The Portable Harvard Classics - Page 2

RWood · 02-15-2007, 11:15 PM

I pulled down the master index of both series. I will take a little time this weekend and see how much of it is available in Gutenberg. Results will be posted here.

Bob Russell · 02-15-2007, 11:44 PM

Thanks RWood.. I was wondering the same thing. There is at least a large overlap.

I'm also curious about the payment system. I tried to pay a larger amount, but the payment defaulted to $1. Then I figured I'd send a message with the button to let the buyer know you paid, but all it did was autosend the web site, payment and my name. Not exactly what I meant to do. I'll send an email to the contact at Bartleby and see if we can send more than a dollar. I think many people might want to do that pending the comparison to Gutenberg.

All in all, it's great to see what Bartleby is doing. I hope they make money on it, and I hope people like me learn about Bartleby that weren't very aware of them before. But mostly I'm thrilled that someone there is obviously putting all this material up there as a goodwill gesture with the public's interests at heart (as they have done for quite a while in HTML form). Kudos to the Bartleby folks!

And thanks to VillageReader for noticing the ebook page. I was not aware that they had started supplying ebook formats!

BTW, has anyone checked to see if it's the full shelf of fiction, or just a portion? Also, do they have the main Harvard Classics collection available in e-book form?

I have the paper version, and I'm really hoping to be able to get rid of it because it takes up a lot of space!

Update1: You can see the full list here and it sure looks like this is the full shelf of fiction! I hope they add the main Harvard Classics collection also!

Update2: I did shoot off a bunch of questions about it to the Bartleby contact. I'll share whatever they choose to share with me.

jimnphx · 02-16-2007, 11:19 AM

Sorry for this stupid question. I just received my iLiad and am not up to full knowledge on what/how/etc to use it. I am interested in this thread about the classics, and went to the website. The site offers three formats to get the ebooks in. Does any of them work with the iLiad?

Thanks

Jim

VillageReader · 02-16-2007, 09:58 PM

The Adobe (.pdf) format will work IF the dimensions they use provide a reasonable size to read. If, for example, they use a small font and a full page (8.5"x11" in the US or the comparable Euro letter size) then when it is transferred the print might be too small for comfortable reading. I've downloaded one but haven't tried it yet, and I'll be traveling over the weekend so unlikely to post an update until Sunday or Monday, depending on hotel connections on arrival.

RWood · 02-26-2007, 05:53 PM

Sorry for the delay in reporting back. It is bad enough to miss someone else’s deadline; but, when you miss one that you established….

Outside of the “collected” volumes identified with such titles as “Voyages and Travels, Ancient and Modern”, it seems that about 65% of the Harvard Classics are available at Gutenberg. Some are part of larger works such as Manfred by Lord Byron is available somewhere in one of the four volumes of his complete works and the two selected plays of Sophocles are part of his plays volume. Many of John Milton’s works are still missing.

On a good note, twenty-four (24) of the volumes are complete. There are additional sources I can look for in addition to Bartleby site. So we can create a complete series.

We can make our own version of the Harvard Classics. Maybe a production rate of a volume or two a month would be possible, given the other interferences going on like job and family. I have the base text files on my machine to start.

The production would not necessarily be in sequential order. I would propose to use FeedBooks for this project as they produce very nice looking output and then everyone could get the format that they wanted for their own reader. I am sure that Hadrien will allow us to use FeedBooks for the task.

Before I would start on such a long project I ask one question, “Is there interest in the end product and perhaps some support for such an effort?”

Hadrien · 02-27-2007, 06:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RWood

Sorry for the delay in reporting back. It is bad enough to miss someone else’s deadline; but, when you miss one that you established….

Outside of the “collected” volumes identified with such titles as “Voyages and Travels, Ancient and Modern”, it seems that about 65% of the Harvard Classics are available at Gutenberg. Some are part of larger works such as Manfred by Lord Byron is available somewhere in one of the four volumes of his complete works and the two selected plays of Sophocles are part of his plays volume. Many of John Milton’s works are still missing.

On a good note, twenty-four (24) of the volumes are complete. There are additional sources I can look for in addition to Bartleby site. So we can create a complete series.

We can make our own version of the Harvard Classics. Maybe a production rate of a volume or two a month would be possible, given the other interferences going on like job and family. I have the base text files on my machine to start.

The production would not necessarily be in sequential order. I would propose to use FeedBooks for this project as they produce very nice looking output and then everyone could get the format that they wanted for their own reader. I am sure that Hadrien will allow us to use FeedBooks for the task.

Before I would start on such a long project I ask one question, “Is there interest in the end product and perhaps some support for such an effort?”

Well... anyone can easily submit a book on Feedbooks. I just took a look at the Harvard Classics and some of these authors/books are already online. Are you trying to release all of them as volumes though ? I can see than in some volumes there's several books and I believe it would be better to release all of the books included in these volumes separately.

RWood · 02-27-2007, 08:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hadrien

Well... anyone can easily submit a book on Feedbooks. I just took a look at the Harvard Classics and some of these authors/books are already online. Are you trying to release all of them as volumes though ? I can see than in some volumes there's several books and I believe it would be better to release all of the books included in these volumes separately.

That is still a question Bob and I are have yet to come to a final decision about. There is a certain magic in having the whole volume in one file. There are also advantages in keeping them as unique files. The final answer will be to put everything in single files and then produce the combined files as each volume.

Hadrien · 02-27-2007, 10:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RWood

That is still a question Bob and I are have yet to come to a final decision about. There is a certain magic in having the whole volume in one file. There are also advantages in keeping them as unique files. The final answer will be to put everything in single files and then produce the combined files as each volume.

You can already create books with multiple authors and tag them with "Collections" on Feedbooks, this way you can also create the volumes.

Bob Russell · 03-11-2007, 11:00 AM

Here's a tease for you... I think I found another good source of the Harvard Classics, but it may not be "completely complete", so to speak. And it seems to include both txt and pdf versions (where the pdf version shows the actual scan of the page).

I have to admit that I'm starting to appreciate pdf more and more. When it comes to preservation of books in electronic form, a combination of scanned pdf and OCR'd html/rtf/txt really seems to be best. You get to see what it really looks like with accurate scans, and have the ability to convert to many formats from a text-based version. And if you just have the txt, you lose a some of the "flavor" of the book.

I predict that as e-book readers (and UMPCs) get better, we'll become a lot more excited about the combo of text and pdf. It's horribly frustrating to have the pdf without reflowable text for small screens or less powerful devices, but when hardware is better and the text option is available, I think we will start to appreciate the pdf a lot more (the ones that really look like the book because they have the actual scans).

RWood · 03-11-2007, 11:26 AM

Bob, YOU are such a tease yourself! Will we ever find that othr source you found for the HC? Will I ever complete sourcing the originals? (We are well over 65% complete with many others close.) Tune in again tomorrow when Bob posts his new mystery source.

Bob Russell · 03-12-2007, 12:36 AM

Okay, here's the goods. Sorry to keep you in suspense!

Basic idea is archive.org, but the following info is a bit more specific...

Unless they are mislabeled, all volumes 1-51 are present at
http://www.archive.org/search.php?qu...ard%20Classics , with the following exceptions:

TXT files
=======
Missing #1,34

PDF files
=======
Missing #1, 34, 38, 39, 40, 42

Notes:
* The missing pdf volumes may have scans available under the ftp directory.
* The missing text volume #1 was part of the Portable HC.
* Volume #34 should be available in HTML at Bartleby.
* Text files look like raw scans, but not too bad. They should be good enough for reading purposes.

Sorry, no time for more analysis, but this should be helpful.

BTW, as an aside, that site also led me to this title, found in various formats at manybooks.net... http://manybooks.net/titles/arbert10481048910489-8.html

RWood · 03-12-2007, 01:18 AM

I have all of #34 except 2 essays by Rousseau that I need to extract from a more complete set of his works so that should be no problem. For #1 I still need to find "Journal" by William Woolman. As you said, we could pick that up at Bartleby's site.

So it looks like the end is in sight.

micheldaw · 03-15-2007, 02:42 PM

Hi folks.

It would seem my little site caused some trouble by going down. I appologize for the inconvenience. A series of unrelated catastrophes caused me to lose just about everything I had created, so it was back to the drawing board.

I have restarted the project under a new title "The Portable Library". I have focussed on a single format (see the FAQ on the site for my reasons) and I am charging (yes, you read correctly) a nominal 99 cents per book to cover the cost of the website (once I exceed the allotted size limit).

It is located here: http://www.geocities.com/portable_library/

I hope some of you can visit. I would appreciate any feedback.

Cheers

Mike

RWood · 03-15-2007, 03:21 PM

Mike: Great site. Clean and easy to get around. MOBI format is not my first choice but a lot of the people here seem to love it and when Amazon releases their reader it may well get even bigger. By the way, theose cover pages you did are fantastic.

Best of luck as you build and expand beyond the current 20 offerings.

micheldaw · 03-15-2007, 03:23 PM

Thanks Cannon Fodder.

I am planning to release them 20 books at a time. Once the HC are complete, I will move on to other popular collections, like Easton Press, Penguin Great Ideas, etc.

Cheers

Mike
http://www.geocities.com/portable_library/

03-15-2007, 02:42 PM	#28
micheldaw Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2006	Back from the dead, sort of... Hi folks. It would seem my little site caused some trouble by going down. I appologize for the inconvenience. A series of unrelated catastrophes caused me to lose just about everything I had created, so it was back to the drawing board. I have restarted the project under a new title "The Portable Library". I have focussed on a single format (see the FAQ on the site for my reasons) and I am charging (yes, you read correctly) a nominal 99 cents per book to cover the cost of the website (once I exceed the allotted size limit). It is located here: http://www.geocities.com/portable_library/ I hope some of you can visit. I would appreciate any feedback. Cheers Mike

03-15-2007, 03:23 PM	#30
micheldaw Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2006	More to come Thanks Cannon Fodder. I am planning to release them 20 books at a time. Once the HC are complete, I will move on to other popular collections, like Easton Press, Penguin Great Ideas, etc. Cheers Mike http://www.geocities.com/portable_library/

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02-15-2007, 11:15 PM	#16
RWood Technogeezer Posts: 7,233 Karma: 1601464 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Virginia, USA Device: Sony PRS-500	I pulled down the master index of both series. I will take a little time this weekend and see how much of it is available in Gutenberg. Results will be posted here.

02-15-2007, 11:44 PM	#17
Bob Russell Recovering Gadget Addict Posts: 5,381 Karma: 676161 Join Date: May 2004 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Device: iPad	Thanks RWood.. I was wondering the same thing. There is at least a large overlap. I'm also curious about the payment system. I tried to pay a larger amount, but the payment defaulted to $1. Then I figured I'd send a message with the button to let the buyer know you paid, but all it did was autosend the web site, payment and my name. Not exactly what I meant to do. I'll send an email to the contact at Bartleby and see if we can send more than a dollar. I think many people might want to do that pending the comparison to Gutenberg. All in all, it's great to see what Bartleby is doing. I hope they make money on it, and I hope people like me learn about Bartleby that weren't very aware of them before. But mostly I'm thrilled that someone there is obviously putting all this material up there as a goodwill gesture with the public's interests at heart (as they have done for quite a while in HTML form). Kudos to the Bartleby folks! And thanks to VillageReader for noticing the ebook page. I was not aware that they had started supplying ebook formats! BTW, has anyone checked to see if it's the full shelf of fiction, or just a portion? Also, do they have the main Harvard Classics collection available in e-book form? I have the paper version, and I'm really hoping to be able to get rid of it because it takes up a lot of space! Update1: You can see the full list here and it sure looks like this is the full shelf of fiction! I hope they add the main Harvard Classics collection also! Update2: I did shoot off a bunch of questions about it to the Bartleby contact. I'll share whatever they choose to share with me.

02-16-2007, 11:19 AM	#18
jimnphx Junior Member Posts: 4 Karma: 10 Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Phoenix, AZ Device: iLiad	Sorry for this stupid question. I just received my iLiad and am not up to full knowledge on what/how/etc to use it. I am interested in this thread about the classics, and went to the website. The site offers three formats to get the ebooks in. Does any of them work with the iLiad? Thanks Jim

02-16-2007, 09:58 PM	#19
VillageReader Evangelist Posts: 430 Karma: 2718 Join Date: May 2006 Device: Iliad	The Adobe (.pdf) format will work IF the dimensions they use provide a reasonable size to read. If, for example, they use a small font and a full page (8.5"x11" in the US or the comparable Euro letter size) then when it is transferred the print might be too small for comfortable reading. I've downloaded one but haven't tried it yet, and I'll be traveling over the weekend so unlikely to post an update until Sunday or Monday, depending on hotel connections on arrival.

02-26-2007, 05:53 PM	#20
RWood Technogeezer Posts: 7,233 Karma: 1601464 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Virginia, USA Device: Sony PRS-500	Sorry for the delay in reporting back. It is bad enough to miss someone else’s deadline; but, when you miss one that you established…. Outside of the “collected” volumes identified with such titles as “Voyages and Travels, Ancient and Modern”, it seems that about 65% of the Harvard Classics are available at Gutenberg. Some are part of larger works such as Manfred by Lord Byron is available somewhere in one of the four volumes of his complete works and the two selected plays of Sophocles are part of his plays volume. Many of John Milton’s works are still missing. On a good note, twenty-four (24) of the volumes are complete. There are additional sources I can look for in addition to Bartleby site. So we can create a complete series. We can make our own version of the Harvard Classics. Maybe a production rate of a volume or two a month would be possible, given the other interferences going on like job and family. I have the base text files on my machine to start. The production would not necessarily be in sequential order. I would propose to use FeedBooks for this project as they produce very nice looking output and then everyone could get the format that they wanted for their own reader. I am sure that Hadrien will allow us to use FeedBooks for the task. Before I would start on such a long project I ask one question, “Is there interest in the end product and perhaps some support for such an effort?”

03-11-2007, 11:00 AM	#24
Bob Russell Recovering Gadget Addict Posts: 5,381 Karma: 676161 Join Date: May 2004 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Device: iPad	Here's a tease for you... I think I found another good source of the Harvard Classics, but it may not be "completely complete", so to speak. And it seems to include both txt and pdf versions (where the pdf version shows the actual scan of the page). I have to admit that I'm starting to appreciate pdf more and more. When it comes to preservation of books in electronic form, a combination of scanned pdf and OCR'd html/rtf/txt really seems to be best. You get to see what it really looks like with accurate scans, and have the ability to convert to many formats from a text-based version. And if you just have the txt, you lose a some of the "flavor" of the book. I predict that as e-book readers (and UMPCs) get better, we'll become a lot more excited about the combo of text and pdf. It's horribly frustrating to have the pdf without reflowable text for small screens or less powerful devices, but when hardware is better and the text option is available, I think we will start to appreciate the pdf a lot more (the ones that really look like the book because they have the actual scans).

03-11-2007, 11:26 AM	#25
RWood Technogeezer Posts: 7,233 Karma: 1601464 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Virginia, USA Device: Sony PRS-500	Bob, YOU are such a tease yourself! Will we ever find that othr source you found for the HC? Will I ever complete sourcing the originals? (We are well over 65% complete with many others close.) Tune in again tomorrow when Bob posts his new mystery source.

03-12-2007, 12:36 AM	#26
Bob Russell Recovering Gadget Addict Posts: 5,381 Karma: 676161 Join Date: May 2004 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Device: iPad	Okay, here's the goods. Sorry to keep you in suspense! Basic idea is archive.org, but the following info is a bit more specific... Unless they are mislabeled, all volumes 1-51 are present at http://www.archive.org/search.php?qu...ard%20Classics , with the following exceptions: TXT files ======= Missing #1,34 PDF files ======= Missing #1, 34, 38, 39, 40, 42 Notes: * The missing pdf volumes may have scans available under the ftp directory. * The missing text volume #1 was part of the Portable HC. * Volume #34 should be available in HTML at Bartleby. * Text files look like raw scans, but not too bad. They should be good enough for reading purposes. Sorry, no time for more analysis, but this should be helpful. BTW, as an aside, that site also led me to this title, found in various formats at manybooks.net... http://manybooks.net/titles/arbert10481048910489-8.html

03-12-2007, 01:18 AM	#27
RWood Technogeezer Posts: 7,233 Karma: 1601464 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Virginia, USA Device: Sony PRS-500	I have all of #34 except 2 essays by Rousseau that I need to extract from a more complete set of his works so that should be no problem. For #1 I still need to find "Journal" by William Woolman. As you said, we could pick that up at Bartleby's site. So it looks like the end is in sight.

03-15-2007, 03:21 PM	#29
RWood Technogeezer Posts: 7,233 Karma: 1601464 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Virginia, USA Device: Sony PRS-500	Mike: Great site. Clean and easy to get around. MOBI format is not my first choice but a lot of the people here seem to love it and when Amazon releases their reader it may well get even bigger. By the way, theose cover pages you did are fantastic. Best of luck as you build and expand beyond the current 20 offerings.

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