acio liberos ex liberis libris libraque

We continue with cooler temperatures, and my feet have responded by not swelling! Just lovely! I'm very happy that my feet even't swollen in the heat.

I love diving into new books. They are full of adventure and excitement and really wild things_ It's great to find new authors and to share them with friends.  The challenge that I often face is finding other authors to try. Pent of my difficulty is that I am not a big fan of many recent authors we tried several of them and couldn't get into the story. It was dreadful!

Then I found a couple of sites that have the full text of books. They are FADED PAGE.COM and GUTENBERG.ORG They both have out of copyright books so they aren't new. Faded page is a Canadian site, and makes use of Canadian law, which gives copyright as life plus 50 years, so it can take a while before books become available. Books that could be added this year are for authors who died in 1971 and were published by then.

I was delighted to find that several of my favourite authors were there-which tells you a lot about my reading habits.  I noticed today that on Faded Page, there are illustrations not included in a book That's because although the author has been dead for over 50 years; the illustrations have their own copyright and they are still covered:

Project Gutenberg is the venerable site that has been digitizing books for a while now. They have books in multiple languages, while Faded Page tends to be Engush and French.  Gutenberg's selections are taken from a wider cross-section of topics in more languages. They have books and magazines-I've had lots of fun browsing magazines from the 1800's. The advice that they dispensed to women is remarkably similar to currenta publications!

Both sites have large groups of volunteers who will read through the scanned images of the book's text before it's published. Anyone can become a proof-reader; you'd need to sign up on the site. I had registered for both, but after almost 6 months, I'm still at the stage of comparing the scanned image to the photo of the text. The next stage will allow me to highlight changes, then to edit text. I'm not sure how long the process will be.

I'm so delighted to have found these. I can browse through a lot of books, and I've filled out my collection of some authors. As/ noted, the magazines are very similar to current ones.. Then I found some cook books from pre WWI and I was amazed. One was full of advice for a new bride How to stock your kitchen, providing advice on using appliances, choosing an icebox, buying meat and fish and with menu suggestion for different situations. from a week night supper to hosting an elegant dinner party. I just love dipping into the magazines because it's such a wonderful time capsule.

That’s all for now. I fell asleep while composing this, so it’s late being done. Have a great day!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cloyd

Image
I don’t know how to write this today.  Just yesterday I wrote that my dad was improving and strong; today he passed out, could not be resuscitated and died shortly before 12:30 ECT/EDT.  We are all reeling in shock.  It seems that this morning he woke as usual, had his breakfast, followed his morning routine and then just… stopped.  My sister called for an ambulance which arrived quickly (We’re essentially across the street from the hospital) and they tried reviving him; he was rushed straight in on arrival, where they continued to work on him for over half an hour, but he never revived.  My siblings who were there were texting throughout so that we (in Canada) were kept updated.  They showed us his body after everything was over, and he looks peaceful.  Thankfully, he experienced no pain or discomfort, just fell into unconsciousness.  He’s been moved from the hospital morgue to the funeral home while we try to settle on his final arrangements.  It’s so surreal; he was arguing and prot
Read more

Chemo

Image
First of all, happy Hanukkah to all those celebrating.  I wish your families peace and light in this season of miracles!  The first menorah candles were lit at sunset in City Hall today, and on the Hill, so I add my wishes to all of those.  It was bitterly cold today again, all of -18 when I had to head off to my appointment.  It’s also a record-setting day in Ottawa; we’ve had 59 consecutive hours of snowfall this week and it looks like it wants to try to break that record already.  It was the little fine, driving snow, which blows hard but doesn’t accumulate quickly; it’s dry enough to be brushed off, but the wind makes up for that!  Jerry curled up in my lap, shivering, and wouldn’t move on the way home.  Don was a superstar, taking me to the hospital and waiting… they told me it would be about an hour, but the chemo unit was running a bit late, plus there was all the fun of them saying that they didn’t have my blood work, so lots of excitement.  It worked out well, and I was about
Read more

The surprise!

Image
Gee, I look like my mom in this photo.  Although I suppose that I look like her anyway, but it stands out more here.  I’ll get more into this in a minute, I need to fill you in on other stuff.  First off, the weather is busy being Ottawa winter grey and gloomy, so it’s not encouraging in the slightest.  Dark when you wake up, overcast during the day, dark early… no wonder Jerry doesn’t want to be away from people and cuddles!  He’s perfectly happy to sit on a lap and be stroked when he’s not rampaging around playing with his toy!  Don didn’t sleep too well last night; according to him, he ‘missed his cue’ to go to bed and was awake for hours watching… yes, you guessed it!  He napped a little this morning, but I hope he’ll get a better rest tonight.  Although it’s Saturday, and that means… 🏒 and tomorrow is 🏈 so I’ll just dive into a book somewhere. Yesterday I went in to the hospital to do my blood transfusion.  There was a mixup… I got there and called for a porter and a wheelchair,
Read more