Yesterday afternoon, I found myself with a little bit of time between the end of my work day and when my ride would come pick me up (we’re in one car now – another story for another post), so I decided to get on my cyber-surfboard and go. I checked Facebook, Linked In, and Twitter. I clicked the comments button on my blog’s dashboard.
Eventually I surfed on over to Amazon to put a couple of recently recommended book titles on my wish list. As I searched, I noticed a sidebar that offered a free Kindle app for handheld devices. Sure enough, they had one for my model of Blackberry, so I went ahead and got it. I opened the Stieg Larsson book I’ve been reading off and on, and I have to say it was much easier to read than I thought it would be – visually, I mean. The print size was fine, and the clicking was okay, too.
I looked back up at my computer screen and it was then that I made the Big Discovery. There, on the left-hand side of the Kindle page was a link to a Listmania post of the 35 best free Kindle books. These days, the word “free” is looking even better than usual, so I clicked.
I can recall looking into the free book downloads when I first received the device, a generous birthday gift from my spouse in the early days of “handheld readers,” or whatever they’re called, and being vaguely dismayed by the quality of what I found. There were a lot of authors I’d never heard of, along with a few obscure classics.
Now, as I find I’m the last to learn, many classic works of literature are considered “public domain,” and are therefore available FOR FREE on Kindle.
The feeling I had, once it sunk in that there really was NO CATCH, was that a storage unit had been bequeathed to me. I started clicking, and when I was done, here’s what I ended up with:
White Fang and Call of the Wild by Jack London
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Anna Karenina and War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Dracula by Bram Stoker
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version
The Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci
The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle by Beatrix Potter
The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams Bianco
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
Needless to say, I won’t read all of them in my lifetime – not even close. But how wonderful to have all these great writings literally at my fingertips!
The list I’ve downloaded reads like a syllabus from one of my lit courses at Syracuse. I always picked up that handout on the first day with such a mix of excitement and trepidation. What is this professor going to expect of me this semester? More importantly, what kinds of journeys will I take as I read these new books?
Oh wow! I'm going to have to check this out! On a similar note/not-free note: I've found that i LOVE audiobooks! Might be a way to get through more of this list=).
ReplyDeleteYeah I've been thinking about checking out the audiobooks myself. I recommend Tobias Wolff reading any of his own work. Great voice. Maybe start with This Boy's Life. I think you'll dig it.
ReplyDeleteActually, if you want a smaller snippet, try buying his short story "Bullet in the Brain." It's great. (Not sure if they let you buy by the short story, but it's worth a shot.)
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