Project Gutenberg.org is a website where we can download millions of free books online, with just a click. We all agree being a download junkie can be bad, but from time to time, downloading something isn’t that bad, specially if it’s a book. I don’t know if this is new but they have the most recently added books on RSS feed which comes very handy.
Project Gutenberg
They have books in more than 50 languages, ordered by alphabet, by author, by title, you even have some of the books in audio (if you can stand the rhythm of the computer generated voice of course!) it’s amazing.
This is what I will do: I will add the feed to my Palm (QuickNews is my aggregator of choice, really cool one) and see if there is anything I want to download, once I found something cool, I will add it to synchronize the next time, then I will download the plain text book (yes, you can find any book on plain text format!) and read it before going to bed. Isn’t that great? technology rocks!
A little present
I will leave here a couple of books I love, linked from Project Gutenberg, those ones are mainly Fantasy and SCI-FI.
A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
A detective mystery story written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and published in 1887. It is significant as the first story to feature the character of Sherlock Holmes, who would later go on to become one of the most famous and iconic literary detective characters, with long-lasting interest and appeal. The novel is split into two quite separate halves. The first is titled Being a Reprint from the Reminiscences of John Watson, M.D., Late of the Army Medical Department. This part is told in first person by Holmes’ friend Doctor John H. Watson and describes his introduction in 1881 to Sherlock Holmes through a mutual friend and the first mystery in which he followed Holmes’ investigations. The mystery revolves around a corpse found at a derelict house in Brixton, England with the word “RACHE” scrawled in blood on the wall beside the body.
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
The Picture of Dorian Gray is the only novel published by Oscar Wilde, and was first published as the lead story in Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine on 20 June 1890. Wilde later revised this edition, making several alterations, and adding new chapters; the amended version was published by Ward, Lock, and Company in April 1891. The novel tells of a young man named Dorian Gray, the subject of a painting by artist Basil Hallward. Dorian is selected for his remarkable physical beauty, and Basil becomes strongly infatuated with Dorian, believing that his beauty is responsible for a new mode of art. Talking in Basil’s garden, Dorian meets Lord Henry Wotton, a friend of Basil’s, and becomes enthralled by Lord Henry’s world view. Espousing a new kind of hedonism, Lord Henry suggests that the only thing worth pursuing in life is beauty, and the fulfillment of the senses. Realising that one day his beauty will fade, Dorian cries out, wishing that the portrait Basil has painted of him would age rather than himself. Dorian’s wish is fulfilled, subsequently plunging him into a sequence of debauched acts. The portrait serves as a reminder of the effect each act has upon his soul, with each sin being displayed as well as all the signs of aging.
Around the world in 80 days By Jules Verne
Around the World in Eighty Days (French: Le tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours) is a classic adventure novel by the French writer Jules Verne, first published in 1873. In the story, Phileas Fogg of London and his newly-employed French valet Passepartout attempt to circumnavigate the world in 80 days on a £20,000 wager set by his friends at the Reform Club. The story starts in London on October 2, 1872. Phileas Fogg is a wealthy, solitary, unmarried gentleman with regular habits. The source of his wealth is not known and he lives modestly. He fires his former valet, James Forster, for bringing him shaving water two degrees too cold. He hires as a replacement Passepartout, a Frenchman of around 30 years of age.
Later that day in the Reform Club, he gets involved in an argument over an article in The Daily Telegraph, stating that with the opening of a new railway section in India, it is now possible to travel around the world in 80 days.
Fogg accepts a wager for £20,000 from his fellow club members, which he will receive if he makes it around the world in 80 days. Accompanied by his manservant Passepartout, he leaves London by train at 8.45 p.m. on October 2, 1872, and thus is due back at the Reform Club at the same time 80 days later, on December 21. One of the best stories ever written.
Published in 1719 (some time ago) this novel full title actually is: “The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe of York, Mariner: who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an un-inhabited Island on the coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men perished but himself. With An Account how he was at last as strangely deliver’d by Pirates. Written by Himself.”