You know, I love to read and today it is made so much easier with devices like the Kindle and Nook. You have access to more books, you pay less for them and you don’t need bookshelves to store your collection. The best thing is that most of the classics that you always wanted to read are available for free! Websites like Project Guttenberg for example offers over 36,000 ebooks for download at no charge. There has never been a time in history where so much is available to us. There was an era in our country’s history, when buying a book was a real treat. The very classics you can now get for free were like diamonds and we cherished our diamonds. Even in the 70’s when I was growing up I can remember being given a copy of Isaac Asimov’s book, I Robot and thinking, “Wow! How cool is this?” I must have read that collection of short stories 15-20 times in the years that followed learning something new each time.
So why am I talking about this? The simple answer is that I got to thinking about some of my favorite classics and was wondering about how many of them are available for free. Here is a partial list of books I found:
Note: Click the title to be taken directly to the download page for that book.
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain – If you have never read this book you should make the time. It is a true classic about life along the Mississippi river in the mid 1800s.
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson – Most of us have probably seen the Disney version of this story or perhaps a public broadcasting drama. However, the book is fantastic and should be on everyone’s must read list. The novel opens in a seaside village in south-west England in the mid-18th century and from there follows the travels of Jim Hawkins on the high seas.
Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs – This story has been visited so many times in the movies. Also, it can be found the comics and the serials of the 20’s and 30’s. The tale of Tarzan is still is being told by Dark Horse Comics today. The original story written by Burroughs is so much more rich and inviting than anything in the films or sketched that you owe it to yourself to read this one.
The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells – Yes you can think Tom Cruise if you want to and accept that as H.G. Wells vision of the story. The truth is that the book is VERY different from any of the movies and well worth a read.
I know that this is a very short list and there is much more waiting for you out there. The price is right on these classics and I hope this inspires you to go out and take a look.
-Ron
Ron's Amazing Stories - The Blog 