Free e-books!
Check out http://www.feedbooks.com for free copies of classic books in a variety of e-book formats and in PDF format.
The books are in the public domain — at least in France where the site is registered and in many other nations of the world, if not always in the United States of America with its determination to copyright protect Mickey Mouse until the end of time plus 100 years. Generally, the authors represented on Feedbooks have been dead 50-plus years. You can download book files in the format of your choice, with or without registering at the site.
Here is the list of the Top Book Downloads for the last week:
1. 1984 — Orwell (1949)
2. The Art of War — Sun Tzu (-500)
3. I, Robot — Doctorow (2005)
4. Le Kama Sutra (fr) — Vatsyayana (500)
5. Animal Farm — Orwell (1945)
6. The Great Gatsby — Fitzgerald (1925)
7. War and Peace — Tolstoy (1869)
8. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland — Carroll (1897)
9. Beyond Good and Evil — Nietzsche (1886)
10. The Divine Comedy — Dante (1306)
Macy Swain | 14-Jun-08 at 9:13 am | Permalink
This list of downloads strikes me as somewhat cheerfully odd. If this is a reflection of the reading tastes of the downloading public, it seems that they’re out there making love AND war and are sci fi junkies with brains. And they have an appetite for complicated philosophy. Right in the middle of the list is The Great Gatsby, which in a way doesn’t seem to fit in with the rest. But it’s a great book. Hmm…well, I trust eclectics and ecumenicals — if these are today’s readers, I say huzzah.
Mitch | 14-Jun-08 at 10:45 pm | Permalink
The Great Gatsby caught my eye because I am sure it is still under copyright in the U.S., but apparently not in France nor most of the rest of the world. If I’m right, and you download Gatsby from a computer in the U.S., you would be breaking Federal law. You would be a literature pirate. Interestingly, the book was out of print when Scott Fitzgerald died and it was others (including his daughter) who made money off it. I think the author’s life plus 50 years should be enough. Then the work belongs to everyone.