Charlottesville, Virginia may be geographically remote, but electronically it's the center of the virtual world for those who love to read.

The University of Virginia Library now has 1,800 eBooks downloadable FOR FREE from its website.

They include classic British and American fiction, major authors, children's literature, the Bible, Shakespeare, American history, African-American documents, and much more.

There are thousands more titles in the Electronic Text Center's collections and projects.

Each book can be accessed in HTML for online viewing, and can be downloaded as both an MS Reader E-book for the Microsoft Reader and a Palm-readable text for the Palm Reader.

There's also a step-by-step guide to how to get and use ebooks and ebook software.

Spectacular.

As we say here in Charlottesville (and, alas, in beautiful Boise, Idaho this December 27, as our football team couldn't quite break into the ACC elite this year),

Wa Hoo Wa