I’m going on Safari! (O’Reilly Safari Library!)

by Christopher Kusek (PKGuild) Baltimization, Informational

Okay, so I’m not really going on Safari, unless a trip to the local bookstore to look at all of the O’reilly books is ahead of me.

But here is how I came to find out about the Safari Library, and how it has changed my life! (for the better!)

safari_logo.gif

One day some many months ago, I was looking for a certain book! They did not have it available at my local Borders or B&N, so I went the route of Amazon.
Amazon said “We’ll have it to you in 2 days!” I even went with the super-fast delivery.
Alright, sounds good, I ordered it on a Friday. It said I’d have it on Monday.

Comes Tuesday, and my order is suddenly on “BackOrder” for 30 days… WTF? What is this, Baltimization in action by Amazon?

So I canceled my order, and began searching for alternatives.

Enter Safari Library! I went with the initial ‘trial subscription’ to try it out, and bam! I was reading a few dozen books in a few minutes, which for me, is quite good times. Within the same day, I subscribed and have happily been a subscriber since.

The O’Reilly Safari Library totally rocks, and isn’t limited exclusively to O’Reilly press books. Includes MS Press Books, and a whole slew of other publishers, including a lot of the “Distilled” lines. Some books are even released to Safari before they’re released to Print, which itself does rock.
But it doesn’t end there. The bookmarking is nice, the ability to enter comments nice, the ability to download chapters is also a nice gesture, and the wide diversity of books is also good.

Great points:

  • Ability to search through books, so you can find what you want across hundreds of books and be taken directly to where you want!
  • Suggestions for other books in the page/chapter/book you’re reading, for respective relevant content!
  • Access to the Lynda.com videos as well! that’s fairly cool as there is a lot of published video content.

    • But beyond these great points, there are still a whole slew of other features which I absolutely love to take advantage of, like the ability to have “Favorites” and whatnot.

    Never the less, I’ve found it to be greatly useful and they’ve got my vote, as I pay out of pocket month after month. :)

    Tell me about your Safari or similar publisher agreements!

    Christopher Kusek