by Jonelle Lemcke, AWC Denmark
The first major, independent purchase in my life was a set of books. The Great Books of the Western World, issued by Encyclopedia Britannica, was irresistible! Although it was expensive, my parents supported me in the purchase and had to approve my contract. Still in high school, I had a part-time job in one of our city’s top department stores and I believed in the future. I could and would pay for those books. Although many were duplicates of what we had at home, I wanted my own copies that were mine, for life! On top of that, the books in the series had been selected by top educators as an integrated system of the most meaningful books of Western Culture. Know them, understand them and one was equipped to understand life and the world as events changed it. What a dazzling idea! And…that’s what a book provides… the power of ideas. This brings me to my joy in promoting Project Gutenberg. Project Gutenberg today is an online library of over 60,000 free eBooks, available to download or read online.
As their website says, “You will find the world’s great literature here, with focus on older works for which US copyright has expired.” This means that wherever you are in the world, regardless of the availability of library facilities in English, a wealth of knowledge, philosophy and humor is available to you with a few clicks on the computer.
What about the reading plans that you’ve established in your life? What about those classics on your bucket list? What about those books that you’ve wanted to reread? What about those “other works” by authors whom you’ve enjoyed? What about those works that you half-read the first time around? What about those books whose truths have become more obvious and relevant with time? What about those books which in our day are considered to be so provocative that they are subject to being banned? What is this about?
The community of FAWCO members can claim to be more worldly and open than most. Life itself provides an education. Our international experience… with exposure to other mores… gives us an advantage in understanding the world. We are charmed, thrilled and excited by the power of ideas. Libraries house them in abundance but the Gutenberg Project puts them at our fingertips!
