Official "I still love it" thread

[astra]

Originally Posted by BobLenx

Public domain books boring?

Twain? Wilde? Wilke Collins? Stoker? Shelley? Tolstoy Dostoevsky? Wells? Burroughs? Dickens? Hardy? Verne? Wolfe? Cooper? Hawthorne? Doyle? Fitzgerald? Dumas? Lawrence? London? Hilton? Orwell? Poe? Sinclair? Melville? Stevenson?

In bold writers I have read when I was young, age 14-20.
Loved them.
Except Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. Such boring rubbish. No comments.
Verne was one of my favourites, I read 14 books.
Dumas, a lot. At le4ast 20 books.
Cooper, WOW.
Doyle, WOW.
London!

Stevenson, Burroughs, Stoker, Wells. Wonderful writers.

Many others such as Walter Scott!!!, Theodore Dreiser!!!, George Sand!, Victor Hugo!...

All in the past - adventure, mystery, historical romance - all in the past.

So, yes, whatever is in PD is boring for me. I love to read modern fantasy.
Fantasy I love to read.

How else can I say it?

I am not interested in forementioned writers and genres today.

I probably will never understand some people who just cannot accept that there are people with different tastes. It sits perfectly fine with me that there are people who like genres and writers that can be found in PD and there are people who likes different genres and writers who are not in PD. I respect both groups. I understand that there are people who don't like fantasy or sci-fi or whatever else.

See my point? Your whole post is just what you like. Not what everyone else in the world like to read. Whatever some geeks think is classic is rubbish for some and vice versa.

Do you understand that simple logic?

[ShortNCuddlyAm]

Can I play given I've only had my reader for *checks clock* about 25 hours

I like it - love it - because I can carry around, and store, an awful lot of books in a device that's the size of a small travel guide.

It will never take the place of coffee table books, of which we have more than a few; but it may start taking the place of all the novels and technical books of which we have rather a lot (*). And is less likely to fall apart after multiple readings than a large paperback.

It is going to be easier to commute with than a real book, and will give me more choice. It also means going on holiday won't result in taking either a large bag full of books or just grabbing a couple at the last minute - we can never decide what we want to read in advance, so we either take far too many, or just enough to last us an evening or two.

The only downside is that unless I install the software on my PC at work, I can't buy a book or two in my lunch hour...

(*)Most rooms in our small 3 bed house have bookshelves. The main bedroom doesn't, but has books falling off the shelves under the bedside cabinets. The two other bedrooms each have a large bookcase and several shelves - all full to overflowing. The landing has some books sat on a drawer unit that got put there temporarily about 3 years ago! The bathroom is gradually losing natural light as the windowsill fills up again. The living room has one large, full to overflowing, book case plus books on and under the coffee table, and taking up half a sofa. The dining room has 6 bookshelves (two are sat on the dining room table!), all full to overflowing, plus more books on the table and one chair. The kitchen has books on one otherwise not-very-usable part of the kitchen counter (all cookbooks, or at least cookery related). The only reason the hall hasn't got any books in is that it simply isn't big enough (although the phone books do live there...). We could do with getting some space back somehow, and building a library extension may not be the answer!!

[BookishDreamer]

Originally Posted by BobLenx

Public domain books boring?

Twain? Wilde? Wilke Collins? Stoker? Shelley? Tolstoy Dostoevsky? Wells? Burroughs? Dickens? Hardy? Verne? Wolfe? Cooper? Hawthorne? Doyle? Fitzgerald? Dumas? Lawrence? London? Hilton? Orwell? Poe? Sinclair? Melville? Stevenson?

Boring? Good grief - these rank among the greats of the art of writing. I mean, Wilke Collins INVENTED the modern mystery novel.

Actually I have owned my Sony eReader for about ten months and have NEVER purchased an eBook yet. Everything I have read on it is in the public domain - about 80 so far.

I'm with you on this. I've had my Reader for about the same length of time and have been rediscovering authors I thought I knew and some I'd never known existed. I'm currently enjoying the Scarlet Pimpernel novels by Baroness Emusska Orczy.

EDIT: Yes, I love my Reader. My friends accuse me of secretly working for Sony because I talk about it so much.

Dreamer

[BobLenx]

I didn't mean to say there was anything "wrong" with reading modern authors. I was trying to comment on the idea of people avoiding reading older public domain books because they remind one of boring English classes - to encourage those of us who have these terrific eBook devices and can get PD books for free to give some of them a try again.

Dickens, whom I focused on, is an example of an author who was the "movie" or "tv series" of his day. Readers looked forward to long novels that would take them several days or weeks to consume. As a result, his novels are expansive, often covering considerable periods of time exploring birth and life and death - which gives him the space to build great characters and events both small and large. I wish some of the more skilled current authors would do more of that. Any suggestions anyone?

I enjoy Dean Koontz very much as he is a very skilled story teller with excellent writing abilities - but there is so much outlandish violence in them from killings in a mall to the casino to the monastery - still there is something about his Odd Thomas character that is compelling.

I am a sucker for science fiction from the old pulp novels to more up-to-date ones based on modern science - and on science yet to come - wonderful imaginations. And mystery novels.

And it isn't just the PD books available from what are considered to be the "masters". Take a look at the converted books here, and there is a wealth of mystery and science fiction and other genres I never would have experienced if it hadn't been for my eReader. There is some great stuff out there to read without spending a dime - well other than the cost of your device LOL.

I never would have bothered with Wilkie Collins who is credited with inventing the modern mystery novel if it hadn't been for my Sony. Now I can't get enough of him.

Auto/biographies never interested me very much, but I have read several since I got my Sony and enjoyed them very much - Helen Keller's most recently. I rarely visit that section of the library, but with the Sony I give different PD genres a shot and have never been disappointed. Well I have to admit that for me at least U S Grant's two-volume autobiogaphy is dull as dirt even if MarkTwain did help him put it together. Others probably enjoyed it very much.

For me the great thing about my Sony 505 is that I have a vast PD library stored on my laptop hard drive (or moments away via the Internet) that I can easily access to read while I wait for that new novel to become available at my local library. It has expanded my reading interests while cutting my book habit down from several hundred dollars a year to zip nada zilch - not to mention the savings in storage space which is important to me as I am a retired RVer. I normally have a long novel, a shorter one and a book of poetry or short stories bookmarked at the same time and bounce back and forth as my mood moves me.

Sorry to have offended anyone - just passionate about reading - and playing blues on my electric guitar and digital piano LOL.

Bob

[astra]

Originally Posted by BobLenx

Sorry to have offended anyone - just passionate about reading - and playing blues on my electric guitar and digital piano LOL.

Bob

None taken. (Didn't mean to offend anybody too )

Just wanted to point out that there a few odd guys like me who cannot benefit from PD, at least right now. Maybe when I am retired I will go back in time and enjoy PD books once again