Project Gutenberg recommended books

These are books interesting to me which I found on Project Gutenberg. I use Random Books to find books, and try downloading them. Most of the books are not very interesting, but sometimes they are. I'm recording the more interesting books here in case anyone else finds them useful.

I am only going to put books here which I have actually read, rather than books which I intend to read later or think it would make me sound clever to recommend to people.

Project Gutenberg's search function is hopeless, and it has been that way for years. For whatever reason they also block Google from searching their archive. Please don't waste time trying to search their site but use the direct links below.

I generally read these books by downloading the epub version and using the "Moon Reader" ebook reader on an HTC ISW11HT android mobile phone. (I don't have a phone contract for the phone so it's just an ebook reader.) Typically I download about forty or fifty books for each one I actually read to the end.

The Story of Paul Boyton: Voyages on All the Great Rivers of the World by Paul Boyton

Link to book page

Describes the author's adventures in a 19th century diving apparatus, meeting Queen Victoria, various river adventures.

Reminiscences of Forts Sumter and Moultrie in 1860-'61 by Abner Doubleday

Link to book page

Describes the author's role in an action of the American Civil War.

My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass

Link to book page

Describes the author's experiences working as a slave in the American south.

Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup

Link to book page

I read this as part of the coursework for an online course at Coursera. It differs a lot from the film, which seems to be partly fictional. For example, the hangings depicted in the film are not found in the book at all. It's too bad that the film makers felt the need to exaggerate like that.

A Reversible Santa Claus by Meredith Nicholson

Link to book page

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