# Recommend light fiction on Project Gutenberg. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 3, 2007, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-light-fiction-on-project-gutenberg/425138 "2007-11-03T22:07:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Only\_Mostly\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/f19dbf/32.png) [@Only\_Mostly\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Only_Mostly_Dead)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2007, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-light-fiction-on-project-gutenberg/425138/1 "2007-11-03T22:07:25Z")
I’ve just gotten an iPhone, so I now have (among its many other functions) a solid ebook reader. I’d like to give myself a nice selection of fiction to read on the Metro, waiting in lines, whenever I have that free ten minutes. I’d also like it to be cheap, since I’ve just bought an iPhone, and am looking to go frugal for a while. Project Gutenberg, as a means toward reading good, free classic stories, fits perfectly. But with apparantly over 20,000\* titles on PG itself, and over 100,000\* when you bring in partner/affiliate sites, that’s a lot of text. I’d love some recommendations for fiction that I can pick up and read, but put down easily, without losing the narrative thread. Already bookmarked Peter Pan. So please give me nice, easy-to-read (public domain) fiction. I’ve read a good bit, but I’m just as open to the obvious choices as I am the obscure. \*Yeah, that includes a LOT of nonfiction, too. But there’s still a good many thousand fiction texts. ---
**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2007, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-light-fiction-on-project-gutenberg/425138/2 "2007-11-03T22:27:43Z")
Not from Gutenberg, but a collection of P.G. Wodehouse short stories may be found [here](http://wodehouse.thefreelibrary.com/The-Man-Upstairs-and-Other-Stories). Some of them were new to me, although I’m a Wodehouse fan from way back. ---
**Author:** ![Reno\_Nevada](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Reno\_Nevada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reno_Nevada)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2007, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-light-fiction-on-project-gutenberg/425138/3 "2007-11-04T00:11:32Z")
[Jurgen: A Comedy of Justice by James Branch Cabell](http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/8771) [Three Men in a Boat (to say nothing of the Dog) by Jerome K. Jerome](http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/308) ---
**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2007, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-light-fiction-on-project-gutenberg/425138/4 "2007-11-04T00:20:34Z")
[QUOTE=Reno Nevada] [Jurgen: A Comedy of Justice by James Branch Cabell](http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/8771) [Three Men in a Boat (to say nothing of the Dog) by Jerome K. Jerome](http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/308) [/QUOTE] Oh, my, yes! I didn’t know these were on Gutenberg. They are both great reading. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2007, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-light-fiction-on-project-gutenberg/425138/5 "2007-11-04T00:35:54Z")
Do you like pulp? [http://www.munseys.com/site/home](http://www.munseys.com/site/home) ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2007, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-light-fiction-on-project-gutenberg/425138/6 "2007-11-04T03:38:46Z")
Yes, yes, _Three Men In a Boat!_ ---
**Author:** ![Reno\_Nevada](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Reno\_Nevada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reno_Nevada)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2007, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-light-fiction-on-project-gutenberg/425138/7 "2007-11-04T16:38:16Z")
Since those got such a good response, here is another: [Kai Lung’s Golden Hours by Ernest Bramah](http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/1267) ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2007, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-light-fiction-on-project-gutenberg/425138/8 "2007-11-04T19:20:35Z")
[QUOTE=carnivorousplant] Yes, yes, _Three Men In a Boat!_ [/QUOTE] Possibly the funniest book ever! When you’ve read that, pick up Connie Willis’ _To Say Nothing of the Dog_, although you’ll have to get that in paper AFIAK.