The "MobileRead Library" Discussion Thread

[Dr. Drib]

Hello fellow Book Lovers:

MobileRead now has a library of over 11,000 books. This is a rich repository of Human Thought, and should be celebrated truly as a MobileRead Group Accomplishment, one that continues to grow and thrive, and one that is expressive of the rich diversity of cultures across the globe.

I see this as a thread where we can come together to discuss the books available here - on this site, and in this Library. To give one an idea of possible things to discuss, see the list below. It is by no means complete:

* We can talk about formats - what works, what doesn't - but all in a constructive and helpful way.

* We can discuss the works available here, in addition to "glaring omissions" () due to "negligence" and/or copyright restrictions. The starting point, of course, would be the work(s) available here.

* We can discuss individual works - both critiquing and expressing our personal opinions of certain books here. I see this as perhaps the main point for generating discussion.

* We can discuss the overall impression of author sets.

* We can discuss the "History of Revisions" (as I choose to call it). Harry comes most readily to mind, as he tirelessly continues to improve his ebook assemblies - namely Charles Dickens, but by no means limited to Dickens - and making them as uniform and "perfect" as is humanly possible.

The books in our Library speak about pain, suffering, joy, remembrance, and all that is represented as good in Humankind. With that thought in mind, I see MobileRead's Library as a repository of the Accomplishments of the Human Race and of Dreams Yet To Come. Perhaps for me, personally, this is the reason for my love (my passion) for reading.

Recently, with the addition of new Moderators with expertise in specific foreign languages, MobileRead's Library has expanded to now include (among other languages) German language titles. This is one area here that has seen phenomenal growth.

Truly, I see MobileRead's Members as a global network of International Lovers of Reading. In this respect, boundaries are only imaginary lines dividing one Humanity. (When seen in this light, how petty seem our individual "quarrels" and disagreements when discussing books, ideas, authors, hardware.)

I leave you with some famous quotes about Books, by people who love Books:

"Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind, which are delivered down from generation to generation as presents to the posterity of those who are yet unborn." - Joseph Addison

"In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but how many can get through to you." - Mortimer Adler

"A book is a friend; a good book is a good friend. It will talk to you when you want it to talk, and it will keep still when you want it to keep still; and there are not many friends who know enough to do that." - B. A. Billingsly

"You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them." - Ray Bradbury

"I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read, and all the friends I want to see." - John Burroughs

"What we become depends on what we read after all the professors have finished with us. The greatest university of all is the collection of books." - Thomas Carlyle

"A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity and once more in old age, as a fine building should be seen by morning light, at noon and by moonlight." - Robertson Davies


HAVE FUN!


Don

[Greg Anos]

I'll chime in. I sometimes wonder which is better for the site, new additions, i.e. books available nowhere else, due to Canada being Life + 50, or converting existing works to other formats.

[Donnageddon]

Well, for me, my next challenge, one I have not yet had the time or the bravery for, is making ePub editions. I am hoping a good, and easily customizable tool comes along soon.

Here is one quote the estimable Dr. Drib left out

Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read. - Groucho Marx

[Sparrow]

Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward

I'll chime in. I sometimes wonder which is better for the site, new additions, i.e. books available nowhere else, due to Canada being Life + 50, or converting existing works to other formats.

For books that aren't available (in a decent edition) elsewhere, I think it's good to provide the book in a format accessible to people who may not have an ereader (e.g. html, rft or even txt).
This makes the book easily available to the widest possible readership.

[PennyPie]

I think it's good to provide the book in a format accessible to people who may not have an ereader (e.g. html, rft or even txt).
This makes the book easily available to the widest possible readership.

I agree...It's great that all you nice, hardworking folks make books available in our format of choice, but to have the basic format available for others is an asset to all, and makes MR's library a more universally friendly place to find reading material.

I make backups of my ebooks, oftentimes in the format I downloaded them in, as well as in the Sony format. That way, if I want to share, they're in a format friends can convert to their own choice format.

[ahi]

Are we also allowed to discuss the possibility of alternate forms of access, given that there has been considerable discussion recently and mixed response from staff?

Or is that purposely not included on the list?

- Ahi

[Greg Anos]

Originally Posted by ahi

Are we also allowed to discuss the possibility of alternate forms of access, given that there has been considerable discussion recently and mixed response from staff?

Or is that purposely not included on the list?

- Ahi

I would prefer it not be on this thread, not due to merit, but due to it already having it's own thread. Issues that don't have their own thread should be here.

Fussy of me, I suppose...

[ficbot]

I love the books here! I am so grateful especially for people who go to the time and effort to make those omnibus editions. The complete illustrated Sherlock Holmes is truly a opus! Another favourite is the omnibus of Jacques Futrelle---I downloaded it because of one particular story (I was hanging onto a mediocre paper mystery anthology just to keep that one story) and it's been so great because I did get the story I wanted plus others by this author which I had not yet read.

The one glaring omission for me has been Palgrave's Golden Treasury, a classic of poetry. The Project Gutenberg edition has appalling formatting and I would dearly love to see a nicely done version.

[BeccaAnn]

I wanted to say thank you to every one who has uploaded a book to the MR Library.
I do have a small request to those that do upload the books. Instead of excerpts from the book, could we have a summary of the book? Summaries are how I choose a book by an author new to me, especially with so many PD authors that I have never heard of and therefore, know nothing about their writing.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by BeccaAnn

I wanted to say thank you to every one who has uploaded a book to the MR Library.
I do have a small request to those that do upload the books. Instead of excerpts from the book, could we have a summary of the book? Summaries are how I choose a book by an author new to me, especially with so many PD authors that I have never heard of and therefore, know nothing about their writing.

You're assuming that the uploader has read it. Very often, that is not the case, and the uploader has access to precisely the same information about it that you do - ie Google searches, etc.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward

I'll chime in. I sometimes wonder which is better for the site, new additions, i.e. books available nowhere else, due to Canada being Life + 50, or converting existing works to other formats.

What is better for the site - IMHO - is for people to properly proof-read books. Very often, the PG (or whatever) originals are in poor shape.

Proof-reading is something that ANYONE can do. Far too few people actually do it, which is a real shame.

If anybody wants to say "thank you" to MR, then this is by far the best way to do it. Proof-read the book, make a note of all the errors, and send them by PM to the uploader.

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by BeccaAnn

I wanted to say thank you to every one who has uploaded a book to the MR Library.
I do have a small request to those that do upload the books. Instead of excerpts from the book, could we have a summary of the book? Summaries are how I choose a book by an author new to me, especially with so many PD authors that I have never heard of and therefore, know nothing about their writing.

Have you been to www.fantasticfiction.com

They list every author, and the books that author has written. A great place to find synopsis of books you are interested in.

[BookCat]

One of the things I really like about MR books is the illustrations. Sites like manybooks just have a bracketed description of the picture, which is really annoying. I'd like to see more illustrated books in the library, especially the ones that manybooks have in a 'descriptive' version.

The great blurb which bods put with the books is an asset: I copy it into an RTF file to upload to the reader with the ebook.

My only complaint is the difficulty of finding a particular author if their surname doesn't have 'A' as the second letter. For example, if I'm looking for 'Morley' I have to go through pages of 'M' before I find the 'Mo's.

Manybooks tell me off if I download over a certain number of books. MR encourage downloading.

I prefer the books which have a slightly lighter font to the heavy bold which some peeps use.

Keep up the good work.

PS Harry, I tried doing that with one book, a Dickens, and found so many errors I was covering pages with notes about them. I gave up!

[lilac_jive]

Make sure you give karma to the uploaders! I think this is a great way to rewward those who spent time formatting the books, and shows that their efforts are appreciated.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by BookCat

PS Harry, I tried doing that with one book, a Dickens, and found so many errors I was covering pages with notes about them. I gave up!

Oh, I didn't say it was easy, just that it was useful and that too few people did it . I try to put in about 1-2 hours a day proofing my books, and a large Dickens novel will take me a good two months work that way.