As you may have already heard, Google is making books in the public domain freely downloadable. I think this is an outstanding idea and I can't wait to see the list grow.
However, I find myself becoming spoiled by this sort of access. How many times have you tried to remember what it was like before the internet explosion?...
For example, there's an old movie I wanted to watch - Last Holiday - after seeing the modern version of it.
Now, I don't know if it's in the public domain or not (most likely not), but the fact that I can't just get it online stumped me...it's kinda like the ultimate urban cowboy faced by an unlit pile of wood - how do I heat up my expresso? I'd be happy to pay a few bucks to see it (thank you iTunes for conditioning me), but I know that it's almost impossible to find in the local video rental stores. I could try to find someone selling it, but that would be time and a lot more money than I'm interested in watching it.
In addition, I've been learning to play the piano for the last year or so. I've found that I really enjoy spanish pieces, especially the classics, but that's hard to find at the local music store. I've often wanted to pull down PDFs of various music, but believe it or not, there's no central powerhouse for that. There are a few small shops with rather dubious looking websites that offer the service, but again, why am I paying for a score written 300 years ago? Are you listening Google?
I never really considered myself lazy, but boy, I'm getting pretty spoiled.
I find myself wanting to Ctrl-F my books all the time.
Posted by: rkimedes | September 04, 2006 at 11:07 PM