Books & Project Gutenberg

I’ve always been an avid reader; going way back to the 1950’s when I was still a kid. My tastes back in those days leaned towards novels of adventure from authors such as Sir Walter Scott, Robert Louis Stevenson, Victor Hugo, etc.

I never read the Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew, although I was aware they were out there; they just never appealed to me. I preferred to spend my 79 cents on hard cover copies of books I found considerably more interesting. The H. Rider Haggard series with Alan Quartermain searching for King Solomon’s Mines, Edgar Rice Burroughs and his tales of lost worlds and Tarzan. James Fenimore Cooper was also one of my favourites with The Deerslayer and Last of the Mohicans.

I continue to read voraciously, although strangely enough, I’ve never had a library card.

I love to rummage around the book bins at flea markets, always on the lookout for a a good read. When I go to a shopping mall, my first stop is usually the discount bin of whatever bookstores might be there. There’s no telling what you might find and it’s an inexpensive way to buy books.

Books, if you haven’t noticed, are getting more and more expensive. One of the last Stephen King books I bought was a hard cover copy with a sticker price of $39.95. I didn’t pay that much of course; I found it in a discount bin for $6.95. I found this a little odd because the paperback version was still on the shelves and selling for $12.95.

Over the last couple of years, I’ve re-read a lot of those old “classics” from Burroughs, Twain, Poe, Austen, etc. I’ve also found copies of books I would not ordinarily spend money on; The Prince by Machiavelli, Songs of the Sourdough by Robert W. Service among others.

And, the reason I can afford to read many of these books on my pittance of a pension, is that they don’t cost me a dime.

If you look in the sidebar of this web log, you’ll find links to some of the best freeware in cyberspace. This post, however, is not about freeware; at least not in the normal sense. It’s about books; free books, available on-line; books on philosophy and politics, science fiction, adventure books, poetry and the literary classics.

Das Kapital by Karl Marx, The Illiad and The Odyssey from Homer, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and tens of thousands of others, are available free over the internet. There’s only one catch. The books you want must be in the public domain. But with the sheer numbers of books available, there’s sure to be hundred to your liking.

The books are available from Project Gutenberg, and you can download plain text copies of the books that can be opened in any word processor. There are no dues and no membership requirements although you may make donations. Their web site notes: “Project Gutenberg needs your pennies, nickels and dimes. An average of just one cent per eBook downloaded would make a huge difference.”

It’s a wonderful site for book lovers like myself.

Of course, I’ll still browse through the discard bins for the latest in both modern fiction and non-fiction. But if you like to read, you should check out this site.Go to: Project Gutenberg