Have you ever run out of things to read? Oh, the horror! Perhaps you’ve wondered where you could get a book to read for
free?
www.
gutenberg.org is a website for the serious bookworm. Even if you’re like me, and you use dial-up internet access, you can
download a complete book in next to no time. You can read it online or print it out. There’s no need to feel guilty, they are completely copyright free.
The Gutenberg project, named after the famous German printer, is a worldwide volunteer
organisation dedicated to disseminating high quality reading material around the world. The organisation is trying to get as many
books out into the world as possible. That’s right. They want you to download them.
With literally tens of thousands of books available, it would be unlikely that you would run out of books to read. The books are stored in ASCII text (.txt) or zipped (.zip) format for fast download. All of the books have been proofread by members of the Distributed Proofreaders organisation, www.pgdp.net maintaining the high quality of the material.
The website uses a simple catalogue for you to browse for your favourite author or title. Type in the search words and the results appear. Gutenberg Project books are quite old, however, this can be used to your advantage, especially for research purposes.
For example, I am working on a fictional account of the
plague in London in 1660. Not having any reasonable idea of how English was used in the seventeenth century, or even what parts of London were affected, I downloaded a full version of A History of The Plague in London by Daniel Defoe. This book, written around the time of the largest outbreak of the plague in 1660, allows me to ensure accuracy in my own story. The internet now has a great use after all, apart from www.shvoong.com that is!
Get you own e-books for free and enjoy a world of literary freedom at www.gutenberg.org.
Published: July 06, 2006
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