Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Old Books on Kindle

From all corners of the world, authors are getting rights to their back lists and republishing old books as ebooks. Books that have been out of print for decades are finding new life in the digital age. All I can say is...hurray! 

Confession time: I am not one to typically reread books, especially those from my youth (sometimes they don't measure up to what I remember...) because I am a lazy reader. I experienced enough repetition practicing piano scales to last me a lifetime. And while I have no problem revisiting old sitcoms, movies, and comics a half-dozen or more times, I just don't crack open a book more than once. But the rekindling (forgive my pun, or don't...) of old memories, no longer at the expense of trees, if just fine by me. The first day I got my iPad, I downloaded all those old public domain books, from Mark Twain's works to Edgar Rice Burroughs's Barsoomian adventures (yay!) to the Meditations of Emperor of Rome Marcus Aurelius (I lost scalp scratching my head over that one). In regards to the latter, I still don't know if it was intentionally written in riddles or fell victim to a case of bad formatting...

There are some books I missed the first time around, and others that I am sure a new generation of readers would appreciate. So far, a few that I might actually enjoy rereading have not reappeared. 

Wishing for these in ebook format...

The Quest of the Riddle-Master Trilogy by Patricia A. McKillip
The Riddle-Master of Hed
Heir of Sea and Fire
Harpist in the Wind

This is a trilogy that stuck with me over the years. It had a profound effect on me and I remember thinking about the characters and their struggles for month afterward. I would love to revisit it, yet so far, I have only been able to acquire the second book, Heir of Sea and Fire.

Saturday, the Twelfth of October by Norma Fox Mazer
I read this story in grade school and I remember feeling transported to a past civilization right along with the main character, Zan. The book impressed me. Apparently, I'm not the only one who appreciated it, as the hardcover goes for $399. 

Do you have any books you would like to find again as ebooks? Please share. :)
-Kara


4 comments:

  1. The Witch World by Andre Norton. Some of her other books are available in e-format but not the first couple Witch World.
    The Williamsburg Saga by Elswyth Thane, eight (I think) amazing books following a family from the Revolutionary War to WWII.
    Mary Stewart's Romantic Suspense books.
    I have all these in various paper formats but would really like them with me wherever I go...and some are too rare and precious to take the paper out of the house

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    1. Witch World. I will have to check that series out. Thanks Monica!
      -Kara

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  2. Hi Kara,

    Thanks for introducing me to Patricia A. McKillip -- I never heard of her but know from checking out her name on Amazon that I will love her books. An new treasure for me!

    As for me, I'd love to see M.M. Kaye's The Far Pavilions and Shadow of the Moon in ebook format.

    Enjoyed this topic, thanks!

    Gemma Juliana

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    1. OMGosh Gemma! Can you imagine the Far Pavilions on ebook? Flip ten pages and still be at 0% on kindle progress bar! Lol! :) Thanks for stopping by!
      -Kara

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