Book Yourself!

Having already used Project Gutenberg to track down the first paragraph of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, e-books definitely have their place so I'm not a hater.

But I'm an old fashioned girl.
I like my books in the original form.

• I like the tactile feeling of a book
• I like folding page corner and not using a bookmark (I'm a bad librarian)
• I enjoy the smell of a new book. Therein lies unlimited possibilities
• I like the feeling of progress turning a page gives. There's a feeling of achievement when you can visually see that your two thirds of the way through a title your struggling with. Sometimes there's a feeing of despair as you reach the last pages of a book you've loved and you really don't want the story or reading pleasure to end
• I love library books. I like the odd stain and smudge and scribble in the margins. It shows the book's been used, enjoyed, become a part fo the ritual of everyday life.
• Bookcases packed to the brim displaying their wares are wonderful things. If someone has a bookcase in their living room you can be sure to find me seated next to it, scanning the spines, asking what they thought of this title and that title.
  

But that's enough about real books onto e-books and what I learnt at Project Gutenberg!

• Not only can you download the text of a book for free using Project Gutenberg but you can also download it in audio form. This is brilliant. A story teller for free!
• Great for uni literature students. Imagine this; all copies of Canterbury Tales have been borrowed from the library, you spent the last of your money on a jug at the Hilly so you can't buy the book, help is at hand. Use the free Internet at uni and read the damn thing online. Better yet, read it online while drinking a beer in the comfort of your own home, pilgrim style!
• My favourite feminist text ever 'The Awakening' by Kate Chopin is online. Everyone should read this short novel. It's an amazing piece of work that ruined Chopin's career and reputation.

A totally useless piece on information: The New York Public Library is amazing and gorgeous. It is all things fabulous in the world full of marble staircases, imposing lion guards, and so much information you could die happy. But the really special thing about it is they have a Gutenberg Bible there! My beating heart swooned, I stuck my nose against the glass cabinet that housed it. I REALLY wanted to take a photo of me and the world's very first printed book but the damn security guard wouldn't take his eyes off me! And I'd spent the last few nights sleeping in a back of a van on the streets of Manhatten so he definitely wasn't looking at me becasue I was HOT!