What are your top 5 books most wanted as ebooks?

[AnemicOak]

It's a great time for ebooks, with more and more titles becoming available. Still there are tons of great books out there that aren't available as ebooks so I was wondering what are your five most wanted unavailable ebooks?



Here are mine (although the list might change from time to time)...


Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Guy Montag was a fireman whose job it was to start fires...

The system was simple. Everyone understood it. Books were for burning ... along with the houses in which they were hidden.

Guy Montag enjoyed his job. He had been a fireman for ten years, and he had never questioned the pleasure of the midnight runs nor the joy of watching pages consumed by flames... never questioned anything until he met a seventeen-year-old girl who told him of a past when people were not afraid.

Then he met a professor who told him of a future in which people could think... and Guy Montag suddenly realized what he had to do!

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

Paul Baumer enlisted with his classmates in the German army of World War I. Youthful, enthusiastic, they become soldiers. But despite what they have learned, they break into pieces under the first bombardment in the trenches. And as horrible war plods on year after year, Paul holds fast to a single vow: to fight against the principles of hate that meaninglessly pits young men of the same generation but different uniforms against each other--if only he can come out of the war alive.

"The world has a great writer in Erich Maria Remarque. He is a craftsman of unquestionably first rank, a man who can bend language to his will. Whether he writes of men or of inanimate nature, his touch is sensitive, firm, and sure."
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

'Shoot all the Bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a Mockingbird.' A lawyer's advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of Harper Lee's classic novel - a black man charged with the rape of a white girl. Through the young eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, Harper Lee explores with exuberant humour the irrationality of adult attitudes to race and class in the Deep South of the thirties. The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina of one man's struggle for justice. But the weight of history will only tolerate so much...

Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa

The classic samurai novel about the real exploits of the most famous swordsman.

Miyamoto Musashi was the child of an era when Japan was emerging from decades of civil strife. Lured to the great Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 by the hope of becoming a samurai--without really knowing what it meant--he regains consciousness after the battle to find himself lying defeated, dazed and wounded among thousands of the dead and dying. On his way home, he commits a rash act, becomes a fugitive and brings life in his own village to a standstill--until he is captured by a weaponless Zen monk.

The lovely Otsu, seeing in Musashi her ideal of manliness, frees him from his tortuous punishment, but he is recaptured and imprisoned. During three years of solitary confinement, he delves into the classics of Japan and China. When he is set free again, he rejects the position of samurai and for the next several years pursues his goal relentlessly, looking neither to left nor to right.

Ever so slowly it dawns on him that following the Way of the Sword is not simply a matter of finding a target for his brute strength. Continually striving to perfect his technique, which leads him to a unique style of fighting with two swords simultaneously, he travels far and wide, challenging fighters of many disciplines, taking nature to be his ultimate and severest teacher and undergoing the rigorous training of those who follow the Way. He is supremely successful in his encounters, but in the Art of War he perceives the way of peaceful and prosperous governance and disciplines himself to be a real human being.

He becomes a reluctant hero to a host of people whose lives he has touched and been touched by. And, inevitably, he has to pit his skill against the naked blade of his greatest rival.

Musashi is a novel in the best tradition of Japanese story telling. It is a living story, subtle and imaginative, teeming with memorable characters, many of them historical. Interweaving themes of unrequited love, misguided revenge, filial piety and absolute dedication to the Way of the Samurai, it depicts vividly a world Westerners know only vaguely. Full of gusto and humor, it has an epic quality and universal appeal.

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

Discovered in the attic in which she spent the last years of her life, Anne Frank's remarkable diary has since become a world classic -- a powerful reminder of the horrors of war and an eloquent testament to the human spirit. In 1942, with Nazis occupying Holland, a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl and her family fled their home in Amsterdam and went into hiding. For the next two years, until their whereabouts were betrayed to the Gestapo, they and another family lived cloistered in the "Secret Annex" of an old office building. Cut off from the outside world, they faced hunger, boredom, the constant cruelties of living in confined quarters, and the ever-present threat of discovery and death. In her diary Anne Frank recorded vivid impressions of her experiences during this period. By turns thoughtful, moving, and amusing, her account offers a fascinating commentary on human courage and frailty and a compelling self-portrait of a sensitive and spirited young woman whose promise was tragically cut short.

I might have thrown Catch 22 on the list, but supposedly it's coming from Open Road Media.

[carld]

Off the top of my head.

The Henry Reed books from my childhood. I remember them still some 40 years later and would love to sit down with the whole collection on my Kindle.

A Canticle for Liebowitz, a seminal work of post-apocalyptic fiction.

The Andromeda Strain. I read this back in high-school and thought I'd re-read it on my Kindle only to find it isn't available.

Blood Music by Greg Bear, a short novel that presages a lot of what's been done in nanotech sci-fi.

That's only four, I'd have to think for a while to come up with the fifth.

[GA Russell]

I'll need time to think, but I was disappointed to see that only one or two of the Gregory Mcdonald Fletch books are available.

[Marcy]

The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay.

The Arrows trilogy by Mercedes Lackey and the Dragonsinger trilogy by Anne McCaffrey—two of my favorite reads from my tween years that I love to go back and indulge in.

The Cadfael series.

Jean Auel's Earth's Children series.

Robert Heinlein's entire works—some have been released.

But that's already way more than five...

-Marcy

[JaneD]

AnemicOak, I'm shocked at the books on your list that aren't available as ebooks. Anne Frank? Western Front? These seem like no-brainers to turn into digital formats.

Anyway, just a few on my list:

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon

Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks

The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle

I'm sure there's more that I'm not thinking of right now. Just a note that these are books I've never read and probably won't until they become available in ebook format.

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by carld

Blood Music by Greg Bear, a short novel that presages a lot of what's been done in nanotech sci-fi.

Blood Music is available from E-reads, which distributes via both Fictionwise and Baen's Webscriptions, though someone did remark that when they bought it years ago, the Fictionwise version was pretty typo-riddled. Unless you meant the original short story version, in which case I don't think that's out there.

I, too, would have to take time to think of 5 that I'd like to personally own in e-book editions that I know for sure don't already exist. Thus far, what springs to mind is:

Connie Willis, Doomsday Book.

Barry Hughart, The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox (technically three books, but they keep getting omnibused, so I'm counting as one).

[carld]

Thanks, I'll take a look.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by JaneD

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon

Good book. I didn't realize it wasn't in e form.

[Donnageddon]

These are for the most part representational of books that need to be made available as ebooks

Cosmos - Carl Sagan (this would work especially well as a special edition for the iPad, a la; The Elements)

Asimov's Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology - Isaac Asimov (I would love to see all of Asimov's non-fiction books available as ebooks)

Orbital Decay - Allen M. Steele (And all the other holes in his early Near Earth booklist)

Who in Hell Is Wanda Fuca? - G. M. Ford (and all the rest of the un-ebookified Leo Waterman detective mysteries)

The Rainy City - Earl Emerson (and all the other Thomas Black and Mac Fontana detective mysteries)


.... and so many more....

[texasnightowl]

Hmm...2 off the top of my head are:

Christy by Catherine Marshall
and
Julie by Catherine Marshall

I'm sure I can think of 3 more later...at least.

[foreverjuly]

The Harry Potter series: this is a tragedy. Also the books after Hunger Games.

All of a sudden I'm curious if Catch-22 is available as an ebook. Hmm. I'll have to go try and search it out! Nope! That's ridiculous if you ask me.

[MickeyC]

The Dreadful Lemon Sky by John MacDonald. Not a great book but this was the one that got me hopelessly hooked on reading. In fact, I'd like the whole Travis McGee series in eBooks

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by foreverjuly

All of a sudden I'm curious if Catch-22 is available as an ebook. Hmm. I'll have to go try and search it out! Nope! That's ridiculous if you ask me.

It's not currently, but supposedly Open Road has the rights and will be issuing one. Of course it's likely to be expensive when they do.

[cearbhallain]

Mockingbird and The Man Who Fell To Earth by Walter Tevis

John Crowley's _Little, Big_ and _Engine Summer_

Marge Piercy is also under-represented, everyone should read _Woman on the Edge of Time_, _He, She, and It_, and _Gone to Soldiers_.

Happily, Margaret Atwood's _The Handmaid's Tale_ is available and at a reasonable price.

[makani]

The Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell (cheating this is 4 books)
The Milagro Beanfield War
Hanta Yo by Ruth Hill
Another Roadside Attraction by Tom Robbins
All Creatures Great and Small by James Harriot

Please let me know if anyone knows of a site to get any of these.
Thanks & Cheers