Where would be a good place to start looking for electronic texts.

Recommend me happy...

Alexi

Try these:

www.bartleby.com
[promo.net] (Gutenberg project)
[www.perseus.tufts.edu] (classical texts)

Desi

Thank you

Comprehensively arranged and available freely on line, smiles.
Is there a catch?

Alexi

Is there a catch?

Yes, you have to be able to read. Also, you need access to a computer, an internet service provider, and sufficient free time to peruse it all.

[www.digital.library.upenn.edu]

The only other catch you may find is that to be freely available, MOST of them are likely to be out of copyright, so it may be hard to find anything less than around 80 years old (depending on the particular copyright law in force.)

Hugh and Tigermonkey.

Vast and limited resources, thank you, where to start?


Recommend me happy...

Alexi

[www.poetry.nl] /> STICHTING POETRY INTERNATIONAL

Vast and limited resources, thank you, where to start?

Recommend me happy...


[www.gutenberg.net]

Hugh

Ok, I need some time to read this and think it over, will get back to you.

Thank you

Alexi

Question: Where to start?

Answer: Where do you want to start? Over to you. Happy hunting!

Tigermonkey

Well, I have been told not to eat at a restuarant unless I have had it reccomended to me and I have been advised to study classics (Greek and Roman) although I would like to read something that is humorous and perceptive I can't just "do what I like" forgive, forget and remember - this is my problem!


Recommend me happy

Alexi

Google for the 'hundred best books', for example:

[tinyurl.com] />
I remember there was also an old humorous poem called The Hundred Best Books, by Mostyn Y. Pigott, whoever that was, but I can't find a copy on the internet.

It started out with,

First there's the Bible,
And then the Koran,
Odgers on Libel,
Pope's Essay on Man,
Confessions of Rousseau,
The Essays of Lamb,
Robinson Crusoe
And Omar Khayyam ...

It goes on for another 90-some lines, but I am too lazy to type it up.

Consider the following in deciding where to begin:

1. What are my interests? Is there a book online that explores those interests?

2. What is my experience? Is there a book online that I've been meaning to
read, but didn't have the time?

3. Recommendations. Has someone recommended something; such as Siddhartha, by Herman Hesse, or the Tao Te Ching that never sounded interesting. Explore some of these possibilities.

4. Recommended lists. Sometimes just picking a book out of a recommended list is a good place to start. Why is To Kill a Mockingbird on all the American lists? Because it's a good book. Many of these lists are available on line. Go to Google type in "100 best books" list and see what pops up.

5. Explore the Gutenberg site. Perhaps you have an author in mind. Type in his name and see what's available. Maybe Thoreau, or Emerson are your type, or perhaps James Joyce, or John Milton.

Any of these ways and more can lead you to an enjoyable read. But I do not wish to shirk my resposiblity as a recommender, so here are some books, I have no idea if they're online or not but you can certainly find many of them there. If not, go to your local library and do it the old fashioned way.

A. The Bible especially Revelations

B. The Prophet by Kahill Gibran

C. Conversations with Don Juan, A Yaqui Way of Knowledge by Carlos Casteneda

D. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

E. Walden by Henry David Thoreau

F. Grapes of Wrath, Cannery Row, or Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck

G. It by Stephen King

H. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

I. Romeo and Juliet, or any other play by William Shakespeare

J. Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, by John Gray


Have fun and keep reading!


Les

You might also want to check your local library, especially if you're affiliated with a college or university. Most have electronic texts available.

pam

Thanks Les
I've actually read some of these, but the bible? - arrrgh! - makes no sense!

Alexi

Take it one chapter at a time, it's not all light reading. Read some verses from
Proverbs in the old testament. They stand alone without knowing the whole premise of the religion.

Les

I usually start by searching on line for:

["title of the book" + text]

Recently, I've checked quotations from DRACULA at
[www.gutenberg.net] />
And I've compared the original Spanish to an English translation of DON QUIXOTE at:

Text of DON QUIXOTE on line:
English - [ibiblio.org] /> Spanish - [ibiblio.org]

Go here to see the stuff that BiblioMania has posted on line:
[www.bibliomania.com] />
Go here to read BEOWULF in side-by-side Old English and Modern English:
[eir.library.utoronto.ca] />
Go here for links to plain texts of Shakespeare's plays and poems:
[www.cs.usyd.edu.au] />
There's more than one way to find texts from PROJECT GUTENBERG. Here's one: [www.textual.net] />
============

But again, if you KNOW what you want to read, search for ["that title' + text] to begin with.

Which translation were you trying? King James is for language, Good News or Jerusalem for sense.

Exactly.


Alexi

What level is this information?

I studied English GCSE and A LEVEL at school, I don't remember all of these
topics having been covered. Refreshing!

Alexi

Pam

Good idea, thank you Pam!

Alexi

Marian-NYC

Thank you

I also think you have to know for yourself, to some extent and...
I have been made aware that life is not a sausage factory.

"All the sausages here are small"

If it is not too impertinant to ask, why vampires?
I have not read Don Quixote and I do not speak Spanish, but I have read Joesph Andrews and have considered reading Pamela. Possibly was lost in translation.


Your advice has been a great help, thank you.
Alexi

"If it is not too impertinant to ask, why vampires?"

If you mean, why was I checking the text of Stoker's DRACULA: I had just "read" it by listening to it as book-on-tape, and I wondered how some of the names were spelled. After that, it was just browsing.

I do that sometimes, except the other way around. I'll find literary quotes, and then find that I want to read the whole book. It's the same with movies. For instance, I'm going to check out Bridget Jones' Diary (I happened to come across it as I was working) as soon as I pay off my late fee.

STICHTING POETRY INTERNATIONAL

you are dutch? Where are you studying? (if you are) I used to study classics for a couple of years at the UvA.

info@poetry.nl

Give us a clue?!


Lexi

I studied at Erasmus University Rottedam as an exchange student whilst undertaking my first degree at Manchester University.

I thought the STICHTING POETRY INTERNATIONAL web site was designed well - clear and informative with the option of viewing in different laguages.

I also wondered whether stitching was like .. well .. like knitting?!(don't ask)


Lexi

Bloomsbury.Com Reference Library

[www.bloomsbury.com] />

Leiky