As
the COVID-19 epidemic continues to spread, people around the world
are adjusting to new constraints on their movements. Many of us are
more or less stuck in our homes, with little to do but worry about
the future.
Worry
is not healthy. Stress undermines your immune system. Instead of
worrying, why not curl up with a good book?
Books
can be expensive, though. And these days, many of us are facing serious financial
concerns.
So,
do you know about Project
Gutenberg?
Project
Gutenberg is a volunteer effort that digitizes and distributes free
ebooks,
in English and other languages. You can read about its history here.
Founded by author Michael S. Hart in 1971, it is the world’s oldest
digital library. The goal of the project is to make public domain
works, especially literary classics, available to as wide an audience
as possible. Currently the project offers more than 60,000
titles. You
can search by author or title, go see the recently
added books, or use the categorized
listing.
Browsing
the catalog can be great fun. You never know what gems you will
discover. It’s
also a great source for classic books you somehow never read.
Recently, for instance, I saw a
review on Goodreads for Anne Brontë’s classic The
Tenant of Wildfell Hall.
Jane
Eyre
and Wuthering
Heights
were among my favorite titles during my youth, but I’d
never sampled anything by the third Brontë sister. I have now remedied
that omission! (Review coming soon...)
If
you’re not in the mood for a classic, you can also find
contemporary titles, donated by the authors. I just finished Down
and Out in the Magic Kingdom,
a rather prescient science fiction novel by Cory Doctorow.
You
can download books in many formats - not only PDF, EPUB and Kindle
formats but in many cases, plain HTML and text versions as well. So
you don’t need an ereader to take advantage of its riches.
In short, if you’ve got reading time on your hands these days, but you’re short on
cash, you might want to explore their excellent website.
Project
Gutenberg is staffed by volunteers, but needs funds for computing
resources, professional services and so on. So today I’m running a
Charity Sunday for the project. If you love reading, leave me a
comment. I’ll donate $2 to
the project for each comment I receive.
Meanwhile,
I have an excerpt for you from another “bookish” title of mine.
This is a bit from Damned
If You Do.
The main character is an
author of erotic romance who’s struggling to make a living through
her writing. (Sound familiar, anyone?)
Excerpt
Her
four dollar cup of Americano, now cold, tasted like muddy pond water.
With a bitter sigh, Wendy Dennison, aka romance stalwart Gwen
Diamante, iconized her browser and popped up her work in progress.
The word count in the bottom status bar accused her of sloth and
incompetence. She should know better than to check her sales stats
and reviews before she’d produced at least a couple thousand words.
Nothing sapped her motivation for writing a new book as much as
surveying the tepid response to her last one.
Maybe
another coffee would help. Extravagant, yes, but she needed a kick in
the butt to get her out of her slump. She signaled to the cute
college guy behind the counter, pointing to her cup. “Can I get
another hit, Eric?”
The
gangly kid grinned at her. “Coming right up, Wendy.” A mass
communications major at the University of Pittsburgh, he treated her
like minor royalty. Clearly he thought it was the ultimate in cool to
be serving a real live published author. If he only knew the truth.
Wendy
typed a four line sentence and scowled at her laptop screen. She
highlighted the second clause and swapped it with the first. After
staring at the page for a few minutes, she hit “Undo”. She turned
the first clause into a participle instead, then tried replacing a
pronoun with the character’s name. That didn’t really help
either.
Eric
removed the stale cup to her left and set down a steaming, fragrant
mug in its place. “Two sugars, right?”
Still
wrestling with her recalcitrant prose, Wendy gave him a cursory nod.
Then she realized how impolite that must seem. “You’re a darling.
Thanks so much!” The barista pushed his shaggy brown hair off his
forehead and beamed at her. Wendy’s black mood brightened a bit.
With
pierced earlobes, Black Sabbath tee shirts, and artfully threadbare
denims, Eric had a sort of punk sex appeal. Wendy let herself imagine
how he’d look naked—all wiry limbs and pale skin, with a bushy
nest around his cock, which would be long and slender, like his tall,
lanky, not-quite-mature body. Hard, of course. Young guys always
were.
He’d
be willing to wait though, to give her pleasure before taking his
own. She saw him kneeling between her spread thighs, wearing a
worshipful expression. He leaned in to flick at her clit before
running his tongue firmly along the cleft between her swollen lower
lips. Oh my God! Did he have a stud embedded in his tongue?
“Can
I get you anything else?”
Eric’s
voice hauled her back to reality.
“Oh—um—
” Blood heated her cheeks, especially when she realized how damp
her panties had become. What was she thinking? He was young enough to
be her son!
“We’ve
got a special on cream cheese brownies. Two for one.” He lowered
his voice to a seductive purr, apparently aware he was tempting her.
Wendy
recalled both her financial constraints and her depressingly accurate
digital bathroom scale. “I really shouldn’t,” she replied,
determined to do the right thing.
“C’mon.
You need the energy to fuel your creativity! Eat one now, and take
one home for later.”
“Well…”
Saliva pooled in her mouth as her resolve wavered. She could always
skip dinner. “I did have a salad for lunch…”
“Two
sinfully rich double fudge cream cheese brownies, coming up.” Her
youthful admirer gave her another grin. “Don’t worry. They’re
small.”
She
turned back to the computer, scrolling back to read the previous few
paragraphs. The tension between her heroine and her hero sizzled, but
somehow she couldn’t get them out of flirting mode and into bed
together. They resisted her every attempt to move them in the
directions prescribed by her outline.
Maybe
she should switch genres. Try some sweet romance for a change. Or a
cozy mystery. Those seem to be selling pretty well these days.
She
knew from experience, though, that she’d never succeed in keeping
the sex out of her books. Her imagination naturally flowed in carnal
directions.
Please
don’t forget to leave a comment! Every one is a contribution to the
world’s biggest library of free digital books.
And
if you want some of my
books free, check out my post
from yesterday. I’ll be announcing more free Lisabet Sarai
titles later this week.
13 comments:
I have heard of this project before but had forgotten about it. thanks for the reminder. I shall be checking.
Hi Lisabet
A very cool project which I'd never heard of before.
I enjoyed the excerpt from your book, too.
Delores
Double fudge cream cheese brownies ... mmm! 😂
Enjoyed the excerpt and the cover is way cool. One of my books, The Summoning, will be $.99 from March 23-30 if you like fantasy romance. Not free but close enough. Thank you Lisabet for your efforts in support of reading.
I've heard of Project Gutenberg but rarely take advantage of it. Thanks for the reminder.
It's very thoughtful of you to donate to a great cause which will for sure help to take readers away from reality for awhile.
Thank you for all you do & spreading awareness
Shared
Great project, Lisabet! And I loved the excerpt!!
A great cause. Thanks for doing this!
I hadn't heard of this project.
A great cause to bring awareness to at this time.
Take care, everyone.
Great idea, Lisabet. Thank you, and stay safe.
Ah, so it isn't only me who fantasizes about men no matter where I am, or how old/young they are? Phew! I guess that's why sex is always in my stories. It's always in my thoughts too, so it's gotta come out (pun intended!)
Hi, everyone!
Thank you for participating in this month's Charity Sunday. I'm off to donate $25 to Project Gutenberg.
Come back on the 26th of April for the next Charity Sunday!
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