sloum

reading

I read a lot. Mostly novels. I tend to get my non-fiction in article or essay form more than as a full length book. Though that is by no means a rule.

  1. Public Domain
    1. Colorfield Books
    2. Standard Ebooks
    3. Global Grey Ebooks
    4. Project Gutenberg
  2. Reading Lists
    1. Currently Reading
    2. To Read?
    3. Read In 2023
    4. Read In 2022
    5. Read In 2021

Public Domain

I am very against the idea of copyright and, especially, intellectual property. Particularly for digital files where there is no material loss when making a copy. I generally view all forms of copyright/intellectual-property as immoral. As such, I really love that we have finally started getting things put into the public domain again here in the US (it has been a rough road filled with ridiculous laws/lobbying that undercuts American's rights to the artifacts of their own culture). I highly recommend, especially if the word "piracy" leaves you uneasy, checking out sources of high quality ebooks that are in the public domain or are otherwise licensed in a way to make them free to use, copy, and rework. Here are a few favorites...

Colorfield Books

Colorfield Books is a collection of the books that I, myself, have produced. Most of them can also be found on Standard Ebooks, since I submit my productions there and love what they do (and I use their tools for my productions). But if you want to see what I have worked on this is the place to look.

Standard Ebooks

Standard Ebooks sets a high bar. Their editions are very high quality. They offer many common formats, as well as some cutting edge versions with great features. They use public domain art for their book covers. I highly recommend checking them out. There are some great works in their catalog.

Global Grey Ebooks

Global Grey's ebooks are not as high quality as Standard Ebooks, but they are still of good quality and very readable. They have a wide catalog and support for a few different common formats. If you are looking for something and Standard Ebooks doesn't have it, this is a good next stop.

Project Gutenberg

Project Gutenberg is the source of material for the other two I listed above. Their books are not always well formatted and, in my opinion, contain more errors that, for example, Standard Ebooks. That said, you will not find a larger catalog anywhere. They do a lot to keep books, and the written word in general, alive. I have read a great number of books over the years from Project Gutenberg and I highly recommend supporting them. They do great work, it is just a different sort of work from, say, Standard or Global Grey. They focus on digitizing works and transcribing, rather than editing. They offer most books in HTML, Epub, Kindle, PDF, and Plain Text, among other formats.

Reading Lists

These lists are not necessarily complete, as I do not always remember to log here. They are mostly so that I can remember more easily the things I have read. That said, feel free to peruse and see if anything seems like something you'd like!

Currently Reading

To Read?

A list of books that are on my radar. I may or may not get to any of them.

Read In 2023

Titles marked with an asterisk (*) at the end are links to legal free downloads in various formats. All other links are Wikipedia links. This list does not include the many many many children's books I read to my child each year.

Read In 2022

Titles marked with an asterisk (*) at the end are links to legal free downloads in various formats. All other links are Wikipedia links. This list does not include the many many many children's books I read to my child each year.

Read In 2021

This year's list was written when I compiled the 2022 list. I didnt record dates of when I read everything, so this may not be 100% accurate and may include 2020 or 2019 books, and the order of reading is likely off. Future year's editions will be more accurate.

Titles marked with an asterisk (*) at the end are links to legal free downloads in various formats. All other links are Wikipedia links. This list does not include the many many many children's books I read to my child each year.