For those who like to read

[Georgia boy]

Hi. Came across this site: http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

Granted some of the books are very old but they are still worth reading. Check and see what you think.

Happy New Year everyone!!!!

Tom

[thatguruguy]

I've had the site bookmarked for a long time. I loves me some books.

[mechro]

Hi. Came across this site: http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

Granted some of the books are very old but they are still worth reading. Check and see what you think.

Happy New Year everyone!!!!

Tom

old! old! Some of that's called literature mate! :D

[oldos2er]

Gutenberg's been around for a long time; one of my favorite websites.

[murderslastcrow]

That's where I read the Divine Comedy and Bram Stoker's Dracula.

[sanderella]

Glad to see folks are downloading from Gutenberg. I did a lot of work for them, including the novels of Charlotte M Yonge, some of which had been out of print for many years. :KS

[t0p]

The Gutenberg site is great for books that are in the public domain. Unfortunately, nearly all the books in the public domain are old. So it's great if you like old books.

Of course, there are ways of finding newer works. Archive.org (http://www.archive.org/index.php) is good, but it can be tricky searching that site. Then there's www.u2u.cc (http://www.u2u.cc/) for searching Rapidshare, Megaupload and the like. And of course, Google - a search like


<book title> download filetype:pdf

should turn up some decent results... along with loads of dross, unfortunately.

I think the current copyright laws in the USA and the EU are skewed too much in the author and publisher's favour. Copyright protection lasts for far too long. It would be better if books that have been out of print for a certain amount of time (say 20 years?) automatically entered the public domain unless the author applied for extended protection. Then sites like Gutenberg.org would become truly useful. As things stand, publishers want to be paid for a download when they haven't done anything to deserve payment. If no one can be bothered to continue publication of a book, why should they get paid? It's a license to print money, but without having to print anything!

[pwnst*r]

Some of that stuff is good - thanks for the link, OP. I have to draw the line with that computer generated audio books though. Nobody in their right mind would listen to that crap.

[The Real Dave]

Ah, just when I wanted them, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's books, and even as audiobooks :) Epic, thank you OP :)

[fatcrab]

Hi. Came across this site: http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

Granted some of the books are very old but they are still worth reading. Check and see what you think.

Happy New Year everyone!!!!

Tom

Thank you,I did not know about site.

[Georgia boy]

Yes, I agree that it's an old site and that a lot of the novels are classics. But look at some of the novels and authors there. Edgar Rice Burroughs for one. Not only his Tarzan books but also his science fiction novels are listed. Also the Joel Chandler Harris Uncle Remus stories. The old Brothers Grimm. Aw the joy of reading what I read when I was growing up. I remember going to my grandmothers old house. She had moved in with my aunt and I would go to her old house and read the books they had on the shelves. Author Conan Doyle, Burroughs, Kipling,Poe etc. Man, those are the great ones!
This site brings back so many memories and to see some of the books I didn't get to read and am now able to.

Tom

[Georgia boy]

Glad to see folks are downloading from Gutenberg. I did a lot of work for them, including the novels of Charlotte M Yonge, some of which had been out of print for many years. :KS

I for one want to thank you and others like you who have contributed to the http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page
Someone at work showed me this site knowing that I loved the old classics. I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciated the hard work that goes into the making of the site. I really like going back and reading those books and finding others by the same authors that I had missed.
Again, thank you.

Tom