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Have I mentioned Project Gutenberg lately? It doesn't seem so and that's too bad. I was chatting with my sister earlier today and said I'd put up something about it. They're doing some really useful work and I've been freeloading a bit lately (which was why I mentioned it).
I've known about the project for some years, and from time to time found myself poking around to see what was new. If you don't have any idea what I'm talking about, go look at their description. Starting with the Declaration of Independence as the prime document, they've continued to gather and distribute plain text versions of every text found important by some contributor willing to spend the time to make it available.
They've managed to keep up with Moore's law for the last few years as the pace of new texts has greatly increased. I doubt they can keep that up (there is a dwindling supply of license free source material and only so many dedicated volunteers) but remain quite impressed none the less. Their download costs are probably skyrocketing, but for now mirroring and the relationship with ibiblio (with deep pocket corporate sponsors) helps to mitigate them somewhat.
The project as a whole has an interesting sense of editorial responsibility. This quote (regarding proofreading) from their most recent newsletter made me laugh aloud:
A panda goes into a bar, orders a sandwich, fires a gun and heads for the door. A shaken barman asks why. 'Look it up,' says the panda, throwing him a badly punctuated wildlife manual. The barman turns to the relevant page: 'Panda: Bear-like mammal native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves.'
They've also started to dabble a bit with audio books created by computer voices. As a sighted person who has tried it, I'll pass but I think this could be an invaluable service to people who can't read (the blind and perhaps others, like recent immigrants who need a classic book read to a child). If it gets better (a lot less monotone), it'll have a lot higher usage.
So what do I use it for? Right now, just the classics.
It started with Shakespeare, after some school assignments for the kids required reading Shakespeare and I wanted a refresher. I eventually learned that the versions I'd found were available at Project Gutenberg and that there were other (often better) versions available. Right now, I'm reading what some consider the best version (translation) of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (translation by Frederick P. Walter), a book a I loved as a kid. When I finish this one, I'll go looking for another classic and repeat the process.
Which is?
I had been using text files, but have switched over to printing to a PDF file after fiddling with things a bit (word wrapping most of it, bumping the font size, changing the page size so it fits better onscreen). I've switched over to using Preview as my reader and am pretty happy (I wish we still had resource forks so I could ask that Preview add a current location resource relieving me of the need to remember my place).
I've tried printing some of them, but that was back when printing around here was a major pain (we recently added a networked LaserJet 1300n which just works for everyone, all the time). Even with more convenient printing, I kinda like reading it on my PowerBook rather than on paper; I want diagrams printed (on big page printers) but I love being able to blow up text when I'm having a bad vision day.
Posted by Dave at May 16, 2004 02:28 PM