Project Gutenberg

Reading a book on your computer?!  That's...that's practically sacrilegious!!!   Half the fun, no! more than half the fun of reading a good books is the feel of the book, the rustle of the pages turning, the smell.   A book on the computer?  That's ridiculous!  Unheard of!  Absurd!  And silly!  And ridiculous!  Wait.  I said that already...  Anyway, you get the picture=)

But...it would be rather handy not to have to go to the library and borrow a book (Especially after losing some for about a month.  I'm in no hurry to go back to that library!  I'm probably on a wanted poster down there, "Wanted, dead or alive, for outrageously overdue books, Natasha Marie Henkoski, $500,000,000 reward".  I might even have to leave the country!...;), or, go to a bookstore and buy it...wait?  What am I thinking?!  A book on the computer? 

Hmm, well, it can't kill me to try it...or can it?  As I saw it, I had three options:

1) I can disguise myself, and go to the library, at the risk of being discovered and facing a life sentence in debtors prison for overdue fines,

or,

2) I can get myself to the nearest bookstore as fast as I can before I die from not having a new book to read, and hope that I make it in time,

or,

3) I can download a FREE ebook without having to go through the extra hassle of even leaving the house, or my chair, for that matter.

Hmm, the choice is obvious...risk prison, and go to the library!=)  No, no, no, bad idea!  What else can I do?  I'm desperately in NEED of a book.  Right now.  Period. 

Ok, alright.  I'll download an ebook...

I first heard about Project Gutenberg on a friend's blog, and then on my cousin's blog, so I thought I'd check it out.  I liked what I saw (and I trust my friend and my cousin's good judgement:), so I decided to take the plunge, and download *drum roll please*...an ebook.   Jane Austen's, Sense & Sensibility, to be precise...as well as Emma, a Henty book (In the Heart of the Rockies), a Jules Verne (Robur the Conqueror), and a James Fenimore Cooper (The Spy).  So, yes, I downloaded not one, but five ebooks:)  The last two I got on a whim, only because I'd heard about them somewhere.

This is just a test, mind you.  I don't know if I'll like this, reading a book on a screen, instead of feeling the solid bulk of the book in my hand.  But, I was desperate...I NEEDED a book to read.  You understand, right?:)

Here's a link, in case you would also like to take the plunge and download an ebook:)

Project Gutenberg