Project Gutenberg shines on the iPad

One more for NewsTilt.

I’m sitting on a London bus that’s making its way up Sloane Street on its way to the historic central district of Mayfair where Lords and Ladies once entertained. I glance up from reading The Picture of Dorian Gray as I pass the Cadogan Hotel where the book’s author, Oscar Wilde, was arrested in 1895.

As the bus trundles along I return to the glowing screen of an Apple iPad where, in Wilde’s story, Lord Henry Wotton is entertaining in his Mayfair home.

I obtained the copy of Dorian Gray for free using Apple’s iBooks application; Apple in turn obtained the text from an almost 40 year old project to scan books that are no longer under copyright called Project Gutenberg.

The rest.

If you enjoyed this blog post, you might enjoy my travel book for people interested in science and technology: The Geek Atlas. Signed copies of The Geek Atlas are available. Looking for a new job? Try UseTheSource.