Reader's Corner - February 2012 Update

"This Mr. Dickens has a promising future."

February may have been a short month (even with the extra day), but I got some good reading in!

I read and reviewed Cinder by Marissa Meyer for the 2012 Debut Author Challenge. Lots of fun, that one.

In other reading news, Charles Dickens' 200th birthday was February 7 and I finally finished Bleak House! Yes! (Four years and 881 pages later.)

Much like Desmond on Lost, my goal is to read all of Dickens' books before I die. (Except I have already read Our Mutual Friend. Hey, I was an English major.)

Next on my Dickens bucket list is The Old Curiosity Shop. Don't know when I'm going to start it, definitely don't know when I'll finish it, but I will. And I'll more than likely get it from Project Gutenberg.

Never heard of Project Gutenberg? Well, they are completely made of awesome. They have nearly 40,000 public domain works available for FREE. As in FREE. These are downloadable books available for just about every e-reader out there, including Kindles. FREE!

Some are even available as audiobooks! For FREE! (I haven't tried the audiobooks, so I can't vouch for the quality, but did I mention that they're free?)

Besides Bleak House, I've also downloaded Anne of Green Gables and Peter Pan from Project Gutenberg. It's a super easy way to stock up your e-reader with classics. If you are so inclined, you can donate to Project Gutenberg to help defray their costs, which is much more altruistic than paying Amazon for a public domain work that's just 100% pure profit for them. You can also donate your time to be a proofreader or reader.

Happy Reading!