Something old is new

It’s no secret that I love to read.  I always have.  When I was little I used to sneak my Winnie the Pooh or Nancy Drew or Trixie Beldon books into bed with me and read under the covers with a flashlight.  We were frequent visitors to the library and I would often save my birthday and babysitting money to buy the latest edition from the Scholastic catalog at school.

Recently I have been reading some oldies but goodies and found a great source for these for free.  Project Gutenberg offers over 40,000 ebooks, which are free in the United States because their copyright has expired.  They have a number of formats including HTML, EPUB, Kindle and text.  You can search by author, title, keywords or just peruse categories or lists. 

Here’s a collection of old books, by some of the world’s greatest authors, that can be accessed by today’s latest technology.  How cool is that?

So far I have read The Velveteen Rabbit, Chesterton’s Manalive, and Belloc’s Bad Child's Book of Beastsand I started Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver's Travels.  

From Hilaire Belloc’s Bad Child's Book of Beasts The Lion The Lion, the Lion, he dwells in the waste, He has a big head and a very small waist; But his shoulders are stark, and his jaws they are grim, And a good little child will not play with him.

When looking through the cooking category I found this book.  I can’t wait to read more of it!  (italic emphasis mine)

TWENTY-FIVE CENT DINNERSFORFAMILIES OF SIX. BYJULIET CORSON (1878) PREFACE. TO ECONOMICAL HOUSEWIVES: The wide publicity which the press in different sections of the country has given to my offer to show working people earning a dollar and a half, or less, per day, how to get a good dinner for fifteen cents, has brought me a great many letters from those who earn more, and can consequently afford a more extended diet. In response to their requirements I have written this book, which I hope will be found servicable in that middle department of cookery it is designed to occupy, where we begin to look for more than the absolute necessaries of life; it is a practical guide to the economical, healthful, and palatable preparation of food, and will serve to show that it is possible to live well upon a very moderate income.

When I checked yesterday’s top downloads, I found an interesting and eclectic collection:

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle(audio book)

The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana – not what you would think

How to Analyze People on SightThrough the Science of Human Analysis: The Five Human Types

by Elsie Lincoln Benedict and Ralph Paine Benedict

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Grimm's Fairy Tales by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm

Happy Reading!

AMDG