Project Gutenberg

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For anyone who is not familiar with it, Project Gutenberg is a US-based project to publish Public Domain (no longer copyrighted in the US) text works in media format. I loaded several up into my Palm (via Quickword) for reading on air flights. There may be copyright restrictions outside the US, due to differences in different country’s laws.

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I’m fairly certain that you’re okay anywhere with Gutenburg as regards copyright as long as it’s for personal use. But don’t be a fool like me and try and download the count of monte christo over a dialup connection. Good recommendation, John!

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They do have Zipped files. But thanks to the T1 WAN at work, I have Ulysses by Joyce and War and Peace by Tolstoy, plus four shorter books.

One other annoyance was that every line terminates in a CR/LF (ASCII Dec 13) which seriously munges the word wrap on Palm, so I did a bunch of Find-&-Replace cleanup before importing them into QuickWord.

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Tx John

I had an urge to re-read the Count of Monte Cristo (amazing what new movies can trigger) the other day, but, all the local library copies were out and reserved.

You reminded me of the other way to get the book.

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Ian

There is also such a thing as Used Bookstores. Where you can even trade in books you have finished to help puchase books you want. Makes the price very reasonable and you have a hard copy you can keep as long as you want or trade in against the next one. Look for junky out of the way places they are more apt to have out of print items.

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My favorite haunts are Used Bookstores. But trade in a book? I’d rather sell my firstborn. (In fact, I’ll make you a deal on him, so I can afford to go book shopping…).

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Samantha

I own a bookstore and I have never undersood the urge people have to hoard books. Especially when they are hoarding ones I want to read ie ScienceFiction/Fantasy. Even before opened the store it took the library and two bookstores to keep me in reading material. I only maintain a dozen or so reference books. I very rarely reread. There just isn’t time enough in two lifetimes to read all the things I want to read much less to spend time rereading.

Ummm…..how old is that first born? Under 7 they are too young. Between 7 and 10 they are good help. Between 10 and 20 they are useless. Between 20 and 40 they are too busy.

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22 — which is why I can spare him.

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In my family we give a dollar a year for birthdays. I can’t believe I had to give my daughter 38 Well, she is almost old enough to start being useful again.

Guess you will have to hold on to yours while he ripens a few more years. Or farm him out to some sweet young thing and let her worry about the cultivating and weeding for a while. But hang in there grandkids can’t be too far off. And Oh My can they be Fun.

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But hang in there grandkids can’t be too far off. And Oh My can they be Fun.

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Oh yes! Fill them full of cookies and candy, give them noisy toys and then send them back home!!!

The difference between Genius and Stupidity:
A Genius knows their limits.
- Albert Einstein

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..in my attic (which is stuffed to the roof tiles) I have literally thousands of books (and a few more downstairs). Somewhere in there are crates of SciFi/Fantasy – mainly anthologies and collections from the 60’s. Whole years of Astounding/Analog, including some from the 40’s.
You think it’s frustrating when someone else hoards books – it’s even worse when it’s yourself. I have no chance of getting to these until I buy a mansion, which in turn needs a win on the Lottery.

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>needs a win on the Lottery

… which is generally predicated on the purchase of a lottery ticket, even though the odds of winning with or without a ticket are barely different. (I live in a US state which doesn’t permit lotteries.)

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