http://www.samizdat.com/blog Thoughts about books, publishing, and other matters of interest to Richard Seltzer Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:58:27 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en This week's Free Ebook of the Week consists of "Roger-Isms: The Cowboy Philosopher on the Peace Conference" by Will Rogers, a piece about the Versailles Peace Conference. Since that is so short, I'm also including volume 1 of The Wit and Humor of America (with contents too long to list). ... http://www.samizdat.com/blog/?p=437 This week's book is "Lincoln's Yarns and Stories: A Complete Collection of the Funny and Witty Anecdotes that Made Abraham Lincoln Famous as America's Greatest Story Teller". According to the Preface: "Dean Swift said that the man who makes two blades of grass grow where one grew before serves ... http://www.samizdat.com/blog/?p=436 Continuing our celebration of copyright freedom, this week's Ebook of the Week is "Dream Psychology" by Sigmund Freud (who died in 1939). According to Wikipedia: "Sigmund Freud ... (May 6, 1856 – September 23, 1939), was a Jewish-Austrian neurologist who founded the psychoanalytic school of psychiatry.[1] Freud is best ... http://www.samizdat.com/blog/?p=435 This week we continue our celebration of "copyright freedom" with "The Good Solider" by Ford Madox Ford. According to Wikipedia: "The Good Soldier: A Tale of Passion is a 1915 novel by English novelist Ford Madox Ford. It is set just before World War I and chronicles the tragedies of ... http://www.samizdat.com/blog/?p=434 What's you take on the iPad? The press seems to consider it as competition to Kindle and Sony ebook readers. But it is designed as a general purpose computer, not as an ebook reader. While it's possible to read text on it, I see no reason why anyone would want to ... http://www.samizdat.com/blog/?p=433 Continuing our copyright freedom celebration, and based on a suggestion from Betty Bandy, this week's book is "The Cossacks: a Tale of 1852" by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude. According to Wikipedia: "The Cossacks is a short novel by Leo Tolstoy, published in 1863. The ... http://www.samizdat.com/blog/?p=432 In the wake of the Senate election in Massachusetts, an old friend and I were talking politics. I mentioned that the healthcare system is broken. He countered that the political system is broken. I agreed. He suggested that one small thing that could be done to help improve ... http://www.samizdat.com/blog/?p=431 January is copyright independence month. In the European Union the term for copyright protection is the date of the author's death plus 70 years. That means that on Jan. 1, 2010, works by authors who died in 1939 finally entered the public domain. So we will celebrate ... http://www.samizdat.com/blog/?p=430 Thanks to a suggestion from Penny Golden, the Kid's Book of the Week is "The Basket Flowers" by Christoph von Schmid. According to Wikipedia, "Writer of children's stories and educator, Christoph von Schmid was born at Dinkelsbuehl, in Bavaria, on 15 August 1768, and died at ... http://www.samizdat.com/blog/?p=429 This week's Free Ebook of the Week is "The Christmas Books of Mr. M.A. Titmarsh" by William Makepeace Thackeray. This book comes from our Christmas CD http://samizdat.stores.yahoo.net/christmas.html According to Wikipedia: "William Makepeace Thackeray (18 July 1811 – 24 December 1863) was an English novelist of the 19th century. He was ... http://www.samizdat.com/blog/?p=428