The Greatest Gift: The Best of Project Gutenberg

Cafe Society
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Hi all,

It is the best of times, it is the worst of times. For those of us who are feeling more the “worst” part of it, I’d like to extend some cordial gift advice.

If you are like me, poor in funds but rich in computing resources, the gift that will keep on giving is the Best of Project Gutenberg CD.

It is a 678 megabyte downloadable file which just manages to cram itself onto one very cheap CD-R. There are 609 public domain books tucked away there, all public domain, all free, thanks to the toil of thousands of Project Gutenberg volunteers.

Those 609 books look a lot like my own list of things I should read before I die. Shakespeare, Twain, Lincoln, St. Augustine, Homer, Darwin, Plato, Aristophanes, the Holy Bible, Suetonius, Doyle, and of course Dickens, all there, all for the giving. Check out the Authors Index.

PG has also produced a complete DVD, which I estimate is over ten thousand separate titles. I downloaded that, too, but there’s no way I can organize it in a user-friendly fashion, and DVD drives are not as ubiquitous as CD-ROMs.

For about twenty bucks (and right now, twenty bucks is stretching it) I’m going to burn a copy of the CD for every friend and office mate I have who has a computer. Did I mention it’s completely legal to do so in the United States, and probably most everywhere else?

I’m humbled by the enormous effort that has already been expended to make this project a reality. In thanks for such a wonderful and timely gift, I’ve promised myself I will volunteer to proof fifty-two pages of Project Gutenberg material before year’s end, 2004. That’s a lot less than the one-page-a-day request that some PG’ers suggest, but it’s a start. For those of you with the ducats, you can make a donation as well.

I hope that I’ve helped at least one person by making this post. Happy holidays everyone.

Sofa King

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Cool! Thanks for the info, Sofa. I think I am going to follow your lead and burn the CD to use as “stocking stuffers” for my friends and family.

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Pretty cool

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For those who would like to contribute to Project Gutenberg, there’s Distributed Proofreaders. Similar in concept to SETI@home, a book is scanned and offered on the web. People log in and proof a page or two. Dozens of people can make short work of even a huge volume and the site has become the #1 contributor of e-ready text to PG. “A page a day is all we ask” is their motto.

I nominated the site for Weird Earls but nothing happened <glower>.

DD

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I absolutely love Project Gutenberg. I have picked up at least 50 books from them if not 100 which reminds me, I have to go give my quarterly donation to keep them up and running. I’ll be downloading that later since it looks new. Thanks for the update Sofa King.

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My early New Year’s resolution is to do more proofreading at the Distributed Proofreaders site and spend less time playing The Sims. Thanks for the reminder, Sofa King and DesertDog.

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One of the gifts I’m giving this year is a handmade book of Twain’s “The Mysterious Stranger,” text downloaded from Gutenberg.

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Dangit. I’ve tried the download like six times today, and it keeps dying halfway through. Anyone else experiencing this? Should I just try at a later time?

Oh, and I volunteered to proof, too. :slight_smile:

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And here I thought it had something to do with Steve Guttenberg the actor… sniffs

/loved Police Academy

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Just one last reminder for you folks about this. Today I gave over twenty thousand books to my co-workers, if you want to look at it that way. Most of them really liked it. Seems to work equally well on Apple and MS operating systems. I think I even came off as a thoughtful, caring fellow, brimming over with Christmas spirit.

Eh. I’ll show them what kind of spirits I’m brimming over with at the Holiday party.