our paperbacks. Our books are bought mainly by libraries and people who prefer to read a paperback than a computer screen. We only charge for scanning, editing, typesetting, designing, printing, binding and shipping of books--we don't charge for the content.

Where can I see a list of your books?
It's best to use our search button to find books by topic. But you can browse our English and French books at Amazon.

I have an old book. Can you tell me what it's worth? Would you like to buy it?
Sorry, our staff are not trained in antique book valuation and we don't buy old books.

Why did you publish this book?
We published the book because we are trying to make all out of print books available once again.

How do I buy one of your paperbacks?
To buy a printed book simply click the Paperback link in our search results. Our books are also available from most major booksellers. We don't sell paperbacks directly.

How can book stores and libraries buy your paperbacks?
Our international wholesaler for book stores and libraries is Ingrambook.com in the U.S., Bertrams.com and Gardners.com in the UK. Since our books don't have a cover price you can add any markup you like. Outside of the U.S. please see our global distributors list. We don't sell paperbacks directly.

How do I return my paperback?
Could you please be so kind as to return the book to the book store you purchased it from, if it's not too much trouble? We can't accept returns directly since much of your purchase price went to the book seller, the distributor and the wholesaler so only they can refund that money. If you bought the book at Amazon, please see their refund instructions here.

I have some questions about a book?
You can find any of our books by using the Search form on our home page. Simply click the Details link under the title in your search results to see all the information we have about the book. In many cases that includes a 2,000 character excerpt. Unfortunately, our customer service staff don't have any more details about a book than what is in our database and listed on the book's detail page. However, you could download the books at no additional charge if you were a book club member, or for $9.99 otherwise. To get additional details you would need to hire one of our researchers to retrieve and study the actual books and that, unfortunately, would cost more than just downloading the books yourself.

Why is a book not available as a paperback? Can you let me know when it is?
We are trying to make each unique downloadable English title available in paperback. Unfortunately, we can't automatically let you know when we print a book. You need to check our website from time to time. We will print non-English language titles as we get distributors in those countries.

I can't find a book. Can you find it for me?
First, we suggest you search by entering the title and author in our search box together and then separately. We also suggest you omit the book's subtitle since we normally don't index on that. If that doesn't work, unfortunately, we can't help further. We don't take requests and we have no way to let you know when we receive a book.

What's your address and phone number?
We publish from Memphis, Tennessee, USA. We don't list our personnel, address and phone number because it's more efficient to contact us via our Contact Us form.

I work for a University. Can I get a "desk copy" of a book?
We no longer provide printed desk copies.

Can I get a free review copy of a book?
We provide book reviewers who work for magazines and newspapers with free digital review copies. Simply click the Contact Us link at the top of our website and enter the book's ISBN number. Could you please provide your email address at the magazine or newspaper you work for, or URLs of reviews you have written for them, if you don’t mind? We no longer provide printed review copies. Unfortunately, we don't provide free copies to people mentioned in the book, the author's relatives, websites, blogs, book stores, libraries, scholars, professors, Wikipedia contributors, etc.--but you can download a copy from our website for $9.99.

I'm with a non-profit group. Can you donate copies of your books?
I'm very sorry but we had to stop donating books due to the difficulty in verifying requests. Instead we make unsolicited donations to causes our staff are already familiar with.

I'm a publisher. Can we buy foreign rights for one of your books?
Since we are a global publisher, we don't sell foreign rights to our books. But if you would like to distribute our books in your country, please let us know.

I'm an author. How do I submit a manuscript?
We don't accept manuscripts from authors. We license large numbers of books from other publishers.

How can I tell what language a book is?
In the search results we include the book’s standard language code. For example EN (English), FR (French), IT (Italian), DE (German), ES (Spanish), NL (Dutch), PT (Portuguese), NO (Norwegian), etc.

Book Download FAQs

I see a charge from Books LLC. What is it for?
If the charge is for $9.99 it means you purchased a digital book. To see what book you downloaded, simply click the Login link below and enter your Paypal email address. If the charge is for $14.99 it means you purchased a book club membership. To cancel a membership, simply log into your Paypal account as explained below. If Paypal billed you for something that you didn't order, perhaps someone broke into your Paypal account. If so, you should immediately change your Paypal password. We can't make Paypal charge you. You need to order through them and cancel with them.

How do I cancel a book club subscription?
Since you ordered your subscription from Paypal, you need to cancel your subscription with Paypal as follows:
1. Log in to your PayPal account.
2. Click Profile at the top of the page.
3. Click My Preapproved Payments in the Financial Information column.
4. Click View the Agreement next to the merchant agreement you want to cancel.
5. Click Cancel or Cancel automatic billing and follow the instructions.
If Books LLC is not listed under preapproved payments, you have already cancelled your subscription.
Alternatively, simply locate the subscription charge in Paypal, click on Details and then press the Cancel Subscription button at the bottom of the page, then again on the page following.
If you don't cancel, Paypal will automatically bill you $14.99 every 30 days until you cancel with them. Please don't send cancelation requests to us.

I paid to download a book. Now how do I get it?
If you paid by credit card the book should automatically download unless you close the Paypal window. If you paid from your bank account you will need to wait up to four days until Paypal notifies us that if has receive the funds from your bank. In either case, simply click the login link at the top of our web pages and enter the email address you gave to Paypal. You don't need a password. After logging in you will see the books you have downloaded or purchased. Simply click the title link to download a book without charge. If you don't see the book, could you please be so kind as to check that you logged in under the exact email address on the Paypal email confirmation for the purchase of that book. If you did and you don't see your book, please select the email confirmation you received from Paypal and click the Forward button to forward it to us as an attachment. (We need to see the email address Paypal sent the confirmation to.)

When I click the download link I don't get (or can't read) the book? What to do?
Whenever someone tells us that they can't download or read a book, we never seem to have any problem downloading or reading it. Therefore, could you please be so kind as to try these downloading tips first:
* First, please try our suggestions below. If none of them work, let us know and we will find a way to get the book to you or refund your purchase.
* If you see the message "Click here to hear an audio captcha," please enter the words in the graphic and click the submit button.
* If the download times out, you can download the book again at anytime. Simply click the login link on our home page. Don't worry if you see a book listed more than once in your account. We will only count it as one download.
* These can be huge files. Sometimes downloads can take a long time. Therefore, as long as you don't get an error message, it's best to do something else and check the download's progress later. Try to avoid clicking the refresh button since that starts the download again making you wait even longer.
* Try upgrading your browser or try a different browser like FireFox or Google Chrome; they're free. Sometimes corrupt settings can prevent opening a PDF inside your browser.
* Try upgrading Adobe Reader. If you have been using another PDF reader, you may want to uninstall that from the control pannel first.
* If the download doesn't start, try temporarily turning your popup blocker or your web antivirus software off to see if they are blocking it.
* If you get a message that the book is not available and you are a book club member then we suggest you try downloading another edition instead. If you are not a book club member, you can click the Contact Us link and let us know if you would like a refund or to change your order to another book number.
* Sometimes people tell us that after downloading the book the pages are blank. Normally this means the PDF hasn't finished downloading or you need to wait a few seconds after turning the page. When you can read the last page of the PDF, it means the download is done. (You can ignore our Preparing to download message if it continues to display.)
* If Adobe Reader says the PDF is corrupt, it usually means it didn't finish downloading. Please try downloading it again. You may need to delete your browser's temporary files so it doesn't serve the corrupt PDF from its catch.
* If your browser runs out of memory while downloading the PDF, please try closing your other programs to increase memory and then try again.
* Please let us know if after buying a book you get the message: The requested URL was not found on this server. We will track down the book for you. Unfortunately, if you were downloading the book free as a club member you will need to find another book to download.
* If you are getting another error message from our website could you please send us the URL where you are having a problem and what the error message is, and we will fix it. But if it's your browser or Adobe software that's giving you the error, our customer service people can't provide support for those software products.
* When the download is done, select Save from the File menu of your PDF viewer or click the disk icon on your browser, depending on how your computer is configured, to save the PDF to your computer. You computer will not save the PDF--you need to do that. You may want to make a note of what folder you saved it to so you can find it later.
* If you get an XML error when downloading a book from your account it may mean you waited too long before clicking the book. (URLs expire.) Simply click your browser's Refresh button to log into your account again and then immediately click the title of the book you want to download.

When I search I get the message "Please try again later." What should I do?
Sorry, but could you please repeat the search again later, if it's not too much trouble? We back up our databases daily and searches don't work while that's happening.

Can I read the book on my computer?
Yes, simply double-click the PDF you downloaded to read it in Adobe Reader or whatever PDF reader you have on your PC. You don’t need an iPad, Kindle, or any special hardware.

Can I read the book on my Kindle?
Yes, Kindle has a built-in PDF Reader. Simply email the PDF to your Kindle (via your @Kindle address) or drag and drop it onto your Kindle (when connected via USB). To add Kindle functionality such as annotation, Text-to-Speech, etc., type "Convert" in the subject line when emailing the PDF to your @kindle.com address. However, we suggest you test your ability to transfer and read a PDF on Kindle before purchasing the book from us since people often have problems doing that. We can't offer tech support for Kindle or refund your purchase if you have to read the book on your PC.

Can I read the book on my iPad?
Yes, you can read a PDF on iPad. Simply add the PDF to your iTunes 10 library, connect your iPad to your PC and Sync. You can read the PDF with iPad's built-in PDF Reader, Goodreader, Cloudreaders, or Stanza, etc. However, we suggest you test your ability to transfer and read a PDF on iPad before purchasing the book from us since people often have problems doing that. We can't offer tech support for iPad or its PDF readers or refund your purchase if you have to read the book on your PC.

Can I read your books on my Nook, iPhone, Blackberry, or other mobile device?
Yes, you can upload or email our PDF formatted books to your mobile device and then read them with free software like eReader or Mobipocket. But we can't provide tech support for those devices.

Can I print the book?
Yes, simply double-click to open it in Adobe Reader and select Print from the File menu.

I bought the wrong book (or there are pages missing). Can I get a refund, or a re-scanned book, or another edition?
Please locate the correct book or another edition of the problem book, click the Details link and copy the ID number in the URL. (For example, if the book's URL is /book.cfm?id=4417773, copy "4417773".) Then click the login link at the top of the page to login, click the replace link at the bottom of the page and paste the new book ID. However, we don't provide this service to book club members since they can simply download the other book without any charge.

Why join the book club?
If you want to download more than one book you can save money by joining the book club for a month since a membership costs less than the cost of two books. However, please keep in mind that not all books listed in the search results are available in all countries at all times to club members.

Are your PDFs illustrated?
The books listed on our search results as PDF/scan are scanned copies of the original book. They include the original illustrations.

How do I distinguish between old scanned books and modern originals?
The books listed on our search results as PDF/scan are older books we have scanned. The condition of the books reflects their years of use in libraries (e.g. notations, faded type, yellowed paper, etc.) The scan may have missing or skewed pages. We also have hundreds of thousands of books listed simply as "PDF" that are mostly modern, original books published by us. We have typeset and designed those books and then converted them to PDFs. Therefore, you can search those books by keyword and copy and paste text into your word processor. The books "by Wikipedia" consist entirely of content licensed from Wikipedia.

Can I download books without a Paypal account?
You can pay without having a Paypal account. After clicking the download or join book club link, simply click where it says "Use your credit card or bank account." That will let you pay by echeck or credit card. Unfortunately, we can’t accept mailed checks.

I just downloaded a book. Can I switch that order to a book club membership instead?
Paypal will not let us convert your order for a single book to a book club membership. We also can't refund book purchases. Sorry.

How do I download a book again later. How do I login?
If you bought the book or a book club membership on our website, simply click login and enter your Paypal email. You don't need a password. After logging in you will see the books you have downloaded as a book club member or purchased. Simply click the download link to download a book without charge. If you wish to download a scanned copy of a paperback you purchased, please do that from our home page.

I can't find the book I'm searching for. Do you have it?
Since we have millions of books, we recommend you enter both the title and the author into our search box. If that still doesn't work then, unfortunately, we can't help you. Our customer service people have no additional searching tools.

Can I find books by subject?
Entering the suject in the title search field will usually work. While we have assigned BISAC subjects to most books for library use, we haven't made them searchable since usually only librarians know them.

Can I get the text for a scanned book so I can search or edit it?
You can convert a scanned book to text by opening it in Adobe Reader or Adobe Acrobat. Drag your cursor to highlight what you want. Then select Copy from the Edit menu. Open your word processing software and select Paste from the Edit menu. For further details please contact Adobe. We cannot provide technical support for their products.

Can I preview a book before I download it?
You can click the Details link on our search results page to see if we have a 2,000 character excerpt from the book. That's the only preview option.

I'm a book club member. But when I try to download a book it asks me to pay $9.99.
Please click the Login link on our home page and enter your email address first. Then click the Download link beside the book you want. If you forget, at the top of the book payment page you will see a reminder that says "Book club member? If so, please login to download the book for free."

I'm a book club member. How do I download more than four books a month?
At the moment there is no way to increase the downloads per month on an account. If you have another Paypal account, you could use that to subscribe to a second membership. We only offer one membership per Paypal account. Unfortunately, we don't offer discounts for multiple memberships. Otherwise, you can download as many additional books as you like for $9.99 each. Don't worry if you see a book listed more than once in your account. We will only count it as one download.

I'm a book club member. It's a new month but the site is saying I have already downloaded my four book maximum
You can download up to four books every 30 days. If, for example, you download all four books on the first day you will need to wait 30 days to download more. If you download books over the course of several days you can log into your account to see the download dates. Count to four starting from the bottom of the book list and then add 31 days to that download date. That's the day you can resume downloading. The start of a new month doesn't change that.

I'm a book club member but I didn't download any books last month. Can I download twice as many books this month?
Unfortunately, our software will only let you download four books each month. Allowing for credits of books not downloaded in prior months would require a complete rewrite of our software.

Does my book club membership auto renew monthly?
Yes, Paypal will automatically bill you $14.99 every 30 days until you cancel. You don't need to do anything.

If I download the same book twice do you count that as two downloads?
If you are a book club member you can log into your account anytime and download a book again by clicking the download link on your list of books previously downloaded and we won't count that. However, if you download a book using our book search form and it is a different version of a book previously downloaded then we will count that as an additional download.

Paypal rejected my credit card. How do I pay?
You may want to contact Paypal (e.g. service@paypal.com) to see if they can offer you an alternate way to pay. Unfortunately, we can't force them to take your credit card and we don't offer an alternative payment method.

I can't print the PDF I downloaded.
If you are having troubling printing a PDF Adobe offers the following suggestions. If you can't find the PDF you can search your computer opening Windows Explorer and enter *.pdf in search box at the top or just download it again.

What is the resolution of your PDFs?
Most PDFs are scanned at 600 dpi. However, we may reduce the resolution to 300 dpi or lower to reduce download time and the time it takes you to view the next page.

After downloading a book, can I copy part of it?
Our books may have a mix of public domain and copyrighted content so you can't copy the whole book. However, you can copy the Wikipedia or Wikia articles by following the terms of their license. In the case of our historic books this article explains which parts of those books you can copy without asking our permission. Outside of the U.S. please consult your local copyright laws. Unfortunately, we can only provide signed letters of permission to companies paying a licensing fee since we need legal counsel to review agreements at a cost of hundreds of dollars an hour.

How can I reduce the size of the book?
To reduce the book size so it takes less space and prints quicker, simply open it, select Print from the file menu, select your PDF print driver, select the desired resolution and click OK. For example, for the Adobe PDF driver click the Paper Quality tab, then the Advanced button, then the Print Quality link. Please consult Adobe technical support for further details.

How do I change my email address?
To change the email address on your account, simply change your primary email address at Paypal. When we receive the next Paypal payment from you, we will automatically create a new account for the new email address.

Why am I getting this message: Sorry, this edition of the book is not available for download to your country?
Unfortunately, some books are only available for download in a limited number of countries due to local copyright laws. Therefore, we let you know before you pay. Our customer service staff can't download such a book for you.

Do I become a book club member simply by buying a book?
No. To become a book club member you need to post a request using the form on our home page. We don't enroll you in the club without your permission.

As a book club member, does a three volume set count as three books?
If the volumes are separate downloads then, yes, we count each download as a book.

Does a three volume set count as three books?
If the volumes are separate downloads then, yes, we count each download as a book.

When I click on a URL in the book I downloaded why doesn't it work?
Please copy and paste the URLs into your browser rather than clicking on them. If the URL is more than one line long, you may need to paste it into Notepad first, click infront of each additional line and press that backspace key until the URL is all on one line. If you are retyping the URL, please make sure you have typed each lowercase letter as lowercase and each uppercase letter as uppercase.

Why do books sometimes have a different number of pages than listed in the search results?
Sometimes we list the number of pages in the original edition; sometimes we list the number of pages in the most recent edition. In either case, the two editions have the same content--the new edition just uses a bigger page size and a more compact design to reduce the pages.

Are the books in color?
If the original book had color illustrations then the scanned book will almost always be in color also. However, we can't guarantee that nor can we check a book to confirm the existence of color images.