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Project Gutenberg Publishes 10,000th Free eBook 281

Posted by CmdrTaco from the worthwhile-endeavours dept.
AndrewRUK writes "Earlier today, Project Gutenberg's founder, Micheal Hart, announced that the project has passed the milestone of 10,000 free eBooks available, with the publication of the Magna Carta.Project Gutenberg was founded in 1971, with the aim of "[making] information, books and other materials available to the general public in forms a vast majority of the computers, programs and people can easily read, use, quote, and search." In the 32 years since the project started, over 10,000 books, ranging from the Bible to school textbooks, and from the complete works of Shakespeare to the USA's declaration of independence, have been made freely available to the public by Project Gutenberg."
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Project Gutenberg Publishes 10,000th Free eBook More

Project Gutenberg Publishes 10,000th Free eBook

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  • I guess.. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by joeldg ( 518249 ) on Thursday October 16, 2003 @04:47PM (#7233481) Homepage
    it is time to read up eh?

    I still kind of have issues with ebooks.. I mean, reading is pretty much a tactile thing for me.. I.e. I like the smell of books, I like turning pages..

    In other words, it is nice to get away from the computer sometimes and just read..

    Though, I congratulate their efforts, it is cool

    • Plus, book burnings. Not as much fun with digital books. `rm -rf /usr/local/share/banned_books` just doesn't have that bonfire drama does it?
    • I wish that bookstores would be like mini-publishers. I'd like to be able to take a file in to them and have them create a nice paper back book for me.
      • Probably about a year or two ago I read about some (Australian?) company that was creating kiosks, for airports at first, to actually PRINT out an entire book for you. Kind of like a book vending machine. You put your money in, select the book you want from the list of thousands in their database and it would print out the whole book for you in paperback in roughly 10-15 minutes... neatly bound and pictures and everything.

        Although, since I haven't heard much of it in a while, I'm assuming they either ran o

    • In other words, it is nice to get away from the computer sometimes and just read.

      Yes, but sometimes it's nice to have an electronic document to read off of your computer screen so when someone walks past your desk during business hours, you can tell them you're "researching for an upcoming project" while you're actually reading about nanotechnology [foresight.org] or something else that interests you.

      Personally, I applaud the efforts of this project. Once products like ePaper begin to be mass-produced and available to the

      • eInk (Score:2)

        by tomzyk ( 158497 )
        Oops. I actually meant eInk [eink.com] not ePaper. (flexible digital paper where you only need an electrical current to change the pages, but not to keep it turned on.)
    • ebook readers with real CRTs and vacuum-tube drivers, rather than cold silicon transistors and LCDs. Finally... ebooks with _warmth_, and that glow and smell associated so fondly with vacuum tubes. The pixels will blur together slighly, making a smoother display and making digital source material seem analogue again. Requires one A battery, one B, 4 C cells, and your choice of books on special miniature magnetic tapes. Fresnel magnifier sold separately.

      (...ducks...)

      Better get a patent on it while it's

  • e-reader hardware? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by smack_attack ( 171144 ) on Thursday October 16, 2003 @04:47PM (#7233489) Homepage
    Are there any decent e-readers for this? I have looked around and all of them want to use some crazy proprietary format or just plain suck. I think those things could take off if there was a good one, I'm game.
    • Just use any PDA. I've read dozens of them on my Visor Deluxe.

      Jason
      ProfQuotes [profquotes.com]

    • Re:e-reader hardware? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by zenofjazz ( 614733 ) <ZenOfJazz@[ ]il.com ['gma' in gap]> on Thursday October 16, 2003 @05:07PM (#7233707) Homepage
      I prefer the palm pilot, myself... smaller than a paperback, long battery life, and very readable backlightable screen... And there are freeware apps that will allow you to take Gutenberg eTexts and convert them for your Palm.
      How much text can you stuff in 8Mb?
      2 full copies of the bible..
      or
      all of shakespeare
      or
      LOTS and lots of good fiction.
      -Jazz
    • I've used a palm pilot to read the txt files. It's the best on the eyes for me.

    • Re:e-reader hardware? (Score:2, Interesting)

      by WillAdams ( 45638 )
      Dedicated hardware (ebookman, Franklin reader) hasn't caught on that well.

      I've read a fair number of texts on my Newton, but found a Palm Pilot too small.

      I've read a lot more, and enjoy it more on my pen computers---started with an NCR-3125, moved up to a Fujitsu Point, just got a Stylistic.

      Apparently the Zinio Reader for Tablet PC is well done, haven't tried it yet.

      William

    • uBook (Score:3, Informative)

      by _LORAX_ ( 4790 )

      It's the only eBook reader I use. Slightly confusing itterface to get used to, but very clean and simple. Reads many unencrypted text formats including ( pdb, prc, txt, rtf, html ) and can read into .zip archives and display covers/inline images.

      Runs on windows and the pocketPC platform and is FREEWARE.

      uBook download [gowerpoint.com]

    • ybook reader from SpaceJock software. It looks great and is free. Although it's nice to kick some money back to the author as thanks. He did a good job.

      Homepage: http://members.iinet.net.au/~simonh/spacejock/inde x.html?http://members.iinet.net.au/~simonh/spacejo ck/yBook.html

      Download link:
      http://members.iinet.net.au/~simonh/Program s/ybkfu ll.exe

      It is only for Windows though.

  • Proofreading (Score:5, Informative)

    by Empiric ( 675968 ) * on Thursday October 16, 2003 @04:47PM (#7233494)
    Based on someone's post earlier, I gave Distributed Proofreaders [pgdp.net] a try. It's very straightforward to get started on a couple of pages done at your leisure (especially easy for those knowing basic HTML--like Slashdot posters--think standard bold and italic tags; the only mild ramp up is footnotes), and I found their scanned book choices interesting to be reading through in the process of proofing (well-done proofing interface as well).

    If you're in the mood for browsing books, give it a try... you can find something interesting to read and do a little service for humanity at the same time.
    • I read Gutenberg books on my Palm with Weasel. When I spot an error, I create a bookmark. When I'm done with the book, I edit the original (on my computer) and send context diffs to the project. So, I'm only checking books that I want to read anyway.

      I think of myself as a pretty good proof reader. However, in one of the children's books that I've been reading to my son, I continued finding new minor glitches even after five readings.

      If software has a bug per thousand lines, despite the code being chec

  • 10,000 books? (Score:2, Funny)

    by Trigun ( 685027 )
    That's almost half the Hardy Boys series!
  • Come join the proofreaders [pgdp.net] that make Project Gutenberg possible!

  • Congratulations! (Score:2, Redundant)

    by apsmith ( 17989 ) *
    Now why was my story on this rejected earlier today? Oh well...

    Go to Distributed Proofreaders [pgdp.net] if you'd like to help out!

  • Legal? (Score:4, Funny)

    by twoallbeefpatties ( 615632 ) on Thursday October 16, 2003 @04:49PM (#7233521)
    That's odd. What with all the extensions on copyright expirations, I didn't realize that the Bible was in the public domain.
    • King James is PD... most of the newer, and more accurate, translations are still copyrighted. That's why you usually only see the KJV available for download.

      It's a great literary work, but 1.) I (and I imagine most people) find 400 year old English very obtuse and hard to read. 2.) Modern translators have gone back to the original Hebrew and Greek, whereas the KJV was translated from the Vulgate.

      • most of the newer, and more accurate, translations are still copyrighted. That's why you usually only see the KJV available for download.

        Any translation newer than 1922 is copyrighted (in the US). But there's a number of translations available; PG has the Douay-Rheims translation, and the World English Bible (a modern translation) for its English editions. (The World English Bible is still under copyright, but we have the right to use it.) (We could also do the American Standard Edition, but I've never se

        • I've got the American Standard Version at my site [goreadthebible.com]. However, I recently learned that the majority of online Bible sites have a humongous number of errors in their ASV (we are all using the same etext). I recently found the SWORD project [crosswire.org], which appears to have a good ASV etext; I intend to extract it and put it on my site, soon.

      • The KJV has plenty of problems, but avoiding the Hebrew Scriptures is not one of them; rather, its problem is that it incorrectly assumed that the 17th century Jewish Old Testament was an intact version of the 1st century Old Testament (a faulty assumption common to many Protestants). Such things as screwed up Psalm numbering &c. were thereby introduced.

        No, to translate the Bible one need only have a good working knowledge of Greek: the Septuagint, miraculously translated identically by 72 Jewish sch

        • Eh? Even if we assume that the Masoretic text is "full of errors" ,how can we know? By comparison to older hebrew manuscripts - SOME OF WHICH WE HAVE. So, use the older fragements! Yes, use the Septuagint as one witness to the text, but don't throw out Hebrew texts, that's just plain daft.
    • That's odd. What with all the extensions on copyright expirations, I didn't realize that the Bible was in the public domain.

      Given that God has been dead for well over 70 years, it's no surprise that the Bible is now in the public domain.
    • I think it would be argued that as the original manuscripts are over 2000 years old copyright has expired so they are free to reproduce

      Rus
    • Only the old testement
    • Well, the Bible itself is public domain. It's the various translations that are copyrighted. I believe KJV is and has been public domain for a long time.

      Nathan
      • Well, the Bible itself is public domain. It's the various translations that are copyrighted. I believe KJV is and has been public domain for a long time.

        The King James Version was ordered into creation by King James I of England, and would have never been copyrighted. James was interested in displacing the Genevan Translation, not making a few shillings selling bibles. If he wanted money, he could just raise a tax, after all.

  • I still think his best work was in Short Circuit.
  • I thought a place with thousands of free books was called a "library". My bad.
    • It is an electronic library. It's name is Project Gutenberg. Libraries do have names, you know. Carnegie comes to mind, you probably have one funded by him in your town.

      It is also a project in that it seeks people to transcribe and proof the texts into acceptable electronic versions.
  • The site is slashdotted, could someone post the books here, please? ;-)
  • Have they made any progress on their other goal? They wanted to collect a $1 donation for each book from each of the 100 million people they expected to read it, so when they reached the 10,000 book milestone, they'd have raised $1 trillion.

    Jason
    ProfQuotes [profquotes.com]

    • Re:$1 Trillion? (Score:3, Informative)

      by clonebarkins ( 470547 )
      Have they made any progress on their other goal? They wanted to collect a $1 donation for each book from each of the 100 million people they expected to read it, so when they reached the 10,000 book milestone, they'd have raised $1 trillion.

      Not quite. They estimated that if they charged $1 per book, they would have given away $1 Trillion worth of ebooks, not raised that amount. There's a big difference.

  • I haven't met anyone who has used the service. For being a fairly large database of reading material, is it only capable of archiving things so old that they have expired copyrights, or specifically released material? If so, you can hardly expect it to become a cultural phenomenon, what with copyrights extending to a million years after all progeny of the author are dead... Which is a shame, because on the merits of recording things for the public domain alone, it's worthwhile, but if people don't use it
    • Hi, I'm Alan Shutko and I've used Project Gutenberg.

      Yes, it's limited to things specifically released or out of copyright. But there's an awful lot there. I've used it so I could do full-text searches on various classes for things, I've read a number of books from it (Tom Swift, mostly, because I only have one hardcover going back that far).

    • Re:For all the noise... (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Xtifr ( 1323 )
      Anyone here regularly read from Project G?

      I wouldn't say "regularly", but I would say "once in a while". Is that good enough?

      What did you read?

      Shakespeare, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Lewis Caroll, early P. G. Wodehouse, early Edgar Rice Burroughs.
    • A lot of the free ebooks at sites like memoware.com were converted from Project Gutenberg files.

      But to address your question even more directly, my 78 yr old father recently "discovered" Project Gutenberg & has enjoyed it a lot. In fact, he announced this to me as if it should be a great revelation & I just had to grin :-D

    • I've read some of Edgar Rice Burrough's Barsoom series from Project Gutenberg.
    • I used to read Jules Verne stuff that I had read as a kid on my palm pilot. Of course, this is old enough to be on PG. Very cool. One of the readers can auto scroll. Adjust the timing and just look at the same line.

    • Re:For all the noise... (Score:3, Interesting)

      by dvdeug ( 5033 )
      For being a fairly large database of reading material, is it only capable of archiving things so old that they have expired copyrights [...] you can hardly expect it to become a cultural phenomenon,

      At least some of us read some of that older material. Shakespeare and Poe and Twain didn't suddenly become pointless after you left school.

      Personally I've found myself reading a number of pulp mysterys - The Orange-Yellow Diamond by J.S. Fletcher (some sterotypes, but not racist), Joe Muller: Detective by Grac

    • Re:For all the noise... (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      "Anyone here regularly read from Project G? What did you read?"

      Jules Verne, Mark Twain, HG Wells, Herotodus, Lincoln, Gibbon, Napolean, Stoker, Wilde, Poe, Lovecraft, London, Dickens, Plutach, ...

  • Go to Distributed Proofreaders [pgdp.net] to help out! The are a distributed effort to scan, OCR, proof, and post books to Project Gutenberg.

  • [ibiblio.org]

    If anyone who has borrowed a sum of money from Jews dies before

    the debt has been repaid, his heir shall pay no interest on the debt
    for so long as he remains under age, irrespective of whom he holds his
    lands. If such a debt falls into the hands of the Crown, it will take
    nothing except the principal sum specified in the bond.

    What a different, horrible world! This passage reminded me that in this time the largest corporation in Europe, the Roman Church, was desperately afraid of economic activity that they f

    • It's not that bad. IIRC, at the time Christians weren't allowed to lend money for interest, and so `borrow...from Jews' was the same as `borrow...from a bank' would be today. The provision simply means that (say I'm an adolescent) if my father dies with a loan outstanding, I needn't pay interest until I've achieved my majoroty. It protects a minor from poor guardians.

      And the reason Christians weren't allowed to lend for interest had nothing to do with fear of economic activity, and plenty to do with le

      • the reason Christians weren't allowed to lend for interest had nothing to do with fear of economic activity, and plenty to do with legislating morality. It was considered wrong to practice usury, and it was thus made illegal. Yet another example that legislating morals is dumb.

        Morality derives from the State, and yet also from the people, as a way of reproducing and constraining power relations. That's why "acceptable" morals were transformed during the century-long conversion of the Roman Empire from Pag

  • The backlog must be clearing out now...

    1215-10-15 dawneth Magna Carta Published (yro, news) (accepted)

    CmdrTaco must be pleased to get this one out of the queue.

  • Just Imagine! (Score:5, Funny)

    by El ( 94934 ) on Thursday October 16, 2003 @05:55PM (#7234192)
    You mean, the U.S. Constitution has been freely available on the Internet all this time, and still Ashcroft hasn't bothered to read it?
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • ...they were still throwing away the formatting of the text to force it into crude 80 column ASCII. Are they still doing that? At the time they started the project I don't think there wasn't much excuse for not using some kind of markup and nowadays there's absolutely no excuse.

    Of course I'll now get the expected slew of people telling me that the formatting can all be reconstructed. It cannot. There is no unambiguous way to recover reasonable formatting of these texts to be viewed in any other format oth

    • You should use Plucker books [pluckerbooks.com] on your Palm. Only 2000 books so far, but no random line breaks (apart from those enforced by 160 pixel screen). And a new version (1.6) of Plucker [plkr.org] is just out.

    • ...they were still throwing away the formatting of the text to force it into crude 80 column ASCII. Are they still doing that? At the time they started the project I don't think there wasn't much excuse for not using some kind of markup and nowadays there's absolutely no excuse.

      To start with: what type of markup do you think we should have used? The 1971 start of PG predates TeX, XML or Troff. Even 1990, in some ways a more accurate start date, predates HTML and XML. Do you honestly think that forcing all
  • Project Gutenberg is good and I've read quite a few decent works from them, but their problem is... that they are legal. And as such they just don't have many of the books I could find in a library (or couldn't because they were just borrowed by someone else). I found most of the titles I wanted to read on P2P though. All of Pratchett, whole Zelazny's Amber, some "classics" like LOTR (completely unreachable in library, and bookstores only sell a new hard cover edition that costs a fortune), Neuromancer, all
    • Yeah, it's copyrighted. So if I erase the files from my harddrive after I read them, wouldn't this be equal to borrowing them from library?

      No. The copyright holder didn't recieve any compensation from you downloading the electronic transcription of their work. A library book is paid for once at the very least when it is obtained by the library.

      Break out the eye patch buddy.. YARR!
    • Wow. You can afford to access slashdot, but can't afford a couple of bucks/pounds/euro's for a Pratchett? I'm stunned.
      My local bookstore's kneehigh in paperback editions of LOTR.
  • How can I listen to them on the go?
    • The best way is to have someone read it.

      I've always wanted to get together a group to record these great works under some kind of GPL or BSD like license, but never had the time^X^X^X^X energy to make it happen.

      The text to speach software out there is OX for reading the news to the blind, but sounds pretty much the same as the old "Speak and Spell" from the 80's. It's a crime against the visually impared.

      That said, you can get books on tape and CD from the library and audible.com offers audio books for
  • My, how many people rushed to provide a link to the Distributed Proofreading site. Next time, could you all try maybe reading the comments first? There must be at least 10 posts cheerfully urging one to try out the site, as if no one else had mentioned it yet. That's great and all, but how about we just mod up whoever was first and mod down the rest. This is truly what the "Redundant" moderation option is for.

    • Being one of the redundant ones :-)

      The original story was remiss in not mentioning DP. I posted my comment within about 30 seconds of seeing the article - obviously there were a LOT of us with the same issue.
  • For better or for worse--IMHO mostly for better--all of the characteristics of PG have been very carefully thought out and articulated. Things such as the emphasis on "plain vanilla ASCII text" are not simply historical accident, but a very conscious decision. PG has already outlived several changes in fashion on text formatting. (Can you imagine what would happened if they had adopted, say, Wordstar formatting? Or even TROFF?)

    It is a strikingly original project. And it has some quasi-political overton
  • Incidentally, there is a Project Gutenberg Australia [gutenberg.net.au] which has quite a few works online which are still under copyright in the United States but not in Australia. Those seeking works more recent than 1923 or so might find it worthwhile taking a look there.

    Keep in mind that if you don't reside in Australia you would be committing copyright infringement if you were to download anything from that site that is still under copyright in your country of residence.

    Go to their site to see what they have, or use th

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