I think our low-resolution computer screens and the global time crunch have biased Internet content toward the short form. I wanted to take a second to point you toward some outstanding long-form work that’s freely available online. So when you get the Sony Reader for Christmas, you’ll know what to do…

I’m not including technical books here because there’s probably too many to list.

The Classics

• Everything at Project Gutenberg
• Readable scans of The Complete Works of Shakespeare, at Google Print
• The Cathedral and the Bazaar (2000) by Eric Raymond
• The Cluetrain Manifesto (1999) by Chris Locke, Doc Searls, David Weinberger
• Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace (2000) by Laurence Lessig, et al.

Recent Books

• Laurence Lessig’s books on free culture:
  • The Future of Ideas (2002)
  • Free Culture (2004)
  • Codev2 (2007)
• The Underground History of American Education (2001) by John Taylor Gatto
• The sci-fi novels of Cory Doctorow
• Getting Real (2006) by 37signals

Please send me your favorites that I missed. I want to keep this post available as a record of the “best of the best.” The fact is, there are over 25,000 free online books. The Online Books Page holds the full catalog. Their New Listings page reveals an uncommon mix of subject matter—this is not the Border’s New Releases shelf. E-books tend to be either out of copyright books preserved for historical purposes, like Betty’s scrapbook of little recipes for little cooks (1930s), or they’re very specific non-fiction releases, like The Paths of Heaven: The Evolution of Airpower Theory (1997). But there is certainly something for everyone here, if you have the patience to dig for it.