Bibliophiles take note.
Feb. 28th, 2008 09:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spookyeviloneSome of my favourite links.
Project Gutenberg - books whose copyright has expired, scanned and uploaded online. I love this idea. "Out of print" makes me cry.
Baen Free Library - Baen authors who've generously donated their books to be uploaded and read for free.
The Online Books Page - A collection of links to online books - huge and comprehensive list.
Aesop - Free Online Library - contains both periodical links and books.
I own dozens of pre-1900 children's books. I try to get first editions when I can, not because of their brag value, but because I like reading the original story with the original slang and language. Later copies tend to update or change things that sometimes breaks the story.
One of my favourite series is Margaret Sidney's 'Five Little Peppers' books. I've loved those Pepper children since I first read a Penguin re-publish of the first book, 'Five Little Peppers and How They Grew' in 1985. One thing had always stumped me - in the book, Phronsie goes to the King residence. She called Jasper by his name instead of Jappy and his cousins made much of it. It was an odd thing for them to do, considering they also called him Jasper. This week, I received the first six Pepper books and had the chance to read a first edition, first printing copy of the first book and now all is made clear - Phronsie calls him Japser throughout, not Jasper, and the cousins are making much of her mistake. She's four. It's an endearing childish faux-pas that some overzealous print editor "fixed" in later printings. Even the Gutenberg copy has that 'fix' in it.
Now I know, and am happy. That confusing "correction" has bothered me for 23 years.
Project Gutenberg - books whose copyright has expired, scanned and uploaded online. I love this idea. "Out of print" makes me cry.
Baen Free Library - Baen authors who've generously donated their books to be uploaded and read for free.
The Online Books Page - A collection of links to online books - huge and comprehensive list.
Aesop - Free Online Library - contains both periodical links and books.
I own dozens of pre-1900 children's books. I try to get first editions when I can, not because of their brag value, but because I like reading the original story with the original slang and language. Later copies tend to update or change things that sometimes breaks the story.
One of my favourite series is Margaret Sidney's 'Five Little Peppers' books. I've loved those Pepper children since I first read a Penguin re-publish of the first book, 'Five Little Peppers and How They Grew' in 1985. One thing had always stumped me - in the book, Phronsie goes to the King residence. She called Jasper by his name instead of Jappy and his cousins made much of it. It was an odd thing for them to do, considering they also called him Jasper. This week, I received the first six Pepper books and had the chance to read a first edition, first printing copy of the first book and now all is made clear - Phronsie calls him Japser throughout, not Jasper, and the cousins are making much of her mistake. She's four. It's an endearing childish faux-pas that some overzealous print editor "fixed" in later printings. Even the Gutenberg copy has that 'fix' in it.
Now I know, and am happy. That confusing "correction" has bothered me for 23 years.