Books are more than books. They are the life, the very heart and core of ages past, the reason why men lived and worked and died, the essence and quintessence of their lives.Amy Lowell at Creative Quotations.com
Amy Lowell, 1874 - 1925
If truth is beauty, how come no one has their hair done in a library?
Lilly Tomlin, 1939 - Quotable Quotes about Books Reading and LibrariesWhen you have the opportunity, check out the link for The Cranky Librarian on the right. I found this site at The Internet Public Library that has numerous sites fun to surf, but back to TCL for now.
It currently has electronic links to 3012 books by 737 authors, so many classics. Now I would personally never try to read a book on-line as a I prize my eyes, and even occasionally try to give them much-needed rest. So of course I would never recommend to anyone else that they read a whole book on-line. But I do see one major optional use for e-books: check out the first chapter or scroll through it seeing if the book has parts that motivate you to check the book out at the library.
For example,
consider a book title that has always attracted my eye (I even had a copy at one time), but I have never read it: Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky, the Russian novelist, 1821 - 1881. (photo from Wikipedia.org) Read how it starts at The Cranky Librarian Page:
CHAPTER I
"I am a sick man.... I am a spiteful man. I am an unattractiveman. I believe my liver is diseased. However, I know nothing a tall about my disease, and do not know for certain what ails me.I don't consult a doctor for it, and never have, though I have a respect for medicine and doctors. Besides, I am extremelysuperstitious, sufficiently so to respect medicine, anyway (I am well-educated enough not to be superstitious, but I am superstitious). No, I refuse to consult a doctor from spite.That you probably will not understand. Well, I understand it ,though. Of course, I can't explain who it is precisely that I am mortifying in this case by my spite: I am perfectly well aware that I cannot "pay out" the doctors by not consulting them; I know better than anyone that by all this I am only injuring myself and no one else. But still, if I don't consult a doctor it is from spite. My liver is bad, well--let it get worse!
I have been going on like that for a long time--twenty years.Now I am forty. I used to be in the government service, but amno longer. I was a spiteful official. I was rude and took pleasure in being so. I did not take bribes, you see, so I was bound to find a recompense in that, at least. (A poor jest, but I will not scratch it out. I wrote it thinking it would sound very witty; but now that I have seen myself that I only wanted to show off in a despicable way--I will not scratch it out on purpose!) When petitioners used to come for information to the table at which I sat, I used to grind my teeth at them, and felt intense enjoyment when I succeeded in making anybody unhappy. I almost did succeed. For the most part they were all timid people--of course, they were petitioners. But of the uppish ones there was one officer in particular I could not endure. He simply would not be humble, and clanked his sword in a disgusting way. I carried on a feud with him for eighteen months over that sword.At last I got the better of him. He left off clanking it. That happened in my youth, though. But do you know, gentlemen, what was the chief point about my spite? Why, the whole point, the real sting of it lay in the fact that continually, even in the moment of the acutest spleen, I was inwardly conscious with shame that I was not only not a spiteful but not even an embittered man, that I was simply scaring sparrows at random and amusing myself by it. I might foam at the mouth, but bring me a doll to play with, give me a cup of tea with sugar in it, and maybe I should be appeased. I might even be genuinely touched, though probably I should grind my teeth at myself afterwards and lie awake at night with shame for months after. That was my way.
I was lying when I said just now that I was a spiteful official.I was lying from spite. I was simply amusing myself with thepetitioners and with the officer, and in reality I never couldbecome spiteful. I was conscious every moment in myself of many,very many elements absolutely opposite to that. I felt thempositively swarming in me, these opposite elements. I knew tha tthey had been swarming in me all my life and craving some outletfrom me, but I would not let them, would not let them, purposelywould not let them come out. They tormented me till I was ashamed: they drove me to convulsions and--sickened me, at last,how they sickened me! Now, are not you fancying, gentlemen,that I am expressing remorse for something now, that I am askingyour forgiveness for something? I am sure you are fancying that... However, I assure you I do not care if you are...."
Wow. Fyodor has my attention now.
Do you like to read Sherlock Holmes novels? TCL has the complete novels of Sir Arthur (Ignatius) Conan Doyle (1859 - 1930). Do you enjoy Mark Twain ( also Samuel Clemens 1835 - 1910)? Check out his Complete Works at the same site. Did I mention that they have the complete works of Edgar Allen Poe? (1809 - 1849)
Have you heard of Andy Adams, the western fiction writer? TCL has:
1903: The Log of a Cowboy.
1904: A Texas Matchmaker.
1905: The Outlet.
1906: Cattle Brands: A Collection of Western Camp-fire Stories - contains 14 short stories.
1907: Reed Anthony, Cowman: An Autobiography - Adams breathes life into the story of a Texas cowboy who becomes a wealthy and influential cattleman. 1911: The Wells Brothers: The Young Cattle Kings - Tells the tale of two orphaned boys who, against all odds and in the face of numerous calamities, establish their own cattle ranch.TCL also has
Clink on the link, visit TCL, and see if she has anything that interests you>
It is not the brains that matter most, but that which guides them—the character, the heart, generous qualities, progressive ideas. Fyodor Dostoevsky, 1821 - 1861
HeartQuotes.com
© Bob Hoff, 2007
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