Google Books Goes Mobile

Got a smartphone? Got a hankerin' for a book published before 1923? Do you have to read it, like, right fucking now? Say no more. Yesterday, Google announced that all 1.5 million books in the public domain it has scanned are now available via iPhones and T-Mobile Android devices. With just a few clicks, the Google Book Search Team has declared, you no longer have to play Pac Man while waiting in line at the post office. Now, you can read The Subjugation of Women!

Google should be thanked for this remarkable accomplishment, and we'd be remiss if we didn't offer you an immediate link to this service. But we'd also be remiss if we didn't point out some of its flaws. As New York Times writer Miguel Helft points out, the format for reading long books on smartphones is almost lethally awkward, and the backlighting will strain your eyes somethin' fierce. Still, mad props for making pre-Depression-era literature available anywhere we happen to be, Google geniuses. Get your Sister Carrie on right now.