For today’s post , the Matchmakers team welcomes our guest blogger, Librarian Bill Rubin! Bill writes:
So you’ve been home for two weeks and you have binge read everything. I don’t just mean everything you always wanted to read and didn’t have time for. I mean literally EVERYTHING! Even that pile of books on your bedside table that you received as gifts over the last 5 years and haven’t gotten around to donating to the Friends of the Heights Library Book Sale. What next?
May I suggest revisiting a series of childhood favorites from an earlier age? How about L. Frank Baum’s Wizard of Oz series. “What are you taking about?” you’re probably saying. “I’ve seen that movie like a million times.” “But wait!” you’re now thinking, “Did you say SERIES??”
Yes indeed. Between 1900 and 1920 Baum wrote 14 books about the Land of Oz. And they were so popular that between 1921 and 1963 26 additional, official, written by other people, Oz books were published by the original publishers. Now THAT is a series.
And all of the Baum books are in the public domain and available free on-line at a number of sites. My favorite is Project Gutenberg which where the books are fully downloadable and come with the original illustrations.
So slip away to a very different time and a very different place. I’m sure you’ll agree with Dorothy that “We’re not in Kansas any more.”
To get you started, here’s a list of the original FOURTEEN Oz books:
