Planning for our Next Major Read, part 4

[Mike]

Hi everyone, I'm new here. A GR's friend told me about the upcoming Hick Finn read and I thought I'd share this link for the E-book version for anyone with a iPhone, iTouch or iPad and the free iBooks app. It's a free 'in the public domain', book of course, and it is wonderfully illustrated. Also each chapter starts with a scan of the first page of the tree killer version followed by the whole text. Thanks to the good folks at gutenberg.org for making this available. Direct link here... http://ax.itunes.apple.com/us/book/ad...

I'm looking forward to the read. It's been many years since I read this.

[toria (vikz writes)]

Mike wrote: "Hi everyone, I'm new here. A GR's friend told me about the upcoming Hick Finn read and I thought I'd share this link for the E-book version for anyone with a iPhone, iTouch or iPad and the free iBo..."

Think that there is also a e-book version for the kindle. If you don't mind getting it in short chunks then it's free. The whole work is quite cheap. I'm reading mine on my Nintendo DS.

[Mike]

Vikz wrote :"Think that there is also a e-book version for the kindle. If you don't mind getting it in short chunks then it's free. The whole work is quite cheap..."

Hi Vikz,
Really there several full and free (over 12) E-edition copies of Huck Finn in both the Kindle and iBooks stores. I only pointed out the one above because it outshines the rest in formatting and it has the bonus of illustrations. There is no short chunks of any free public domain titles that I've ever seen. Twain's fairly long Personal Recollections Of Joan Of Arc By The Sieur Louis De Conte comes in two volumes though.

[Everyman]

Mike wrote: "There is no short chunks of any free public domain titles that I've ever seen. "

There are actually two that I know of, both free services.

One, Mousehold Words, is by a guy who takes works which were originally published in serial form and has broken them up in their original serial components and will email you the sections on your own schedule. I have done a few books that way, getting them on the original weekly or monthly schedule, to get the flavor of what it would have been like for the original readers. I did Collins's Woman in White, for example, and found it very frustrating to have to wait a week to see what was happening next (but I forced myself to wait instead of rushing to the internet or library to read ahead, for which self-discipline I feel quite proud). We aren't used to that form of reading today; we're used to being able to finish a mystery in a few days and not have to wait to figure out what happened.

Then there is Daily Lit, which has a somewhat eclectic selection of books but will end you out chunks on your schedule -- daily, weekly, 3 days a week, whatever, of normal length or longer snippets. For this one, I set up a separate email account (I used gmail, but could as easily have used Yahoo mail) so the daily excerpts didn't get mixed up in my main email address.

I've used both, and both work as advertised and don't plague you with ads or other junk.

[Mike]

Everyman wrote: "There are actually two that I know of, both free services.

One, Mousehold Words, is by a guy who take..."

Well okay, Everyman. But, like, is there an advantage of getting it in chunks from these services as opposed to getting the whole thing all together at once?

I'm not trying to be contrary, just curious.

[Everyman]

Mike wrote: "Everyman wrote: "There are actually two that I know of, both free services.

One, Mousehold Words, is by a guy who take..."

Well okay, Everyman. But, like, is there an advantage of getting it in c..."

Mousehold works, yes, I think there's a significant interest factor in experiencing these books the way their original audiences did. One can come to understand viscerally and not just intellectually why the patrons lined up on the dock in NYC to get the magazine edition with the final episode of The Old Curiosity Shop.

DailyLit is nice because it comes in little chunks while you're sitting at your computer, a quick literary break in the midst of a busy day. Or easier to read on your cellphone on the subway than lugging a book or Kindle.

Although they're no substitute for the real book and a comfy reading chair with teacup to hand and cat on lap, I think they both have their place.

[Mike]

Everyman wrote: "Mousehold works, yes, I think there's a significant interest factor in experiencing these books the way their original audiences did. One can come to understand viscerally and not just intellectually why the patrons lined up on the dock in NYC to get the magazine edition with the final episode of The Old Curiosity Shop."

Ahh yes, I see. After I posted the question I went and checked the link and then understood your point about that they deliver them as they were serialized.

Thanks for the links, I will be using them.

[[deleted user]]

Vikz wrote: "Everyman wrote: "As I had mentioned in another post, Zeke, the main moderator for the Huck Finn discussion, has been putting in a tremendous amount of work getting ready for the discussion, which i..."

Am I missing something somewhere? I still don't know exactly what is the first chunk of Huck to be read by next Tuesday. I want to make sure I've read the whole first section before looking in on the discussions. Has a reading schedule been posted somewhere?

[Ibis3]

I used Daily Lit to read Shakespeare's sonnets. Very fun. It was like getting a romantic e-mail from Will every day. :)

[[deleted user]]

M: Through Chapter 11.

[[deleted user]]

Zeke wrote: "M: Through Chapter 11."

Thank you!

[Everyman]

M wrote: "I still don't know exactly what is the first chunk of Huck to be read by next Tuesday. I want to make sure I've read the whole first section before looking in on the discussions. Has a reading schedule been posted somewhere? "

No, it hasn't. I'll get to that right away -- thanks for the reminder. The first week's reading will be chapters 1-11.

[[deleted user]]

Great, thanks!

[Gayle]

Everyman wrote: "Mike wrote: "There is no short chunks of any free public domain titles that I've ever seen. "

There are actually two that I know of, both free services.

One, Mousehold Words, is by a guy who take..."

We still have our version of serialized literature nowadays--and waiting a week to find out what happened on Lost, or Heroes or whatever the newest serialized cliff-hanger TV serial is what keeps television alive. I would hate to have to wait a month--but, then again, I have waited a year or more for book and movie sequels.

[Everyman]

In a day or two I will be running the random generator on our bookshelf to choose the selections for our next vote (for a read to start in January), so if there are books that fit our criteria that you want to discuss here that aren't on our bookshelf, go put them on (on the to-read list, please). Or if you don't feel confident about doing that (though it's easy) post the titles here and I'll put them on.

[Ibis3]

Looking forward to seeing what comes up this time. I haven't picked a classic for January yet, so hopefully I'll be joining in on this one.

Rather OT: Can I ask where you got the random generator/how it works?

[Everyman]

Ibis3 wrote: "Rather OT: Can I ask where you got the random generator/how it works? "

I just open an Excel spreadsheet, count the number of books on the Bookshelf, enter the formula for a random number between 1 and the number of books in about 8boxes, sort the bookshelf by author, and just count down to each of the numbers that Excel returns. Then each moderator is permitted to nominate one book to the list, the only perk of being a moderator, and the resulting list goes up as a poll. If there's a clear winner, we pick that. If there are two clear winners, sometimes I decide to do both sequentially. If there are several near the top, but no clear winners, we usually hold a runoff poll.

I generally do not announce the poll in a broadcast message to the whole membership, but just announce it on the board. I do this because like most groups we have a number of members who don't participate at all and I have seen too many groups where inactive members pop in just to vote, overwhelm the poll, but then never show up to participate in the discussion. We are a discussion oriented group, so I want active participants making the choice since they're the ones who will be participating in the discussion and making it successful. So watch the board, check in every couple of days, to be sure that you get to vote.