Wednesday, December 19, 2012
The Overleaf Mission Statement
I love books. I always have. There's something about completely losing yourself in the pages of a book, immersing yourself in a parallel universe, real or imagined, shedding your ego and replacing the chatter in your head with an alternative narrative in a way that just isn't possible in any way other than reading. The process of reading focuses your attention, expands your imagination, and exercises your critical thinking skills. Reading can evoke strong emotional responses, allow us to entertain new perspectives and, through a combination of all of these effects, broaden our understanding of the world and ourselves.
I started to read when I was two, which was no mean feat because I was born with impaired vision. But I really wanted to read, so I did anything I could to make that happen, like using magnifiers and large print books (when and if I could get them). I became a voracious reader, gobbling up books as fast as I could find them. I could keep up with and sometimes outpace my peers in speed and volume. In 2010, after nearly forty years of doing it the hard way, my girlfriend bought me an eReader for my birthday.
That was a game changer for me. Suddenly, I could change the print size so I could read at a comfortable distance. My eyes didn't tire as easily and the neck and upper back pain I experienced from excessive reading was suddenly only a memory. This was the Golden Fleece I had been in searching for. As if that wasn't enough, I was also delighted to learn that the majority of books I was interested in--mostly written before 1925--were available for FREE!
So I began to read my way through an awful lot of books I hadn't encountered before via websites like Project Gutenberg. I found it to be much better than a bookstore because the selection was invariably larger than any store could hold. Because everything was free, I indulged myself by selecting titles I might not have otherwise picked, much less even find. I was in Literary Hog Heaven.
After two years of going crazy with eBooks, it occurred to me that it might be nice to have something to show for all this reading I was doing. Maybe a blog! But not a blog that sought just to show how cool and smart I was by reading all these big books. I thought it would be great to encourage people to take advantage of the availability of all this great stuff, especially those who might be a little intimidated by the sheer amount and breadth of the material available for free. I think books are for everybody and that nothing should stand between you and the great (and, if not so great, at least fun and interesting) books. Most of those works aren't as impenetrable and inaccessible as you might think. If you have a curious mind and a desire to read something new, you'll do just fine.
The Internet has given us access to vast libraries of human knowledge and expression on a scale never even dreamed of at any time in our history. The eReader has made those books easier to access for unprecedented numbers of people. I know there are some out there who scoff at eBooks, claiming that nothing beats the feel of a book in your hand and that reading eBooks is a profane, despicable practice that they wouldn't be caught dead engaging in.
You know what? Here's the official position of The Overleaf: Screw them. They can do what they like. Books are nice, but it's what's inside them that counts. And that's what eBooks deliver--the important part. And that's what this blog will concentrate on exclusively.
So, you may ask, "Who is this guy? What are his qualifications?" I am someone who loves to read. I tried studying literature when I first entered college, but I absolutely hated it. My professors reduced literature to disembodied theories that contained none of the blood and sweat and guts of great literature. They sought to break things down into neat little formulas that took all the fun out of reading. In fact, I didn't read for a few years after that, so bad was the taste in my mouth. I even became…God save us...a communication major!
But hey, professors have a job to do, and I believe that academics do valuable work. They are, after all, the curates of our collective cultural memory. But for centuries, they have also been our culture's appointed gatekeepers who ultimately decide which works, authors and eras are to be studied. Book publishers tend to keep in print only those titles that they can sell, causing many worthy books to fall by the wayside. So the availability of a growing digital library of works, including many long out of print and out of reach to readers and scholars for generations, allows us to reevaluate works that have fallen through the cracks. This development may, in turn, change the way we look at our own past. It will certainly make for interesting reading.
I humbly confess that I would rather read an actual book than a volume of literary criticism about a book any day of the week. The men and women who write books are trying to communicate with us, to tell us something that they know about the world and feel passionate about. Most of them don't write books to further a theory or a school of expression. They just write. And they write for us to read. And anyone with access to a computer can explore centuries worth of human thought, science, literature, history, philosophy--all for free.
So I started The Overleaf. Here are some basic guidelines I pledge to abide by:
1. I won't talk down to my readers. I'm here to help people learn about books, not make them feel inadequate because they don't know something.
2. I will only provide links to free eBooks from non-profit organizations.
3. I won't accept any advertising from any commercial entity in exchange for links to their websites. This site is for spreading the word about books, not for making money. If I mention a title that isn't available for free, I will always encourage readers to visit their local libraries or their favorite bookstores.
4. There are times when I might not know what I'm talking about. If you think I'm wrong about something, use the comments section or write me an email. I'll leave criticism up in the comments section as long as the comments are civil and constructive. If you're a jerk, then away goes your comment, and no snarky emails will be answered.
5. I'll try to post a new article about twice a month.
That's basically it. I'll read books and tell you about them. My greatest hope is that one of my readers will pick up on a book they learned about here and discover a whole new world they didn't even know they were waiting for. That's the ultimate pleasure of reading. If that happens, please write to me and let me know.
A dear friend of mine, after reading my first few posts, said to me, "I love that you're giving all these old books back to the world." That's the plan!
Happy Holidays, all! See you in 2013!
Monday, December 10, 2012
Sir Walter Scott's "Waverley"
I was worried about how to approach the immense canon of Sir Walter Scott. He's an intimidating, towering literary figure, especially to those of us who don't know beans about Scotland. But before his novels became popular, practically no one outside of Scotland knew beans about Scotland. So, much like the worldwide audience that first encountered his work two hundred years ago, I would learn of the lore and customs of his native land as I explored his body of work. Unlike those readers of 1814, I have access to incredible amounts of information to aid my understanding.
My first exposure to Scott came when I was a just a kid via this very funny Monty Python sketch:
Sir Walter Scott has an unjust reputation for turgid and inscrutable prose. While its true that his syntax and sentence structure lends a different rhythm to his writing that is most definitely of its time, a willing reader can acclimate to Scott's style without too much trouble. The Scotch dialect in the mouths of his characters can take a little getting used to and may indeed blow a stiff breeze up your kilt, but Scott provides some gentle contextual clues that help readers get the hang of it fairly quickly.
These days, his work is long out of fashion among academics and the public. Ivanhoe and Rob Roy are still famous works, but other than that, the Scott section of your local library is likely covered in dust and strewn with plaid-colored cobwebs. It's a shame, because with a little effort, the average reader might find out firsthand how wonderful his books are.
Enjoying an historical novel hinges upon the fact that you know a few things about history in order to appreciate one. That tends to put people off, reinforcing an unfortunate stereotype about the inaccessibility of great literature to modern readers. This perception is precisely what this blog was intended to dispel. One can understand a novel in historical context easily enough if one is even moderately motivated. So I'll let you in on a little secret: When encountering a work with an unfamiliar historical context, I turn to Wikipedia.
There. Now you know. I feel better for telling you. Wikipedia is far from perfect, but it's a great place to start. Want to know about the Jacobite rebellions in the 18th century? Want to dabble in the feudal clan culture of the Highlands? Want to understand the socioeconomic concerns of the Lowland peasantry? I did. I wanted to unlock some of the secrets of Scott. And I followed the sources of the Wiki articles to find even more fascinating reading that I will never have time enough to read if I hope to continue to work and buy food. But you can wade through just enough background information to help enhance your understanding of an older text in maybe twenty minutes or so, whereas taking on research just to enjoy a new book used to mean a trip to the library with a lot of people in thick glasses shushing at each other. Now, not only do you have access to great works of literature in the form of eBooks for free from places like Project Gutenberg, but you don't have to work very hard to get the most out of a good book.
Waverley (1814)
What you need to know: The seeds of conflict date back to a royal succession dispute in 1688 which ended the reign of the House of Stuart as the ruling family. In 1745, The Jacobites, who supported Bonnie Prince Charlie of the House of Stuart as the legitimate heir to the British throne, attempted an armed rebellion against the sitting monarch, George II of the House of Hanover. Their march across the Scottish border into England to retake the crown was ill conceived, as they were massively outnumbered by the king's forces and quickly defeated.
The title character of Scott's first novel is a young, privileged English gentleman of romantic disposition. His uncle, despite being a Jacobite sympathizer and recognizing a need for the young man to find direction in life, encourages him to join the army under the reigning king, George II. Waverley becomes a captain and is stationed in Aberdeen. Before leaving, his uncle gives him a letter of introduction to Baron Bradwardine, an old friend in the lowlands with whom he fought in the Jacobite uprising of 1715. Waverley, upon obtaining an extended leave of absence from his command, spends several weeks on the Baron's estate where he is introduced to many key instigators in the upcoming rebellion. As his ties to his new friends deepen, a series of events (no spoilers) forces young Waverley to resign his commission and join their ill-fated cause.
As young Waverley's eyes are opened to the beauty and mystery of Scotland, its customs and its people, as his imagination is sparked by romantic tales and visions of gallantry, so is the reader transported to an impossibly beautiful place where the very breeze whispers ancient rhymes and the rugged landscape reflects the toil and character of a proud people. It's all pretty intoxicating. But the reality of Waverley's situation encroaches on this fantasy soon enough as a series of intrigues and misfortunes force the young soldier to make crucial decisions about his allegiances.
Scott had me from the very start with a trifecta of good writing: fluent prose, ingenious plotting and truly rich and engaging characters. This novel is a not-so-subtle plea for tolerance that still resonates two hundred years later. Waverley isn't the only one whose view of the world is significantly colored by his own ideals. The people he befriends see their relationship to the world and to each other through a veil of their own convictions and prejudices, and their subjectivity has dire consequences. Waverley emerges from his trials as a man transformed by his shattered illusions with a firmer grasp of himself and the world around him.
Great novels like this are accessible to us if we are adventurous enough to put aside our own prejudices about them. By making an effort to dispel our own preconceptions about the world, we can begin to see and understand it better, much in the same way Waverley does. And this is why I love literature so much. It parallels life. We are open to understand only if we are willing to do so, and what we gain by our efforts is immeasurable. Adventurous reading can enrich our understanding of ourselves. That is the transformative power of literature and that is why I share these books with you.
A note about this edition: For this eBook, Project Gutenberg used a very fancy deluxe edition from 1893 that is a reprint of the definitive 1829 edition. It has tons of introductory material, including a preface by the author and several examples of the author's false starts that he produced while trying to write his first novel, printed in full. Interesting stuff, but skip all of it until you've read the book. The actual novel begins at 15%. Oh, and the illustrations are wonderful.
Download Waverley from Project Gutenberg
My first exposure to Scott came when I was a just a kid via this very funny Monty Python sketch:
Sir Walter Scott has an unjust reputation for turgid and inscrutable prose. While its true that his syntax and sentence structure lends a different rhythm to his writing that is most definitely of its time, a willing reader can acclimate to Scott's style without too much trouble. The Scotch dialect in the mouths of his characters can take a little getting used to and may indeed blow a stiff breeze up your kilt, but Scott provides some gentle contextual clues that help readers get the hang of it fairly quickly.
These days, his work is long out of fashion among academics and the public. Ivanhoe and Rob Roy are still famous works, but other than that, the Scott section of your local library is likely covered in dust and strewn with plaid-colored cobwebs. It's a shame, because with a little effort, the average reader might find out firsthand how wonderful his books are.
Enjoying an historical novel hinges upon the fact that you know a few things about history in order to appreciate one. That tends to put people off, reinforcing an unfortunate stereotype about the inaccessibility of great literature to modern readers. This perception is precisely what this blog was intended to dispel. One can understand a novel in historical context easily enough if one is even moderately motivated. So I'll let you in on a little secret: When encountering a work with an unfamiliar historical context, I turn to Wikipedia.
There. Now you know. I feel better for telling you. Wikipedia is far from perfect, but it's a great place to start. Want to know about the Jacobite rebellions in the 18th century? Want to dabble in the feudal clan culture of the Highlands? Want to understand the socioeconomic concerns of the Lowland peasantry? I did. I wanted to unlock some of the secrets of Scott. And I followed the sources of the Wiki articles to find even more fascinating reading that I will never have time enough to read if I hope to continue to work and buy food. But you can wade through just enough background information to help enhance your understanding of an older text in maybe twenty minutes or so, whereas taking on research just to enjoy a new book used to mean a trip to the library with a lot of people in thick glasses shushing at each other. Now, not only do you have access to great works of literature in the form of eBooks for free from places like Project Gutenberg, but you don't have to work very hard to get the most out of a good book.
Waverley (1814)
What you need to know: The seeds of conflict date back to a royal succession dispute in 1688 which ended the reign of the House of Stuart as the ruling family. In 1745, The Jacobites, who supported Bonnie Prince Charlie of the House of Stuart as the legitimate heir to the British throne, attempted an armed rebellion against the sitting monarch, George II of the House of Hanover. Their march across the Scottish border into England to retake the crown was ill conceived, as they were massively outnumbered by the king's forces and quickly defeated.
The title character of Scott's first novel is a young, privileged English gentleman of romantic disposition. His uncle, despite being a Jacobite sympathizer and recognizing a need for the young man to find direction in life, encourages him to join the army under the reigning king, George II. Waverley becomes a captain and is stationed in Aberdeen. Before leaving, his uncle gives him a letter of introduction to Baron Bradwardine, an old friend in the lowlands with whom he fought in the Jacobite uprising of 1715. Waverley, upon obtaining an extended leave of absence from his command, spends several weeks on the Baron's estate where he is introduced to many key instigators in the upcoming rebellion. As his ties to his new friends deepen, a series of events (no spoilers) forces young Waverley to resign his commission and join their ill-fated cause.
As young Waverley's eyes are opened to the beauty and mystery of Scotland, its customs and its people, as his imagination is sparked by romantic tales and visions of gallantry, so is the reader transported to an impossibly beautiful place where the very breeze whispers ancient rhymes and the rugged landscape reflects the toil and character of a proud people. It's all pretty intoxicating. But the reality of Waverley's situation encroaches on this fantasy soon enough as a series of intrigues and misfortunes force the young soldier to make crucial decisions about his allegiances.
Scott had me from the very start with a trifecta of good writing: fluent prose, ingenious plotting and truly rich and engaging characters. This novel is a not-so-subtle plea for tolerance that still resonates two hundred years later. Waverley isn't the only one whose view of the world is significantly colored by his own ideals. The people he befriends see their relationship to the world and to each other through a veil of their own convictions and prejudices, and their subjectivity has dire consequences. Waverley emerges from his trials as a man transformed by his shattered illusions with a firmer grasp of himself and the world around him.
Great novels like this are accessible to us if we are adventurous enough to put aside our own prejudices about them. By making an effort to dispel our own preconceptions about the world, we can begin to see and understand it better, much in the same way Waverley does. And this is why I love literature so much. It parallels life. We are open to understand only if we are willing to do so, and what we gain by our efforts is immeasurable. Adventurous reading can enrich our understanding of ourselves. That is the transformative power of literature and that is why I share these books with you.
A note about this edition: For this eBook, Project Gutenberg used a very fancy deluxe edition from 1893 that is a reprint of the definitive 1829 edition. It has tons of introductory material, including a preface by the author and several examples of the author's false starts that he produced while trying to write his first novel, printed in full. Interesting stuff, but skip all of it until you've read the book. The actual novel begins at 15%. Oh, and the illustrations are wonderful.
Download Waverley from Project Gutenberg
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