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HTTP/2 301 server: nginx date: Sat, 31 Jan 2026 04:59:15 GMT content-type: text/html; charset=UTF-8 location: https://wowio.wordpress.com/about/ x-hacker: Want root? Visit join.a8c.com/hacker and mention this header. host-header: WordPress.com link: ; rel="https://api.w.org/" vary: accept, content-type, cookie x-pingback: https://wowio.wordpress.com/xmlrpc.php x-redirect-by: WordPress x-ac: 4.bom _dca MISS alt-svc: h3=":443"; ma=86400 strict-transport-security: max-age=31536000 server-timing: a8c-cdn, dc;desc=bom, cache;desc=MISS;dur=406.0 HTTP/2 200 server: nginx date: Sat, 31 Jan 2026 04:59:15 GMT content-type: text/html; charset=UTF-8 vary: Accept-Encoding x-hacker: Want root? Visit join.a8c.com/hacker and mention this header. host-header: WordPress.com link: ; rel="https://api.w.org/" vary: accept, content-type, cookie x-pingback: https://wowio.wordpress.com/xmlrpc.php link: ; rel=shortlink content-encoding: gzip x-ac: 4.bom _dca MISS alt-svc: h3=":443"; ma=86400 strict-transport-security: max-age=31536000 server-timing: a8c-cdn, dc;desc=bom, cache;desc=MISS;dur=526.0 About | The Reader

About

This site is intended to be a conversation about books. This begins and ends with the books themselves — the ideas, the stories, and the written and visual art that keep us so enthralled. Yet I also want to touch on the changing face of our world as readers — from the rapidly-evolving technologies that seem poised to remake publishing to the impacts of literacy and technology on the developing world.

I will oftentimes cover books from WOWIO, because I certainly want to share some of the good stuff that we’re putting out there. But everything here is my personal opinion and is not read or approved before it is posted. I also write about products and services from Apple and Amazon, and I have small holdings in both companies.

I hope that as this conversation develops, you’ll occasionally be provoked into adding your thoughts. And if a new topic (related or not) comes to mind, please let me know.

Thanks for coming by…

Gerry Manacsa
Senior Designer, WOWIO

About WOWIO

WOWIO is a company of book lovers, and we’re working to dismantle the barriers that separate people from books. By making ebooks available for free — including copyrighted works from major publishers — we ultimately hope to make sure that every person who wants to read a book will be able to get it (while making sure that those who are creating the content can still make a living!).

These aren’t simple text files. Rather, they’re the real books, as typeset by their publishers but in electronic form (i.e., in pdf format, sans the dead trees).

Writers and publishers get paid, we get to make a living doing something we love, and readers get to read books for free.

About Gerry Manacsa

Gerry is a designer, multimedia artist and technologist living in Houston, Texas.

As an engineer working on the Space Shuttle program in the early 90s, he was a pioneer in using the web as a medium for data dissemination and communication for geographically-dispersed workgroups.

He later broke ground in mixed-media storytelling on the web, foreshadowing the rise of blogs and photoblogs with a personal multimedia journal that ran from 1996 through 2007.

As a lead designer and technologist with an innovative young Internet startup, he helped to define and develop new learning methods that took full advantage of the medium, helping that company become a successful leader in its space.

Today, Gerry has joined another young and innovative startup, WOWIO, where he is helping to remake the world of books.

In his off hours, Gerry is a photographer and explorer, looking forward to traveling the world with his wife, Karina.

9 comments

loved your site!! its manna for voracious readers like us! thanks!
by theemptyvessel July 23, 2007 at 3:38 am

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Hello – Just found your site and enjoyed. I write a site on similar issues at booktwo.org. One request – please can you include the full text of your posts on the RSS? I read so many sites it’s just impossible to keep up without proper RSS.

Thanks, James.
by James Bridle September 17, 2007 at 9:44 am

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I’ve been toying with the idea of going full text on the RSS feed for some time. Certainly, I appreciate it when others provide it, so with help from your nudge, I’m now doing the same. Thanks for the feedback, James.
by Gerry Manacsa September 17, 2007 at 12:20 pm

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Is there any way to download pdf files that are “digital editions”? I’m using filemarker. I’m not sure how to use pdf reader for this or if it’s possible. Thanks.
by Lois Warner January 11, 2008 at 8:17 am

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Adobe has a program called Digital Editions which can read certain kinds of PDF ebooks that are not readable in the main Adobe reader program (which is aptly called Adobe Reader). As an example, WOWIO ebooks are compatible with both programs, but ebooks from many other sites will only work with Digital Editions. I would suggest trying both programs to see which one works for your files:

Adobe Reader

Adobe Digital Editions

Note that the Digital Editions downloading site doesn’t always seem to be working (it’s not working for me as I look at it on 1-20-08).
by Gerry Manacsa January 18, 2008 at 11:02 pm

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Gerry, check out this article in The New York Times:

Thumbs Race as Japan’s Best Sellers Go Cellular

What an amazing combination of technology & writing. Cellphone novels! Imagine typing a short novel on a cellphone keypad. An interesting hybrid of manga & technology.

MadSilence
by madsilence January 22, 2008 at 9:34 pm

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Thanks, MS. That is indeed a remarkable phenomenon. I can’t quite imagine enjoying either the medium or the kinds of work produced on it, but I suppose I shouldn’t say anything until I’ve tried it!
by Gerry Manacsa January 29, 2008 at 11:30 pm

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[…] Yes, I’ll welcome thoughts from PDF-lovin’ folks, especially at Adobe and Wowio, where Gerry Manacsa regards PDF as being more designer friendly at this stage in its development than ePub is. To […]
by Noticias Edición Digital » Blog Archive » Ficbot’s hairdo and the font size-changing debate May 10, 2008 at 3:43 pm

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Gerry,

I have been going in circles on this site looking for a way to send you a private note. I have a question or two about WOWIO.

Bill Williams
LSP
by Bill Williams August 4, 2008 at 9:01 pm

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