Friday free-read.
I tell my husband all the time that after my engagement ring, my Kindle is literally the best present he has ever given me.
I use my Kindle every day… In the gym? Reading my Kindle. Waiting for an oil change? Reading my Kindle. Long drive? Kindle!
Recently, I discovered something that actually made me fall in love with my Kindle all over again. Free books.
Amazon.com has more than 2 million Popular Classics available for free, but there are a bunch of other resources available for e-readers. This Christmas, Mashable posted an article of 6 amazing websites with literally millions of free e-books.
I should mention, an e-reader is not required to read a free book. You can download most of these books as PDFs, and then read them on your laptop. (Subliminal message: get an e-reader!)
Each week, I will be posting a title, synopsis, and review of a free e-book from one of the following resources:
Amazon.com
Project Gutenberg
Google E-Bookstore
Internet Archive
Open Library
ManyBooks.net
LibriVox
This week, I feel like I pretty much have to start with a classic. (Hello, my name is Nicole, and I was an English major.) While I plan on selecting more contemporary titles in the future, I am starting this weekly feature with Little Women.
Little Women is my favorite piece of classic American literature.
Most people know what Little Women is loosely about, but I think the story is more relevant today than ever before. Little Women is about Jo March, and her sisters. In a society where women are taught to be seamstresses, the March girls run their own household, while their father fights for the Union in the Civil War.
Much like the Civil War era, we live in a society that diverges more each day. While liberals get more liberal, and conservatives get more conservative, so few people are willing to just be decent to one another because it is right. I think that is what resonates with me about Little Women. No matter what is happening in the world around her, Jo March is always trying to do what is right, while admitting that she is “hopelessly flawed.”
It all gets back to what I wrote in my first blog post, and I think this is the right way to end my first week of blogging. Part of the reason I love Little Women is this one scene where Jo March is discussing politics with a group of men in a New York City boarding house. She has the courage to speak up, and explains that women should be able to vote, not because they are somehow more good than men, but because they are human. Seems simple, but to the men around her, it is revolutionary. The men tell Jo that she should have been a lawyer, and Jo replies,
“I should have been a great many things.”
That is really how I feel about myself sometimes. I probably should have been a great many things. But here is the truth… we are all hopelessly flawed, but we each have the opportunity to live a life of small victories.
I encourage you to read Little Women of course, but even more than that, I encourage you to view your life from that perspective. As someone who each day accomplishes some small victory.
Or even a large victory, if you are more like my heroine Jo March.
(Source: Mashable)
