Many County Libraries in the US provide free access to electronic books and audiobooks.

To use eBooks and audiobooks you will need:

• A Library card.
• Access to the Internet.
• The appropriate software for the device on which you wish to access the digital book.

Digital audiobooks are in the OverDrive Media Console format, and eBooks in the Adobe Reader and Mobipocket reader formats. These downloadable eBooks and audiobooks can be used on a variety of devices such as PCs, laptops, and supported PDAs. OverDrive Music is also available in some libraries. You can listen to your favorite ballet, chamber music, concertos and more.

To see if your library offers this service, go to their website and look for their digital libary. Many offer both reference books, and fictional books.

I see Mobipocket Reader for Windows Mobile is a free download.  Acrobat Reader for Pocket PC is also a free download.  I haven't done eBooks in a while, but I think Acrobat Reader 2.0 supports re-ragging text in PDFs that have the proper tags.  Many devices come with Acrobat Reader LE, which does not support re-ragging text to fit the screen.

 How do you get OverDrive Media Console audiobooks to play on Windows Mobile?  Sounds like they might be able to just syncronize through Windows Media Player just like any other audio file.  Are there bookmarking capabilities?  I remember you could do that with the Audbile player so you could pick up where you left off. Listening to audio books with Media Player mobile probably won't be so good since it won't remember where you left off last.

Is there some Digital Rights Management that makes the eBooks and audiobooks expire after a certain amount of time?  Or are they only just locked to your specific library account?

Adam Z Lein:

I see Mobipocket Reader for Windows Mobile is a free download.  Acrobat Reader for Pocket PC is also a free download

The links for both of programs are available when you download the book from the library.

Adam Z Lein:

 How do you get OverDrive Media Console audiobooks to play on Windows Mobile? 

The Overdrive Media Console transfers the audiobook from your PC to your device. It then plays through Windows Media Player on your device. There are no bookmarking capabilities, I don't think - which is definitely a weakness. You can also transfer these books to a CD, and I would assume that there is no expiration period once transferred to a CD.

The Mobipocket books are linked to your library account. Each device has a PID and you are allowed three of them. I have a new TILT and I have used all 3 of my PIDs so I have had to apply to the libray to remove my previous 2 PIDs from old devices.

All formats have a 2 week lending period - though I am not sure how they track this - but they do, as I often go past the date and I am no longer able to access them.

Here's a good way to find libraries that offer free downloads of eBooks and other content:

http://search.overdrive.com/