I've got too many. I'm trying to narrow down to a manageable number the books we'll bring on this trip. I mean we'll be gone 7 weeks. That's a lot of books. A. Lot. of. Books. I was pretty proud of myself this evening when I narrowed down the choices to just a few piles. I mentioned this to Lego Kid, who looked at my piles and rolled his eyes. "That's already too many to carry Mom, and still not enough."
That's us. Here's where the e-books might help. Just in the last 2 years we went from no e-books to 2 rooted Nooks, 1 Kindle Fire, and one Simple Nook. Of them all, my fave to read on is the Simple Nook. The Kindle is the only one that I have control over though, so that's the one I load up. I don't actually get to use it, since the kids seem to think it's theirs, but there you go.
I still have to decide what to load. I wish I could just push a button and have every classic I've always meant to read on it, but it doesn't work that way. And how's a girl to know where to start?
There's the Project Gutenberg. You can search by author, title or subject. I typed in sailing life and children, and got some good suggestions. Looking up by author I got Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, L. M. Montgomery,.... Do we, or do we not, live in the most amazing times? I can find, at the click of my fingers the works of all the best books ever. Thus I am totally stymied by the tyranny of choice. Moby Dick? Of course. Tolstoy? I should. Dostoevsky? Well.... I'm looking forward to a cheerful holiday. I don't see that he'll help.
So let's think about audio books instead. Libribox is to audio books what Project Gutenberg is to written books. There aren't as many choices here, simply because they haven't gotten around to everything available through Gutenberg, but they're working on it.
As just a side note, the Kindle needs a MOBI format, Gutenberg has this available for most books. Not all places do, most e-readers (that are not Kindle) use EPUB. (Cory Doctorow, for instance, publishes his e-books for free, but general in an PDF, HTML or plain text) I've had pretty good success using Calibre to format them for my Kindle. (Thanks to Firelord for his tech support!)
And then I feel the need to tell all of you about this, instead of winnowing the piles of books sitting in the hall. My bad.
But wait, you can help me! What classics (ie copy right free ) books would you bring with you? Which for you, and which for the kids?
My boys are really loving Tom Sawyer right now.
ReplyDeleteArabian nights was fun a year or so ago, but I have to confess, it put me to sleep. The boys got a kick out of it though when I was slurring my words and dozing off in the middle.
Avoid Alice in Wonderland at all costs. Unless you decide to experiments with opiates on your trip. :) Which, I am guessing you won't be doing.
Thanks Deanna. We actually loved Alice in Wonderland as an audio book.
ReplyDeleteAnd if needed, I believe I do have opiates. ;-)
I'm try to think back. Waaaaaaaaay back. Swiss Family Robinson? Kon Tiki? Assorted classics by Jules Verne? I don't know if Armstrong Sperry's books are old enough (Call It Courage, etc.). They should be, I considered them "old" books when I read them circa the early 70s ... not sure if any of these would interest your brood ... When I think of all the time you'll have to read, it sets my head spinning -- in a good way, a very envious good way ... Bon voyage!
ReplyDelete