O'Reilly and Associates offers an online book service called Safari Bookshelf that is available at http://safari.oreilly.com. It's an interesting idea that instead of buying paper books that you can access them online.
Safari contains more than 1000 computer titles, though it should be pointed out that I noticed that they sometimes have more than one edition of the same book. The selection is not just O'Reilly. Pearson, which owns most of the other major computer publishing brands, is also represented. Only 75 percent of O'Reilly's titles are on the site due to problems related to different books being published in different technologies.
The way the site works is that when you get an account, you get a bookshelf with a number of slots (usually 10). Most books take up 1 slot, but some take more. To view the contents of a book, you have to move the book into 1 of your slots. Once in a slot, the book has to stay there for a month before you can remove it.
There is also a search function that lets you search all the books on the site. You will only be able to view one paragraph from the book based on the search. Then to see more of the book, you have to add the book to your bookshelf.
The cost for 10 slots is $14.99/month. There is pricing for additional slots and group pricing for corporations.
The site is easy enough to use. It only took me about 5 minutes to figure out how it completely worked.
I did find a minor bug where a book on my bookshelf didn't show up on one page but did on another one. When I came back to the a couple of days later, the problem seemed to have gone anyway. Besides that, the site has worked well.
During the period I was reviewing, I had two unusual book needs arise. The first was I needed to learn AS/400. I searched the site and found no titles available. Then I needed to get up to speed on RACF on the Mainframe. Found nothing on RACF and nothing on the mainframe. I thought next I would try PeopleSoft and SAP because I will need to know more about them soon. Not much help there.
The site is stocked full of Unix, Java, Windows, C and other common topics. The conclusion I have to draw from this is that if you are looking books on the regular old common topics, you will find it on Safari. On the other hand, if you need the esoteric book, you will be out of luck most likely.
I was initially concerned about filling up my 10 slots and then needing a critical book later and not finding a spot for it. I have tended to underuse the site due to this. Now after a month, I have realized that I should be more aggressive about using slots and that 10 slots is probably enough for my needs.
My overall feelings about the site is that it can be a good value if you use it properly and are in need of books on the most common topics. It is a goldmine for the entry level programmer as they can get access to a huge number of books at a low cost.