When, at age eight or nine, I inherited a box of books from my cousins, I felt as if I'd been given the world. I remember very clearly the smell and texture of
those old cloth-covered hardbacks, and the feeling of anticipation as I
unpacked the box at home. One of those books was
Little Women, which gave me my first seductive glimpse of a writer’s life: Jo March scribbling in the attic with a pet rat for company. In fact, a few of those books might still be on our shelves.
I thought about that box recently while poking around
Project Gutenberg,
the user-friendly site founded by the late Michael Stern Hart that at present offers 44,479 e-books for free download. What a gift!
