# Seeking recommendations for best public domain literature? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 29, 2003, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-recommendations-for-best-public-domain-literature/185216 "2003-06-29T20:48:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Blalron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@Blalron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blalron)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2003, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-recommendations-for-best-public-domain-literature/185216/1 "2003-06-29T20:48:43Z")
So I decided to occupy my time by reading a book, but I’m too frugal to go out and buy one. My local library is so ridiculously small and underfunded that it’s not worth looking in there. So what to do? Well, I decided to give the[gutenberg](http://www.gutenberg.org) project a try. They have a fine selection of classic literature whose copyrights have expired. The sheer variety of choices and my relative lack of knowledge of pre-1923 literature has prevented me from making a good decision about this. The questions before you all are: What’s the best book I can read for free, that isn’t excessively boring or long winded? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2003, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-recommendations-for-best-public-domain-literature/185216/2 "2003-06-29T21:23:29Z")
Well you can hardly go wrong with _The Square Root of 7 [to 1 million digits]_ or _The 1990 CIA World Factbook_. _Tom Swift Among The Fire Fighters_ has its charms, too, no doubt, and the four parts of Spinoza’s _Theologico-Political Treatise_ should keep you out of msichief for a good while. But you’re asking about the **best** book you can read for free. While this is a meaningless matter of personal taste, I insist that you must read _The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn_ by Mark Twain. Hemingway said that all American literature stems from this book. It is that good, and that important. ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2003, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-recommendations-for-best-public-domain-literature/185216/3 "2003-06-29T23:48:05Z")
But with huge stretches of sheer drivel, you must admit. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-recommendations-for-best-public-domain-literature/185216/4 "2003-06-30T01:25:02Z")
There’s the awful, tacked-on Tom Sawyer ending, to be sure. But what “huge stretches of pure drivel” are you talking about? ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-recommendations-for-best-public-domain-literature/185216/5 "2003-06-30T02:50:41Z")
You know, these books have been trivialized by bad movies and insipid adaptations for children, but there is a reason why _Treasure Island, Kidnapped, The Count of Monte Cristo, King Solomon’s Mines, The Prisoner of Zenda,_ and _The Three Musketeers_ were popular then, popular now, and keep getting made into bad movies–they are ripping yarns, pure and simple. Headlong dashes into thrills and chills. Especially _The Three Musketeers._ Blood, intrigue, and a suggestion of bodice ripping; everything a growing boy needs. But stay away from _Mill on the Floss, Madame Bovary,_ or anything by Thomas Hardy except his poetry.