Wind in the Willows - by English author Kenneth Graeme

Free US/UK Kindle Classic

Wind in the Willows was written by English author Kenneth Graeme in 1909. (US Edition)  (UK Edition)  Mole and Rat and Toad and Badger are so real to me, that I think Graeme must have just recorded what he overheard along the riverbank.

There are some Amazon reader reviews that criticize the formatting, but that problem has been fixed.  There are no illustrations.  But, this book was originally published without illustrations!  That is surprising if you can't think of the book without the pictures from the childhood edition you loved, but the words do stand on their own . . .

"The Toad never answered a word, or budged from his seat in the road; so they went to see what was the matter with him. They found him in a sort of a trance, a happy smile on his face, his eyes still fixed on the dusty wake of their destroyer. At intervals he was still heard to murmur 'Poop-poop!'

The Rat shook him by the shoulder. 'Are you coming to help us, Toad?' he demanded sternly.

'Glorious, stirring sight!' murmured Toad, never offering to move. 'The poetry of motion! The REAL way to travel! The ONLY way to travel! Here to-day— in next week to-morrow! Villages skipped, towns and cities jumped— always somebody else's horizon! O bliss! O poop-poop! O my! O my!' 'O STOP being an ass, Toad!' cried the Mole despairingly."

Yes of course I had to mention the motorcar. But this book is more than a cautionary tale on how not to drive.  It is primarily about friendship.

"The Rat hummed a tune, and the Mole recollected that animal-etiquette forbade any sort of comment on the sudden disappearance of one's friends at any moment, for any reason or no reason whatever."

So whether it has been too long or if you read it every year or even if you inexplicably have this on your bucket list, now is a great time to download and read this great, free, timeless Kindle Classic.

"After all, the best part of a holiday is perhaps not so much to be resting yourself, as to see all the other fellows busy working."

Download this copy and no matter the weather, you will never be far from a fair day on the riverbank.

This blog is a guide to the best free and inexpensive classic literature for the US & UK Kindle. If you enjoy my suggestions, please tell your friends who read to give my blog a try. 

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For a nominal fee of 99 cents/pence, you can subscribe to this blog and have it automatically download on your Kindle. This gives you the convenience of being able to download the books directly to your Kindle, instead of downloading them to your computer and then transferring them to your Kindle. It also helps support my blog.

UK readers may go to this Amazon link to subscribe.  (Slightly more than half my readers are from the UK)

US readers may go to this Amazon link

Thank to all my readers, whether you subscribe on your Kindle or whether you read it online.  I love to get good reviews!  Who wouldn't?  Should you care to leave a review, follow these links for UK readers or US readers

Mr. Justice Raffles by E. W. Hornung

Free US/UK Kindle Classic

Feliz Navidad as we say in San Antonio, Texas!  I am actually in Indiana tonight and waiting on a blizzard which I hope will not affect my travel plans Friday.  I am spending Christmas with my family here and will be bringing my 97 year old mother to Texas for the winter to get her out of the snow and cold.

A few days ago I received a notice from Amazon that my blog had not been updated for over a month.  I was shocked because I publish a new blog twice a week (usually Tuesday and Thursday) and have done so for over two years.  However, I did not know the blog was not updating because I had to pay to subscribe.  I now do that, but when I was starting out, I only had a free subscription for a month to make sure it worked.  

I have no clue why the blog did not update and get pushed to your Kindles.  I am very sorry that happened and as of this week I subscribe so I will know if there is a problem.  It is working now because, basically, I kicked the tires.  I just kept sending the same information through over and over until it started to work.  I had made no change that might affect publication.  

If you subscribe via e-mail or rss (as opposed to subscribing on your Kindle), you must subscribe again to the feed by clicking on this link.

I am very sorry that my  faithful subscribers had this problem.  If you ever have an issue, please e-mail me marilyn@marilynlittcom

Now, down to business with Mr. Justice Raffles by English author E. W. Hornung (brother-in-law of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.) (US Edition)  (UK Edition)

This book is the last in the Raffles series about the gentleman crook.  It has a very nice beginning!

Raffles had vanished from the face of the town, and even I had no conception of his whereabouts until he cabled to me to meet the 7.31 at Charing Cross next night. That was on the Tuesday before the 'Varsity match, or a full fortnight after his mysterious disappearance.

I love a mystery!

The traffic in Piccadilly came as crisply to the ear as on a winter's night of hard frost. It was a night of wine, and sparkling wine, and the day at Lord's must surely be a day of nectar. I could not help wondering whether any man had ever played in the University match with such a load upon his soul as E.M. Garland was taking to his forced slumbers; and then whether any heavy-laden soul had ever hit upon two such brother confessors as Raffles and myself!

Enjoy!

This blog is a guide to the best free and inexpensive classic literature for the US & UK Kindle. If you enjoy my suggestions, please tell your friends who read to give my blog a try. 

Join me on Twitter, FaceBook, or Pinterest.

-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

For a nominal fee of 99 cents/pence, you can subscribe to this blog and have it automatically download on your Kindle. This gives you the convenience of being able to download the books directly to your Kindle, instead of downloading them to your computer and then transferring them to your Kindle. It also helps support my blog.

UK readers may go to this Amazon link to subscribe.  (Slightly more than half my readers are from the UK)

US readers may go to this Amazon link

Thank to all my readers, whether you subscribe on your Kindle or whether you read it online.  I love to get good reviews!  Who wouldn't?  Should you care to leave a review, follow these links for UK readers or US readers.

Le Mort d'Arthur - by Thomas Malory

Free US/UK Kindle Classic

Le Mort d'Arthur by English writer Thomas Malory was written by 1470. (US Edition)  (UK Edition) It is a collection of fables and legends and as with all works of such antiquity, it can't be dated precisely or much known about its writing.  We are just lucky to have the story of King Arthur and the knights of the round table passed down to us!

This is volume 1 "From the Marriage of King Uther unto King Arthur that Reigned After Him and Did Many Battles" and introduces you to King Arthur and his predecessor:

THEN within two years King Uther fell sick of a great malady. And in the meanwhile his enemies usurped upon him, and did a great battle upon his men, and slew many of his people. Sir, said Merlin, ye may not lie so as ye do, for ye must to the field though ye ride on an horse-litter: for ye shall never have the better of your enemies but if your person be there, and then shall ye have the victory. So it was done as Merlin had devised, and they carried the king forth in an horse-litter with a great host towards his enemies.

This was in the days when Kings were expected to also be warriors.

And of course it contains the famous story of King Arthur drawing the sword from the stone . . .

So at Candlemas many more great lords came thither for to have won the sword, but there might none prevail. And right as Arthur did at Christmas, he did at Candlemas, and pulled out the sword easily, whereof the barons were sore aggrieved and put it off in delay till the high feast of Easter. And as Arthur sped before, so did he at Easter; yet there were some of the great lords had indignation that Arthur should be king, and put it off in a delay till the feast of Pentecost.

So for this holiday season I send you back to a time when a "a beardless boy that was come of low blood" became King of the realm of England.

This blog is a guide to the best free and inexpensive classic literature for the US & UK Kindle. If you enjoy my suggestions, please tell your friends who read to give my blog a try. 

Join me on Twitter, FaceBook, or Pinterest.

-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

For a nominal fee of 99 cents/pence, you can subscribe to this blog and have it automatically download on your Kindle. This gives you the convenience of being able to download the books directly to your Kindle, instead of downloading them to your computer and then transferring them to your Kindle. It also helps support my blog.

UK readers may go to this Amazon link to subscribe.  (Slightly more than half my readers are from the UK)

US readers may go to this Amazon link

Thank to all my readers, whether you subscribe on your Kindle or whether you read it online.  I love to get good reviews!  Who wouldn't?  Should you care to leave a review, follow these links for UK readers or US readers.

My First Summer in the Sierra - by John Muir

Free US/UK Kindle Classic

I have been enjoying Cheryl Strayed's account of walking the Pacific Coast Trail, Wild (From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail).  The Pacific Coast Trail is a West Coast version of the famous Appalachian trail that runs from Georgia to Maine.  The book is a bestseller in the US and is sold in the UK as well.  It is not a free classic.  It was published in 2012.

However, Strayed quotes from a free classic, My First Summer in the Sierra by John Muir.  (US Edition)  (UK Edition)  Muir was one of the driving forces advocating for the creation of this trail and a section of it bears his name. 

I have never done much hiking or hiked the Pacific Coast Trail (PCT) or Appalachian trail, but I once rode my bicycle from California to Florida and I feel a kinship with those who undertake arduous journeys.  Now I have to vicariously visit the trail and what better way than with John Muir?  Let's take a look at his 1917 memoir.

In the great Central Valley of California there are only two seasons— spring and summer. The spring begins with the first rainstorm, which usually falls in November. In a few months the wonderful flowery vegetation is in full bloom, and by the end of May it is dead and dry and crisp, as if every plant had been roasted in an oven.

Hmm, sounds like Texas except it doesn't rain here!  We are still in a drought in San Antonio.

We are now approaching the region of clouds and cool streams. Magnificent white cumuli appeared about noon above the Yosemite region,— floating fountains refreshing the glorious wilderness,— sky mountains in whose pearly hills and dales the streams take their rise,— blessing with cooling shadows and rain. No rock landscape is more varied in sculpture, none more delicately modeled than these landscapes of the sky; domes and peaks rising, swelling, white as finest marble and firmly outlined, a most impressive manifestation of world building. Every rain-cloud, however fleeting, leaves its mark, not only on trees and flowers whose pulses are quickened, and on the replenished streams and lakes, but also on the rocks are its marks engraved whether we can see them or not.

This will give you a good idea of the book.  It is a descriptive memoir of some of the most beautiful and wild places in the American landscape.

This blog is a guide to the best free and inexpensive classic literature for the US & UK Kindle. If you enjoy my suggestions, please tell your friends who read to give my blog a try. 

Join me on Twitter, FaceBook, or Pinterest.

-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

For a nominal fee of 99 cents/pence, you can subscribe to this blog and have it automatically download on your Kindle. This gives you the convenience of being able to download the books directly to your Kindle, instead of downloading them to your computer and then transferring them to your Kindle. It also helps support my blog.

UK readers may go to this Amazon link to subscribe.  (Slightly more than half my readers are from the UK)

US readers may go to this Amazon link

Thank to all my readers, whether you subscribe on your Kindle or whether you read it online.  I love to get good reviews!  Who wouldn't?  Should you care to leave a review, follow these links for UK readers or US readers.