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Monday, July 9, 2012

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

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

2 comments:

  1. So cool! I'm going to share this info with my DH. He just got a kindle and has been looking for free ebooks! He'll love having 40,000 titles to choose from.

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  2. WOW!!! This is great! I love to read too ... and yes ... mysteries like Nancy Drew & Trixie Belden were my favorites! :-)

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