Weekend public domain book thread…?
So, here’s a British classic that was new to me: Jock of the Bushveld. Dog adventure story, like Call of the Wild or White Fang. But in Africa. And nonfiction.
Wow. Very entertain. Much enjoy.
The links above go to Project Gutenberg. I don’t know when they started this, but they now offer Kindle editions, cleanly formatted, often with illustrations. Man, that opens up a whole lotta excellent free content for the ol’ reading device. And the holidays coming up (or as I think of Christmas, the Time of Reading).
So, anything in the out-of-copyright bin you’d recommend?
Here, I’ll go. In the fine old tradition of ghost stories for Christmas, how about some M.R. James? Or Algernon Blackwood?
The neighbor who recommended Jock of the Bushveld also loaned me a couple of nice old illustrated hardbacks by Ernest Thompson Seton, another adventurer and naturalist and sometime illustrator of the era (and early patron of the Boy Scouts). He — my neighbor — eagerly told me, “I have two thousand books in my library.”
Ah. Good. Ummmm…good weekend, all!
Posted: December 14th, 2013 under animals, books, britain, personal.
Comments: 54
Comments
Comment from Stark Dickflüssig
Time: December 14, 2013, 12:51 am
The Strain Gutenberg is pretty good, too. Anything published in Australia by an author who died prior to uh 1955? is considered public domain. So, lots of good stuff, actually. Robert Howard is a particular favourite of mine.
Comment from Skandia Recluse
Time: December 14, 2013, 1:43 am
“Prester John” by John Buchan an adventure story
“The Story of a Common Soldier of the Civil War” by Leander Stillwell
Allan Quatermain by H Rider Haggard an African adventure
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (haven’t read it yet)
Noank’s Log A privateer of the revolution by W.O. Stoddard
King Solomon’s Mines by H. Rider Haggard
Greenmantle by John Burchan
The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan (a detective story)
Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant biography
The autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (I think it’s from Gutenburg, might be a free Amazon kindle book) Very interesting
The is “some” SciFi out of copy right, on Gutenberg. The really old classics. Burroughs, Wells, Lovecraft. Some from 1930-1950ish.
Comment from adventures in pommieland.
Time: December 14, 2013, 1:47 am
Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad.
I also discovered Buchan’s prose to be refreshingly politically incorrect. Did not like numerous 39 Steps renditions as movies. Read the book, especiallythepage with the phrase “prognathous Westphalian”.
Comment from adventures in pommieland.
Time: December 14, 2013, 1:49 am
Haaa!! Eric Frank Russell The Wasp.
Comment from Skandia Recluse
Time: December 14, 2013, 1:49 am
There is also free software “Calibre” that reads both epub and Kindle formats, and will convert epub to AWZ3 (kindle) format so if you find something on Gutenberg only in epub, you can convert it (or read it in Calibre).
Comment from Oceania
Time: December 14, 2013, 2:44 am
And now for something Serious:
Comment from QuasiModo
Time: December 14, 2013, 2:46 am
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson is a fun story to read.
Comment from weasel tablet
Time: December 14, 2013, 3:25 am
I have an app called Aldiko for Android that I’m really liking as a book reader.
Comment from Feynmangroupie
Time: December 14, 2013, 3:33 am
John Carter of Mars series by Edgar Rice Burroughs.
Comment from unkawill
Time: December 14, 2013, 3:35 am
Baen has a lot of free Sci Fi.
Comment from weasel tablet
Time: December 14, 2013, 3:41 am
Uncle B gave me via huge Baen collection on CD years ago, unkawill.
Comment from The Neon Madman
Time: December 14, 2013, 3:56 am
I love Gutenberg. Free books!
I’ll second Grant’s Memoirs. Read it twice, gives a fascinating picture of a very decent man.
How about Jules Verne? 20,000 Leagues, or Mysterious Island?
You can get everything Mark Twain wrote! Roughing It or The Innocents Abroad are two great reads.
How about Conan Doyle? The Hound of the Baskervilles, or The Sign of Four?
But wait – there’s more!
Herman Melville. Edgar Allen Poe. Swift (mustn’t forget Swift). Dante. Machiavelli. Chesterton. Carroll……
(lapses into incoherent babbling)
Comment from Christopher Taylor
Time: December 14, 2013, 6:29 am
All of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s works are out of copyright and his non-Sherlock books tend to be very superior. Check out The White Company some time.
Comment from Mike C.
Time: December 14, 2013, 8:04 am
Everything available by Twain is always my first suggestion, even though those are well worth the trouble to round up in dead tree versions. There was also a version of “Innocents Abroad” published bound with the diary of a fellow traveller on ‘The Quaker City’ a few years back, but that’s not public domain.
Comment from catnip
Time: December 14, 2013, 8:31 am
One excellent book, in two volumes, is Around the World on a Bicycle, by Thomas Stevens. This is is an Amazon freebie for Kindle.
In volume I Stevens chronicles his travels in the 1880’s, cycling west to east across the US, Europe, and on to Teheran, riding a bicycle with a very large diameter front wheel and a tiny one in the rear. Vol. II takes him through the far east, including China and Japan.
This was a very arduous and occasionally dangerous journey, but he maintained a sharp sense of humor throughout, his trip derailed only twice over all the miles he traveled, by a bout of malaria, and a sprained ankle. Among other things, it was fascinating to learn how little some things in the middle east have changed since the 1800’s.
Comment from AltBBrown
Time: December 14, 2013, 12:01 pm
Skandia, I gotta agree that Calibre program is awesome. Interesting freebie plugins available also. If you have a large collection, nothing is better for archiving. I had to send that kid some cash for his efforts. He seems to update it at least twice a month.
BTW, Stoaty, that epub and the included jpg link are legit.
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: December 14, 2013, 12:57 pm
What links, AltB? There’s nothing of yours in the spam filter – I just checked 🙁
BTW, secret Santas, there’s a review of the Kindle Fire at the top of Gutenberg at the moment. Short version: don’t buy one. Everything about it is proprietary. By an Android instead. It’s cheaper and you get more.
I have to say, I love my Android to bits. Even though I suspect Google now knows more about me than my mom and my best friend put together.
Comment from Deborah
Time: December 14, 2013, 4:28 pm
Yes, to all the above, and how about some distaff nominees:
Willa Cather
Louisa May Alcott
Gene Stratton Porter
Jane Austen
Anna Sewell
Sigrid Undset (I am stricken to discover that Kristin Lavransdatter is not on the G-list)
Comment from Carl
Time: December 14, 2013, 5:20 pm
Wease, I’ve just bought a Nexus 7 Mark 2 tablet. It’s great.
I suggest “the Diary of Samuel Pepys” – the Complete edition. Also “Three Men in a Boat” by Jerome K Jerome.
Comment from Christopher Taylor
Time: December 14, 2013, 6:50 pm
Anything by Robert Louis Stevenson is awesome although some is hard to read because he deliberately chose a very archaic style.
And Edgar Allen Poe wrote masterpiece after masterpiece, truly an incredible genius.
Comment from naleta
Time: December 14, 2013, 7:35 pm
I agree that Calibre is a terrific program. I’ve donated to it before and will again.
I also use Moon+ Reader Pro on my Android devices. I tried the free version and it was so good that I paid for it. Always support the folks who make good product.
Comment from Stark Dickflüssig
Time: December 14, 2013, 8:13 pm
And Edgar Allen Poe wrote masterpiece after masterpiece, truly an incredible genius.
I finally got around the reading The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket*, & my esteem for that fucker shot through the roof: in that so many great authors, including Conrad & Melville, have borrowed (some more heavily than others) from this book. 4.5/5 would read again.
*comprising the details of a mutiny and atrocious butchery on board the American brig Grampus, on her way to the South Seas, in the month of June, 1827.
With an account of the recapture of the vessel by the survivers[sic]; their shipwreck and subsequent horrible sufferings from famine; their deliverance by means of the British schooner Jane Guy; the brief cruise of this latter vessel in the Antarctic Ocean; her capture, and the massacre of her crew among a group of islands in the eighty-fourth parallel of southern latitude; together with the incredible adventures and discoveries still farther South to which that distressing calamity gave rise.
Comment from Oceania
Time: December 14, 2013, 8:36 pm
Bascillica Hands?
Comment from Frit
Time: December 15, 2013, 12:04 am
I have a hardbound copy of “Wild Animals I Have Known” by Ernest Thompson Seton, (signed by author to my great Uncle). It was one of my first books, and I definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys non-fiction nature stories.
Here is a link, in case it’s not one of the books you have in hand:
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3031/3031-h/3031-h.htm
I’m also a huge fan of SF & Fantasy, but I have no idea what would be available for free, as I tend to collect the dead-tree versions for m’self.
Comment from QuasiModo
Time: December 15, 2013, 1:01 am
I agree with SWeasel…Android tablet is the best reader…I have an Asus…I use the FB Reader App for reading…I have an iPod 5th gen coming for Christmas…needed it for testing my work on iGadgets…
Comment from QuasiModo
Time: December 15, 2013, 2:23 pm
Sounded a bit like Obama on that last comment…me, me, me, I, I, I 🙂
Comment from ben
Time: December 15, 2013, 7:33 pm
Well, crap, nobody had Peter O’Toole
Comment from BJM
Time: December 15, 2013, 9:18 pm
@Ben
I thought about it..but didn’t want to jinx him. *G*
I recently bought a slew of O’Toole and Burton DVDs on sale and have been re-watching them. O’Toole and Hepburn were magnificent in “The Lion In Winter”.
Ann V. Coates, the Epic Editor on “Becket” tells an amusing story of a joke O’Toole played on Burton (begins at 2:30):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RZ8wfxT7UM
Pity, the footage wasn’t kept, eh?
In spite of his many acclaimed dramatic roles; “My Favorite Year” is my fav O’Toole film. O’Toole broadly playing a inebriated, over-the-hill, swashbuckling movie star (Flynn) is both funny and ironic.
Comment from BJM
Time: December 15, 2013, 9:37 pm
One moar kinda OT…not a free or public domain book and the e version would be sort of pointless…have youse guys heard about “S”?
The buzz on good reads has me on pins & noodles…lemme see if I can parse the url to avoid spam Siberia:
goodreads dot com/ book/ show/ 17860739-s (remove the spaces after the forward slashes)
I can’t wait for my copy to arrive next week.
Comment from Anonymous
Time: December 15, 2013, 10:06 pm
I’ve had good luck finding some things to read here:
You have to sign up, but I have not gotten any spam from it so far.
Comment from BJM
Time: December 15, 2013, 10:45 pm
@ Stoaty — BTW, secret Santas, there’s a review of the Kindle Fire at the top of Gutenberg at the moment. Short version: don’t buy one. Everything about it is proprietary. By an Android instead. It’s cheaper and you get more.
Eggactly! I recently gave away a Fire and a Paperwhite. We stopped using them when we got Android tabs. I really like the Android OS, it’s so fast and easy to customize.
Even though I suspect Google now knows more about me than my mom and my best friend put together.
LOL!
Sure, Google tracks their users, but who the heck doesn’t nowadays?
Comment from Stark Dickflüssig
Time: December 15, 2013, 11:11 pm
Sure, Google tracks their users, but who the heck doesn’t nowadays?
A fellow I’d known for a decade or so, & who was a regular consumer of moving pictures of ladies in compromising positions, had received the wrong moving picture from a company he had been using (off & on) for quite some time; so he called the company & spelled out the precise problem. The lady who answered the phone was awestruck: “Oh!” she says, “You’re RICHARD!”
He instantly hung up & never ordered from them again.
Comment from weasel tablet
Time: December 16, 2013, 12:24 am
I do still use my old Kindle. In bright light, it can’t be beat. And if my bag gets jacked, I haven’t lost all my passwords.
Comment from surly ermine
Time: December 16, 2013, 12:37 am
The two best things about my old Kindle, ease of reading and the awesome battery life. Oh yeah, and the free 3G 🙂
Also, too many distractions while reading on my Android tablet.
Comment from Christopher Taylor
Time: December 16, 2013, 1:04 am
Peter O’Toole, what a fine, amazing actor. So many classic and incredibly powerful roles. One of my favorite parts he was in was in a 70’s movie called The Stuntman.
Comment from Mrs. Peel
Time: December 16, 2013, 3:22 am
I love FB Reader for Android. I figure it must stand for F’n Brilliant. The black on cream is the perfect low-constrast reading environment for my poor nearsighted eyes.
Some other Project Gutenberg recs, Stoaty:
-Anything by Andre Norton 🙂
-Seven Keys to Baldpate. I discovered this book by accident recently, and it is SO much fun.
-I actually really enjoy Horatio Alger’s ridiculous books…
Comment from JC
Time: December 16, 2013, 5:11 am
Joan Fontaine isn’t answering her phone either.
Comment from BJM
Time: December 16, 2013, 5:22 am
Congrats Dissent555!
Comment from dissent555
Time: December 16, 2013, 5:25 am
I do believe I’m gonna need a new pick.
Bazinga!!
Oh, and RIP Ms. Fontaine.
Comment from Oceania
Time: December 16, 2013, 5:30 am
I’m going to nominate John McCaine for the dead pool.
This guy is fucked.
Dead Man Walking.
Comment from Stark Dickflüssig
Time: December 16, 2013, 6:00 am
We should have a pool for “first Oceania prediction to come true”.
Advantages: we’ll all be long dead before there’s a pay out.
Disadvantages: I’ll still never get a lovely weasel drawring. 🙁
Comment from surly ermine
Time: December 16, 2013, 12:11 pm
Gutenberg has several Arthur Bailey titles if you do any reading to kids. “Grumpy Weasel” is a favorite. He’s an ass which makes it fun. Actually some good nature facts in some of Baileys stories.
There are also some Rackham illustrated selections for the art-farts.
Comment from AltBBrown
Time: December 16, 2013, 1:07 pm
Delightful Dick Day, dissent555!!
Oh, thanks, BJM. Now another book I gotta hunt down…
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: December 16, 2013, 1:08 pm
Mrs P! I’ve been a great fan of Andre Norton for years. Hers are the sort of book a friend of mine used to call “potato chips for the brain.”
Likewise, I discovered the Horatio Alger books through Gutenberg years ago. They aren’t really “rags to riches” — more like “rags to lower-middle-class respectability.”
Comment from Wolfus Aurelius
Time: December 16, 2013, 2:11 pm
Ah. At last. Something I know about. Books!
M.R. James was a very effective teller of creepy stories. His style might seem a little stodgy today, but his stories still work. Remember that classic B&W spook show, Curse of the Demon? It’s based directly on a James story called “Casting the Runes.”
And Ernest Thompson Seton, like Albert Payson Terhune (Lad: A Dog), is not a name you hear much these days. But I read Wild Animals I Have Known when I was about 11, and reread it recently. Very effective; the story of Raggylug the wild rabbit will remind you a bit of Watership Down, and the tale of the “yaller dog,” Wully, is haunting, and not in a romantic way, either. Good stuff.
Comment from Gordon
Time: December 16, 2013, 5:45 pm
oceania must be sadder than a prince of nigeria.
nobody takes his posts seriously.
Comment from Oceania
Time: December 16, 2013, 10:02 pm
Then why comment upon it? 🙂
You and I both know that McCaine and the American ambassador with the Jewish Cookie name are bus starting a civil war in the Ukraine.
Exhibit A:
http://12160.info/photo/pamphlets-in-ukraine-handed-out-during-protests-and-pamphlets?context=user
Georgia didn’t really pan out to well for you, and then there was Syria. You Yankees blinked.
Now you start a revolution on Russias front door step?
McCaine is a dead man … and there goes everyone dumping the US dollar.
And by the time Uncle Sam has drained Sweasels bank accounts, she won’t even get a nickel for this website …
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: December 16, 2013, 10:47 pm
Wait, this website is worth money??? Why didn’t somebody tell me?
Comment from Oceania
Time: December 16, 2013, 11:28 pm
Just don’t tell the Tax man!
This is not Sneg Moroz! Eta ne tak!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=S4yjlk-OA44
Comment from Stark Dickflüssig
Time: December 16, 2013, 11:52 pm
You guys! A 77-year old guy who was tortured for years during a war might die! (hint: it’s because of the EU or something, I read it on http://www.timecube.com )
Pingback from So, so relevant to our current nanny-groupthink thing that’s going on | Autumn People
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