Non-Fiction CD
Over 500 books
Compiled by Richard Seltzer Seedy Press, (February 12, 2002)
B & R Samizdat Express
P. O. Box 161
West Roxbury, MA, 02132
ISBN: 0-915232-99-5
Reviewed by Rochelle Caviness - March 25, 2002
This monster CD (compact disc) contains a wide variety of non-fiction books covering a wealth of topics including history, natural science, technology, social science, philosophy, fine art, music, literary criticism, and a selection of reference books. All the books on this CD are presented in a plain text format, making them easily readable with a wide variety of screen reading programs. They also work well with most screen magnification programs.
In all, there are over 500 books on this CD, and a complete list of all the titles it contains can be found online at: http://www.samizdat.com/noncd.html. All the books in this collection are in the public domain, and it includes many titles that are hard-to-find in print. This Non-Fiction CD is also very inexpensive. For the cost of one book, you can acquire a research library's worth of books, including most of the major works by the Scottish writer Thomas Carlyle. Throughout his life, Carlyle wrote a number of comprehensive, and multi-volume, histories. Those histories by Carlyle contained on this CD includes: The Early Kings of Norway, Heroes and Hero Worship, The French Revolution, and the History of Friedrich II of Prussia.
You can get an idea of the wealth of information in this collection by perusing the following outline of the major topics covered on this CD:
Fine Art, Music, and Literary Criticism
This section includes books about fine art, music, drama, and books about books, such Old English Libraries, The Making, Collection, and Use of Books During the
Middle Ages by Ernest Savage and The American Spirit in Literature by Bliss Perry.
History
Covering a wealth of topics from ancient history to the Vietnam War, this topic offers a wide selection of books and documents dealing with all aspects of world history. Most of the books are indexed by country or by topical headings such as exploration. This section is a phenomenal resource for historians, history buffs and students. Unfortunately, most history nerds cannot afford to possess even a smidgen of the books that they would like to have on-hand.
As one such nerd, this section is of particular interest to me. I am very impressed with the variety of selections and the importance of many of the works contained herein, such as the inclusion of "Documents Relevant to Great Britain's Response to Germany's Invasion of Poland 1939" and "Documents Relevant to the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor 1941."
Natural Science and Technology
This topic includes books dealing with Astronomy,
Biology and Evolution (including 19 books by Charles Darwin),
General Science,
Geology and Geography,
Medicine,
Physics, and Technology. The technology subsection covers a variety of technology related books dealing with subjects ranging from the history of flight to nuclear power.
Philosophy
Offers a variety of philosophy texts from around the world and includes philosophical works from Greece, Germany, France, Holland (three books by Baruch Spinoza), China, America, and Ancient Rome.
Reference
As far as strictly reference books go, this collection includes the CIA World Factbook 2000, Literary Blunders by Henry Wheatley, Roget's Thesaurus, 1911 edition, and Style by Walter Raleigh.
Social Science
The last section on this CD concerns all aspects of the social sciences including anthropology, mythology, economics, psychology, sociology, and women's studies to name just a few of its subsections. Books in this section run the gamut from The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli to Sun Tzu on the Art of War, translated by Lionel Giles.
In short, this Non-Fiction CD provides quick and easy access to a treasure-trove of non-fiction titles. The books in this collection are varied enough to provide 'something for everyone' and it will keep you reading for years. While many of these works are well known classics, many more are gems that have been overlooked for years simply because it has been difficult to acquire print copies of books that have been out-of-print for a long period. This quick overview of this CD does not do it justice. I highly recommend that you go to: http://www.samizdat.com/noncd.html and take a look at the complete list of all the books contained on this CD.
To run this CD, you will need a Windows PC, a CD-Rom drive and either a web browser or Microsoft's Word in order to access the texts contained on this CD.
British Literature, Compiled by Richard Seltzer.
Over 720 classic works of British Literature, all on one CD, ranging from Beowulf and The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle to Frankenstein and the works of H. Rider Haggard. (Compact Disc)
World Literature, Compiled by Richard Seltzer.
This collection contains over 470 books, from around the world, on one CD. (Compact Disc).
