Books on line

[narya]

I just came across this link, which has quite a few classics (no Tolkien, alas):
http://www.online-literature.com/

There's this link, if you prefer very dry non-fiction, from the National Academy (of Science) Press:
http://www.nap.edu/

The University of Pennsylvania Library has some, too:
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/

For those of you currently reading Jane Austin, this link has some of her books:
http://www.technotopia.com/books/

And a big list of additional links:
http://www.ipl.org/div/subject/browse/hum60.60.00/

I just finished reading Waiting for Godot at:
http://samuel-beckett.net/

Any thoughts about on-line reading? I've had to do quite a bit with my college classes (partly because I'm too stingy to buy the book or print out the book and read it on paper). I don't like being tethered to a laptop, but I do like getting things for free.

[Jnyusa]

Wow, thanks, narya. What a find.

It's hard for me to do the actual reading online. Too tough on my eyes. But if I really want something for multiple re-readings I download and print.

And sometimes, you know, you want to taste fiction before actually buying the book. This is a good way to sample new authors.

Jn

[Old_Tom_Bombadil]

It's hard for me to do the actual reading online. Too tough on my eyes.

That's true for me, too. Also, I prefer to be lie down while I read.

My wife doesn't spend nearly as much time on her computer as I do mine, but she likes to download books to her iPAQ. I like plain, old-fashioned books printed on paper.

If I couldn't afford to purchase books I'd borrow them from a library. In fact, I did a lot of that when I was growing up. Of course reading books online wasn't even an option back then.

[truehobbit]

And then, there's of course Project Gutenberg.

I also love Bartleby.com

But on the whole, I don't read books online. It's good for checking and finding quotes, but I prefer a more comfortable position for reading, too.

I think there's hardly anything old enough to have editions free of copyright that's not online.
That doesn't include Tolkien yet, of course.