Pacing through the website of Forgotten Books, an online library with hundreds of thousands of titles, is like walking through the aisles of a favorite bookstore. I "open" one book, skim through, and alight upon certain lines that make my decision for me (yes, I want to read this book!) and that decision leads me to turn down another aisle, and then another, and another, choosing and perusing books all along the way. Just like in a real and wonderful bookstore, Forgotten Books provides the adventure of opening doors (books! books!) that lead to greater and greater adventure, and more discoveries - and more books. If ever there were a source for fulfilling a bibliophile's wildest desires, short of actually having feet planted in the world's largest bookstore and hands reaching for volume after volume, Forgotten Books is it. It is the largest online library in the world, and offers free access to much of its website (and access to all of it at reasonable prices).
I went online to Forgotten Books in search of interesting letters - I am addicted to letters as well as books - and a one-word search for "letters" led me within seconds to such interesting books as Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft by Sir Walter Scott, first published in 1830, and then onto Letters to My Son, written by William Gibson and published in 1917, and then, leaving letters behind I plunged into The Rosicrucians, Their Rites and Mysteries, by Hargrave Jennings, first published in 1907 and finally, to Travels in the Old World, by the Reverend J.M. Rowl, a marvel published in 1922.
Are you kidding me? Am I in heaven? Book heaven? I had sat down to my computer and my searching with a headache, head cold, and a fever. I rose up light as air and floating on sunshine. Okay, by bedtime I was back in a feverish state, shivering under blankets and hot water bottles, but at least I had plenty of reading material to keep me company. I had my downloaded forgotten but now recovered books, all of them found during my online treasure hunt. Was I looking for the Reverend Rowl? No, of course not. But how lucky I was to find him.
Not only can out of print and hard to find books be found on Forgotten Books, but images taken from many such books can also be viewed in their original state, with millions of images extracted from old books and available for viewing on the site. I searched for images of Wilkie Collins, and was thrilled to find his sweet old face, over and over, along with the designs imprinted on many of his first books. Searching doesn't stop there, with images, but goes even further. There is the ability to chart the usage of every English language word throughout publishing history or to search for words or terms in the entire online selection. I could find hundreds of thousands of books related to a search term - and each and every one of those books is available to me!
I am a stalwart fan of the printed page and I'd rather be in a bricks and mortar bookstore than just about any place on earth but this adventure - of reading books long out of print and difficult, if not impossible, to find - provides at-home access for finding books I never even knew existed. Online resources have their place - a wonderful, happy place - for fixing the addictions of book lovers everywhere. No matter where I am, or what time it is, or what state I am in (pajamas and slippers, Kleenex blotting my nose), Forgotten Books and its brethren provide a constant and beautiful feed to my need for books, all kinds and sorts of books. Addicted to books? Online treasuries of long-gone books,like Forgotten Books, will expand your universe and fulfill at least some of your desires.