Ebook of the Week on CD
Compiled and Indexed by Richard Seltzer B&R Samizdat Express - January 11, 2006
Genre: Literature, History
Reviewed by Rochelle Caviness - February 21, 2006
In March of 2004, B&R Samizdat Express began to issue a free Ebook of the Week in which one Ebook is sent, via email, to subscribers every week. Since its inception, B&R Samizdat Express has sent out books covering a variety of topics and genres from classic works of fiction to modern political treatises such as a transcript of the second Bush-Kerry debate. Combined, these Ebooks have provided subscribers with unprecedented access to a wealth of information and literary works. Now, Richard Seltzer has gathered together all the Ebooks of the Week into a single CD-ROM volume. This CD contains all of the Ebooks of the Week from March 3, 2004 and is current up to the date on the disc. Doing a very rough count, the current version of this CD contains nearly ninety Ebooks - all for under $20!
You can find a complete list of all the books on this CD online at: http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat/week.html. However, to give you a taste of all this collection has to offer, here is a list of some of my favorite books that you will find in this collection:
Macaulay's translation of The History of Herodotus
A Voyage to the South Sea by William Bligh
In Time of Emergency: a Citizen's Handbook on Nuclear Attack and National Disaster (Very nostalgic, especially for anyone who had to endure duck-and-cover drills in school!)
Roughing It by Mark Twain, plus several other books by Twain, including several collections of his short stories.
The Great English Short-Story Writers, Volume 1, published in 1910
A Vindication of the Rights of Women by Mary Wollstonecraft
Tales of Old Japan by Lord Redesdale
The Inspector General a play by Nikolai Gogol
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson
The Voyage of the Beagle, by Charles Darwin
Persuasion, by Jane Austen
The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas
Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne.
The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Stories by Bret Harte
The Boy Mechanic Volume 1 "700 Things for Boys to Do" (This text is saved in two versions, a plain text version, and a PDF version that contains illustrations.)
Mauprat, by George Sand
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
As you can see by this short list, this is an eclectic collection of books that has a little something for everyone. It is ideal for general reading, as well as a literary resource for students.
This CD is intended for use on Windows PCs and recent Macs (OS 10 or above). In addition, to read the books in this collection, you will need to have a web browser or a word processing program installed in your computer in order to open the files. As the books in this collection are presented in plain-text format, this collection is also ideal for readers with low vision who need to modify (enlarge or change the color of the font) or who use computer screen reading or magnification programs. In addition, this CD ships with a version of ReadPlease, a text-to-speech program that will delight visually impaired users, as well as anyone desirous of having their computer read the books out loud to them.
ReadPlease
ReadPlease is a windows-based screen reading program. Two versions of the ReadPlease program come with the CD, a free version and ReadPlease Plus, a commercial shareware version. To use the program, you simply highlight the text you want read to you, and the computer will read it aloud. In the free version you can only highlight 16,000 bytes of text at one time, whereas with the commercial version you can set the program to read an unlimited amount of text at one time.
Related Reviews:
Non-Fiction CD, Compiled by Richard Seltzer.
Over 500 books on topics ranging from History to Natural Science, all on one CD.
Drama, Compiled by Richard Seltzer.
215 plays by 47 playwrights, including works in English, Spanish, German, French, plus works in English translation. Plays included in this collection range from the complete plays of Gilbert and Sullivan to Chitra, the renowned Indian masterpiece by Rabindranath Tagore.
