Honestly, it gets worse. This is an excellent article from The Guardian about people who self-publish on Kindle and decide that, not only are they brilliant writers, but covers look pretty easy too. Kindle Cover Disasters: the world’s worst ebook artwork | Books | The Guardian Some of these books, I think deserve a read. "But... You're a Horse!" is at least a parody. Most of them, astonishingly, are not.
Not intending to interfere with Kindle's revenue stream. But I want PC readers to be aware of Free ebooks - Project Gutenberg which provides out-of copyright books, and some self-published works as well.
I wish I could click "like" additional times. Thanks for this. I've got a lot of travelling over the next few weeks, and some free ebooks will be a fine thing.
Amazon has an huge number of free Kindle books. I got tired of scrolling through just the Science Fiction portion.
Those who really, really like Gutenberg could toss some cash, or maybe even do some transcription work. Liking my post is 'aw shucks' but not really the point.
For those who are print impaired or (like me) just can't seem to find the time to swipe a Kindle, there's also Librivox which has some pretty interesting finds. The volunteer readers are interesting, and some are rather talented! LibriVox | free public domain audiobooks
Time available, I can sit in a real US or Euro bookstore and read...anything. It is not so for perhaps half the world's humans. But, internet and laptops are trickling into the less developed world. A lot of folks there are looking for more exposure to the English language. Particularly, when it is well crafted. That more or less rules out their reading of PriusChat but Gutenberg (maybe Librivox?) is the real deal. So that is why it may make sense to lend a hand to such low-key web sites. So, after you get yourself all booked up, consider if there is any potential upside to making your language more accessible 'downmarket'. Because you can do that. (cue inspiring music)
Excellent point about PC. But yes, you're right on the rest of it too. Confucius Institutes and Alliances Francaises and British Councils are all very well, but free, easy access not just to language but to culture is an important thing. Which is why we now have If You Are The One (非诚勿扰) on TV here, I suppose.
Yes, I'm a big fan of LibriVox. It's an excellent service. I use audiobooks a lot when I'm driving: like you, I rarely have time to read, unless I'm on a plane or or a train, and when I do, I love it. But the one time I consistently get time to myself is on long drives to meetings, and audiobooks are brilliant for that.
