Google Books released a useful new tool this morning – the ability to embed parts of public domain books directly into other websites and/or Google Notebook.

The clip from the image above is embedded below. You can choose an image or text embed (both are below). It’s useful for bloggers who want to discuss a certain passage of a book, although taking a screen shot and uploading it does exactly the same thing. The image embed lacks a link back to the original source material for some reason. The text embed has a link but the formatting isn’t so wonderful.

The Adventures of Oliver Twist By Charles Dickens OLIVER TWIST CHAPTER I TREATS OP THE PLACE WHERE OLIVER TWIST WAS BORN AND OF THE CIRCUMSTANCES ATTENDING HIS BIRTH AMOXG other public buildings in a certain town which for many reasons it will be prudent to refrain from mentioning and to which I will assign no fictitious name there is one anciently common to most towns great or small to wit a workhouse and in this workhouse was born on a day and date which I need not trouble myself to repeat inasmuch as it can be of no possible consequence to the reader in this stage of the business at all events the item of mortality whose name is prefixed to the head of this chapter For a long time after it was ushered into this world of sorrow and trouble by the parish surgeon it remained a matter of considerable doubt whether the child would survive to bear name at all in which case it is somewhat more