We're getting my dad an ebook reader for father's day. We are going with the Libre because it does not need software to load books and he can download straight to folders. Also he has expressed reservations about the page flash on the e-ink screens. My stepmother is paying for the reader and my contribution will be to load up the memory card with as much good stuff as we can find.
He is not interested in reading 'modern' books (yet---he still has issues about giving up the smell of paper and other such newbie issues) but he is very interested in the idea of being able to carry around at all times a complete library of the classics he enjoyed as a boy. I asked for some specifics, and basically he stumbled upon some obscure boy's adventure story whose name I forget on Project Gutenberg some time ago and was so delighted to see that he could get this now out of print book for free that he read the whole thing on his computer screen. I asked him what authors he might enjoy and he said Dickens, Conan Doyle and Buchan. So far, here is what I am for sure downloading:
- The Harvard Classics complete set
- Everything by Conan Doyle, Dickens and Buchan since he mentioned those
- Perhaps all the H. Rider Haggard, I think this might be what he found himself
- Everything by Jules Verne
- The Best Short Stories series
What else? He has boxes and boxes in his garage he has never unpacked because he hasn't got the space, so he is very interested in the idea of as many books as he wants in a card that can fit in his hand. I want to get him books he'll enjoy, of course. But there is an element of wanting to wow him with sheer quantity as play here too
