# Brain dead action books on Project Gutenburg **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 27, 2004, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-dead-action-books-on-project-gutenburg/261714 "2004-08-27T01:26:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CloudClever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de0a6/32.png) [@CloudClever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CloudClever)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2004, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-dead-action-books-on-project-gutenburg/261714/1 "2004-08-27T01:26:51Z")
Are there any? I finished Great Expectations, and I downloaded Tale of Two Cities, and I tried reading it, but it bored me. I don’t really want to read another “makes you a better person”/“more cultured” book before I head back to school. So what books are there on project gutenburg that will have a lot of action. They had pirates and sailing ships, and WWI before 1923, so they must have wrote something about them. Which action books have stood the test of time, and have now found themselves in the new world library, and found themselves on [Project Gutenberg](http://www.gutenberg.net/license) Thanks ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2004, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-dead-action-books-on-project-gutenburg/261714/2 "2004-08-27T01:29:48Z")
Don’t read Moby Dick, unless you have a creepy fascination with whales. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2004, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-dead-action-books-on-project-gutenburg/261714/3 "2004-08-27T01:31:52Z")
I just downloaded some Knut Hamsun titles from PG; one of my top 5 fave authors of all time. Not action, but pretty readable. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2004, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-dead-action-books-on-project-gutenburg/261714/4 "2004-08-27T01:34:35Z")
Alexandre Dumas’s stuff… yes it is “classic” and “will make you a better person” and blah, blah, blah. But, really, “The Three Musketeers” is pretty much a bunch of swordfights. ---
**Author:** ![Papermache\_Prince](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f05b48/32.png) [@Papermache\_Prince](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Papermache_Prince)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2004, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-dead-action-books-on-project-gutenburg/261714/5 "2004-08-27T01:46:50Z")
There’s quite a selection from [H. Rider Haggard](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._Rider_Haggard), creator of [Allan Quatermain](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Quatermain), from [King Solomon’s Mines](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Solomon%27s_Mines) and several other novels, and (the original) [She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/She_%28novel%29). ---
**Author:** ![CBCD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@CBCD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CBCD)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2004, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-dead-action-books-on-project-gutenburg/261714/6 "2004-08-27T01:53:20Z")
Whoo whoo - covergence! I’d just asked in another thread about what people thought of Three Musketeers. Both books you mentioned by Dickens - Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations - I thought were like a dose of cod liver oil. On the other hand, I loved, just loved Bleak House. H. Rider Haggard has lots of stuff on Project Gutenburg. Try King Solomon’s Mines. Good cracking fun. Or Mark Twain’s wonderful Life on the Mississippi. Or R.L Stevenson’s Treasure Island. Or Rafael Sabatini’s Captain Blood. I haven’t read it, but hear it’s good. ---
**Author:** ![mike1dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@mike1dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mike1dog)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2004, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-dead-action-books-on-project-gutenburg/261714/7 "2004-08-27T02:04:33Z")
Not really an adventure story, but [Three Men in a Boat](http://www.gutenberg.net/etext/308) has some moments in it that are ROTFLMAO funny. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2004, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-dead-action-books-on-project-gutenburg/261714/8 "2004-08-27T02:11:42Z")
Oh yeah, Twain! Puddnhead Wilson is a very dark masterpiece; surprisingly modern. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2004, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-dead-action-books-on-project-gutenburg/261714/9 "2004-08-27T02:14:59Z")
Or howbout Edgar Allan Poe, or [Wilkie Collins,](http://www.gutenberg.net/catalog/world/results) the inventor of the mystery novel, IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2004, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-dead-action-books-on-project-gutenburg/261714/10 "2004-08-27T02:17:55Z")
Sorry; meant to recommend Collins’s _The Moonstone_ specifically. ---
**Author:** ![Idlewild](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8491ac/32.png) [@Idlewild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idlewild)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2004, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-dead-action-books-on-project-gutenburg/261714/11 "2004-08-27T02:26:25Z")
John Buchan - author of The Thirty-Nine Steps - does a good line in Boy’s Adventure. Ripping stuff. I love it! I particularly liked _Huntingtower_, but any of the Hannay novels are a good read too. He does spooky short stories - well, there’s plenty to choose from of his work on PG. ---
**Author:** ![CBCD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@CBCD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CBCD)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2004, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-dead-action-books-on-project-gutenburg/261714/12 "2004-08-27T02:30:56Z")
**Idlewild** recommends John Buchan. I say ‘Hell yeah!’ ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2004, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-dead-action-books-on-project-gutenburg/261714/13 "2004-08-27T03:51:42Z")
They’ve got Edgar Allen Poe. Not so much “brain dead action” as “intelligent horror,” but very accessible to modern readers. ---
**Author:** ![rjk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2004, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-dead-action-books-on-project-gutenburg/261714/14 "2004-08-27T06:46:18Z")
Come on, people! [Edgar Rice Burroughs](http://www.gutenberg.net/catalog/world/authrec?fk_authors=48)! Tarzan, Mars, _At the Earth’s Core_! You can’t get better action than that! You might also like [Howard Pyle](http://www.gutenberg.net/catalog/world/authrec?fk_authors=491), even though his stuff is listed under “Juvenile”. On a different front, [Stephen Leacock](http://www.gutenberg.net/catalog/world/authrec?fk_authors=1221) is very funny, as is [P. G. Wodehouse](http://www.gutenberg.net/catalog/world/authrec?fk_authors=783). Maybe it’s just me. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2004, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-dead-action-books-on-project-gutenburg/261714/15 "2004-08-27T06:47:13Z")
Howbout Rudyard Kipling? _Gunga Din_ and all that? ---
**Author:** ![Chairman\_Pow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@Chairman\_Pow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chairman_Pow)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2004, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-dead-action-books-on-project-gutenburg/261714/16 "2004-08-27T14:14:59Z")
ER Burroughs was already mentioned, and John Carter is about as brain dead as you can get and still have it be interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2004, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-dead-action-books-on-project-gutenburg/261714/17 "2004-08-27T15:45:02Z")
A serious recommendation: if you haven’t read L. Frank Baum’s Oz novels, you should. ---
**Author:** ![Estilicon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/848f3c/32.png) [@Estilicon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Estilicon)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2004, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-dead-action-books-on-project-gutenburg/261714/18 "2004-08-27T16:17:30Z")
Baroness Emmuna Orczy wrote one of the best action books ever, the story of Sir Percy Blakeney an english bon-vivant aristocrat that secretely saves french aristocrat from the guillotine in revolutonary france. [Scarlett Pimpernel](http://www.gutenberg.net/etext/60) Anthony Hope wrote one of the best action book ever it is the story of another english aristrocrat that defies the family warning never to visit the Kingdom of Ruritania. [The Prisioner of Zenda](http://www.gutenberg.net/etext/95) Julio Verne is a classic. You want adventure try his best known books. The one I chose for you is an strange one. This is a rare Verne, it doesn’t deal with technology, it’s a plain old fashioned adventure story. In zarist siberia a tartar revolution breaks out, comunication are broken and the zar’s brother is in danger. The best courier is sent to warn him about the traitor that has sweared to kill him, his name is: [Miguel Strogoff](http://www.gutenberg.net/etext/1842) John Ridd is a simple and peacefull farmer but he has to fight beacause in a nearby valley the evil Doones, a terrible band of outlaws, threaten everything he loves including the girl he wants to marry, [Lorna Doone](http://www.gutenberg.net/etext/840) King Richard “lionheart” is absent from his kingdom, his brother Juan the landless rules in his place. A kingdom without a king is a place where anarchy rules, in the chaos england’s best knight will try to do his duty. [Ivanhoe](http://www.gutenberg.net/etext/82) I could write cheesy movie commercials 🙂 enough fo one day. ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2004, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-dead-action-books-on-project-gutenburg/261714/19 "2004-08-27T17:21:50Z")
I can’t believe nobody’s brought up JACK LONDON by now. Yes, that’s right, \*\* JACK LONDON. \*\* 'Cuz, ya see, \*\* JACK LONDON \*\* wrote some of the best short stories ever produced in any language, and frankly nobody ever wrote better adventure tales than his stories of the Yukon and the South Seas. Ya want adventure? Ya want action? Ya can’t do better than **JACK LONDON!!!** ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2004, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-dead-action-books-on-project-gutenburg/261714/20 "2004-08-27T17:26:10Z")
Sorry. Too much coffee. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-dead-action-books-on-project-gutenburg/261714.md?page=2)