Boxall's 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die discussion

i may very well be sharing something that most people know, but here goes anyway. for those of us that don't plan on outright buying 1001 new books (not that my full-to-bursting library would hold them), here's a source for plenty of free books online:

http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

project gutenberg is an online archive of books that are in the public domain. in other words, after copyright has run out in the US (about 100 years after a book's publication), there are no legal restrictions on copy and distribution, so you can get a copy free from them. they offer a format for those of you that have palm devices or e-readers, and all books have a plain-text version if you don't have a specific reader device.

MANY of the older '1001 books' have a copy available for on PG. good news for slackers like me (ok, i'll admit it!) who have never gotten around to reading any Jane Austen.

I L-O-V-E Project Gutenberg. Such a fantastic idea and a perfect way to keep out of print literature from disappearing into oblivion. Someone took the time to write all of those works, they should be preserved.

Not that I have one, but do you know if these can be downloaded on a Kindle?

i don't have a kindle, either, but i believe you can upload word documents & the like to a kindle...which means that if you download a plain text file from PG > select all > copy > paste into word doc & save, you should be able to send it to your kindle. of course, that's all theoretical, since i think those things, charming though the idea may be, are crazy expensive.

I'd also like to put in a plug for www.dailylit.com, which will send you books in daily email installments or through your RSS feed. For books in the public domain, it's free. I'm finding this is perfect for some of the tougher-going older classics. Those books are all about baby steps, anyway. A little every day, and before you know it, you're done! (And a little better educated, to boot.)

One caveat - the best modern translations are still under copyright. So if you get translated books from the public domain, they are likely to be in old, somewhat stiff translations.

Thanks for the link to dailylit. com. I went and signed up for a e-mail book for free and I think I am going to like getting a small section every day. Some books can be such a chore to get thru, but I really want to read them, and this makes it easier!

I love dailylit.com :) I just read Jane Eyre and Tartuffe through it and am now working on Pride and Prejudice. The great thing is you can ask for the next installments immediately so you don't have to wait for the next day if you have some more time or want to know what happens next.