Many notable classics missing...

tklaus · 11-23-2007, 05:20 PM

I did a quick check of the top 30 books on the "100 best novels of the twentieth century":

http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlib...estnovels.html

and saw that many of these are missing from Kindle. This includes:

anything by William Faulkner
anything by John Steinbeck
Catch-22
Darkness at Noon
Under the Volcano
I, Claudius
A Passage to India
The Lord of the Rings
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Catcher in the Rye
Animal Farm
most books by John Irving

...and many others. I guess this is just a problem with e-books in general, but I hope this situation improves!

Nate the great · 11-23-2007, 06:30 PM

Which ones are in the public domain?

How many of those did you find here?

vrf · 11-23-2007, 08:05 PM

Try doing a search for any Pulitzer prize-winning novels, and it's a wasteland.

For some people's reading habits, the Kindle still has zero content. I'm not interested until they fix that problem.

tklaus · 11-23-2007, 11:29 PM

Yes, there does seem to be a dearth of content that's not quite old enough to be in the public domain, but too old to be a 'best seller'. According to their website, Project Guttenburg is mostly older than 1923. I guess I can't blame Amazon for going with what sells, but my Kindle won't be completely replacing the printed page for a while...

tklaus · 11-23-2007, 11:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nate the great

Which ones are in the public domain?

How many of those did you find here?

None and none! I guess they're just not old enough.

JSWolf · 11-23-2007, 11:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tklaus

Yes, there does seem to be a dearth of content that's not quite old enough to be in the public domain, but too old to be a 'best seller'. According to their website, Project Guttenburg is mostly older than 1923. I guess I can't blame Amazon for going with what sells, but my Kindle won't be completely replacing the printed page for a while...

There are LOTS of books not available in ebook form in any format. It's going to be that way for a LONG time.

tklaus · 11-23-2007, 11:46 PM

Well, Jeff Bezos did say in multiple interviews that his vision is to have "every book that has ever been in print". I wonder how far out his vision goes?

SanAntone · 11-24-2007, 12:18 AM

I watched the Charlie Rose interview with him. He said their goal is to have all the books digitized in 5 years. He also said that he wasn't sure they would meet that ambitious goal...but I like what he's thinking. This is the kind of attitude we need to get ebooks going!

gteague · 11-24-2007, 03:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tklaus

I did a quick check of the top 30 books on the "100 best novels of the twentieth century":

http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlib...estnovels.html

and saw that many of these are missing from Kindle. This includes:

anything by William Faulkner
anything by John Steinbeck
Catch-22
Darkness at Noon
Under the Volcano
I, Claudius
A Passage to India
The Lord of the Rings
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Catcher in the Rye
Animal Farm
most books by John Irving

...and many others. I guess this is just a problem with e-books in general, but I hope this situation improves!

under the volcano is in the top 100? i thought it was an obscure work that only i and john huston had read! [g]

/guy

MonkeyKnits57 · 08-16-2008, 04:25 PM

I have a copy of Animal Farm. I must have gotten it from feedbooks if I did not get it here

.

MoSo · 08-16-2008, 04:49 PM

I think they will be available (didn't Penguin say they planned on releasing almost everything in ebook form?). And those don't bother me because those books are the ones I KEEP, the ones that line my shelves. While I will buy the ebook version of many of them, I use my Kindle mostly for the disposable or pleasure reading, with some serious reading on the side.

wallcraft · 08-16-2008, 04:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MonkeyKnits57

I have a copy of Animal Farm.

George Orwell died in 1950, so this is out of copyright in Life+50 countries but not in the US. Even so, Animal Farm and 1984 are available at the Kindle Store. These editions may be paying royalties to the copyright owners, although this seems unlikely for the $2.40 offerings.

desertgrandma · 08-16-2008, 05:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tklaus

I did a quick check of the top 30 books on the "100 best novels of the twentieth century":

http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlib...estnovels.html

and saw that many of these are missing from Kindle. This includes:

anything by William Faulkner
anything by John Steinbeck
Catch-22
Darkness at Noon
Under the Volcano
I, Claudius
A Passage to India
The Lord of the Rings
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Catcher in the Rye
Animal Farm
most books by John Irving

...and many others. I guess this is just a problem with e-books in general, but I hope this situation improves!

You need to check again. Amazon.com, under Kindle books, has John Steinbeck, Animal Farm, A couple by John Irving. Now, if you are talking 'free', thats another matter.

RickyMaveety · 08-16-2008, 05:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vrf

Try doing a search for any Pulitzer prize-winning novels, and it's a wasteland.

For some people's reading habits, the Kindle still has zero content. I'm not interested until they fix that problem.

They might fix that problem if you let them know you want to see it in a Kindle edition. There is a spot to click for each book not in Kindle format that you would like to see in Kindle format. I'm clicking away like a mad thing ... even for books that I have absolutely no interest in reading. I just know that others might ... and so I'm sticking a vote in the box for them too.

RickyMaveety · 08-16-2008, 05:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tklaus

I did a quick check of the top 30 books on the "100 best novels of the twentieth century":

http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlib...estnovels.html

and saw that many of these are missing from Kindle. This includes:

anything by William Faulkner
anything by John Steinbeck
Catch-22
Darkness at Noon
Under the Volcano
I, Claudius
A Passage to India
The Lord of the Rings
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Catcher in the Rye
Animal Farm
most books by John Irving

...and many others. I guess this is just a problem with e-books in general, but I hope this situation improves!

I counted ten of John Steinbeck's novels available for the Kindle in the Kindle Store today. So .... how did you manage to come up with zero?? Maybe the search needs to be done again??? Just saying ....

ERG!!! I just realized how OLD the original post was. OLD .... ancient .... dusty!! Yes, by all means, do the search again. There are things that are still missing, but there are quite a few things on your list starting to crop up. (I think all of the John Steinbeck has a Kindle edition date of June 24, 2008.)

11-23-2007, 05:20 PM	#1
tklaus Connoisseur Posts: 71 Karma: 131 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: San Jose, CA Device: iPad, Kindle DX	Many notable classics missing... I did a quick check of the top 30 books on the "100 best novels of the twentieth century": http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlib...estnovels.html and saw that many of these are missing from Kindle. This includes: anything by William Faulkner anything by John Steinbeck Catch-22 Darkness at Noon Under the Volcano I, Claudius A Passage to India The Lord of the Rings To Kill a Mockingbird The Catcher in the Rye Animal Farm most books by John Irving ...and many others. I guess this is just a problem with e-books in general, but I hope this situation improves!

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11-23-2007, 06:30 PM	#2
Nate the great Sir Penguin of Edinburgh Posts: 12,375 Karma: 23555235 Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: DC Metro area Device: Shake a stick plus 1	Which ones are in the public domain? How many of those did you find here?

11-23-2007, 08:05 PM	#3
vrf Addict Posts: 218 Karma: 1300000 Join Date: Dec 2004 Device: Oasis 2, Voyage, Paperwhite 2, Kindle Touch, Kindle Keyboard, iPad Pro	Try doing a search for any Pulitzer prize-winning novels, and it's a wasteland. For some people's reading habits, the Kindle still has zero content. I'm not interested until they fix that problem.

11-23-2007, 11:29 PM	#4
tklaus Connoisseur Posts: 71 Karma: 131 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: San Jose, CA Device: iPad, Kindle DX	Yes, there does seem to be a dearth of content that's not quite old enough to be in the public domain, but too old to be a 'best seller'. According to their website, Project Guttenburg is mostly older than 1923. I guess I can't blame Amazon for going with what sells, but my Kindle won't be completely replacing the printed page for a while...

11-23-2007, 11:46 PM	#7
tklaus Connoisseur Posts: 71 Karma: 131 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: San Jose, CA Device: iPad, Kindle DX	Well, Jeff Bezos did say in multiple interviews that his vision is to have "every book that has ever been in print". I wonder how far out his vision goes?

11-24-2007, 12:18 AM	#8
SanAntone Connoisseur Posts: 73 Karma: 34 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Texas! Device: Kindle Oasis 2 and Scribe	I watched the Charlie Rose interview with him. He said their goal is to have all the books digitized in 5 years. He also said that he wasn't sure they would meet that ambitious goal...but I like what he's thinking. This is the kind of attitude we need to get ebooks going!

08-16-2008, 04:25 PM	#10
MonkeyKnits57 Member Posts: 10 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2008 Device: Kindle	I have a copy of Animal Farm. I must have gotten it from feedbooks if I did not get it here .

08-16-2008, 04:49 PM	#11
MoSo Crankier than average Posts: 143 Karma: 345 Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Southern Oregon mountains Device: Kindle #1, Kindle #2; internet appliance - The Chumby.	I think they will be available (didn't Penguin say they planned on releasing almost everything in ebook form?). And those don't bother me because those books are the ones I KEEP, the ones that line my shelves. While I will buy the ebook version of many of them, I use my Kindle mostly for the disposable or pleasure reading, with some serious reading on the side.

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