Why have you purchased public-domain eBooks?

[ownedbycats]

A side-poll to this thread.

[JSWolf]

Technically what I purchased wasn't public-domain. It was a new version of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea with a better translation and content added back in that was previously edited out.

https://www.baen.com/Chapters/978162...1625790392.htm

This special edition of Jules Verne's classic novel corrects more than 3000 errors in the original 1872 English translation and replaces the 23% of text that had been expurgated by the original translator for political, ideological and other reasons. In addition, there are nearly two dozen illustrations created especially for this edition by Ron Miller, cutaway views and schematics of the Nautilus, maps, details of Verne's diving suits and many other special features.

[JSWolf]

One issue with this thread. The last answer has to go. What's the point of voting if you've never bought a public-domain book? It's not the answer to the question and skews the results.

The question asks why you bought a PD book and the last answer says you didn't. So the last answer clashes and doesn't work. The good thing with the last answer is it can be check and then removed and the poll will still be valid.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Technically what I purchased wasn't public-domain. It was a new version of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea with a better translation and content added back in that was previously edited out.

https://www.baen.com/Chapters/978162...1625790392.htm

better translation + additional things + perhaps other

Originally Posted by JSWolf

One issue with this thread. The last answer has to go. What's the point of voting if you've never bought a public-domain book? It's not the answer to the question and skews the results.

Can't edit polls.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

better translation + additional things + perhaps other

But technically it's not public domain as the translation is too new.

Can't edit polls.

The staff could edit the poll to remove the last answer.

[Cactus Chef]

Trying to think off the top of my head of "public domain" books I've paid for:

• The Aeneid, translated by Robert Fagles
• Various Dostoevsky works translated by Pevear and Volokhonsky
• The Master and Margarita translated by Pevear and Volokhonsky
• Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol, translated by...you guessed it
• El Señor Presidente, translated by Penguin Classics
• The New Annotated H.P. Lovecraft

Then, yes, the answer is overwhelmingly for a quality translation.

"Additional value" by way of footnotes, forewords, etc is nice, too.

Might be slightly tangential to the topic, but one possible option could also be "Wanted a consolidated list of works when not all works are yet in public domain." I know personally I've bought a "Complete H.P. Lovecraft" or "Complete Conan the Barbarian" collections in the past, because I didn't feel like being confined to only the pieces that have entered US public domain yet.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

One issue with this thread. The last answer has to go. What's the point of voting if you've never bought a public-domain book? It's not the answer to the question and skews the results.

I figure the pollster creates the poll they want. If someone doesn't like it or thinks it's invalid, no one's forcing them to vote. They can always create their own poll.

I personally like the "never" option myself, as it also shows what percent actually has paid for PD. You could always do the math yourself to get the "not never" spread.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

But technically it's not public domain as the translation is too new.

Yes, but not technically but practically, someone who's looking for a classic in translation can have a choice of pd translation/paid-for translation. It's still the same book whichever option they choose. Especially given that it's a translation! No one's reading the original! The rest is details.

But again, answer/don't answer however you like. There's no poll police -- not even you.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Cactus Chef

Trying to think off the top of my head of "public domain" books I've paid for:

• The Aeneid, translated by Robert Fagles
  

I've even paid for multiple translations of certain books, especially the ancient classics, The Aeneid as well as The Iliad and The Odyssey and classic Greek drama. The Divine Comedy and War and Peace also come to mind where I have paid for more than one translation.

[Apache]

I choose both Better Translation and Formatting.
Apache

[SomeSteve]

It says "Other (specify)." How do I specify?

Anyhow, one other reason I buy some public domain books is to get an authoritative text, which usually means an Oxford World Classics edition or a Penguin Classics edition.

One of the Oxford World Classics editions of Trollope's The Duke's Children (The Duke's Children: The Complete Text), the final Palliser novel, contains "roughly 65,000 words, close to a quarter of the whole," that Trollope agreed to cut for the work's serial publication. I don't know if this complete text is available as an ebook from any other source. So I bought it.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by SomeSteve

One of the Oxford World Classics editions of Trollope's The Duke's Children (The Duke's Children: The Complete Text), the final Palliser novel, contains "roughly 65,000 words, close to a quarter of the whole," that Trollope agreed to cut for the work's serial publication. I don't know if this complete text is available as an ebook from any other source. So I bought it.

Ooh! I forgot about this; I also bought it. I have yet to read it, but I was disappointed in The Duke’s Children when I read it; it was an anemic wrap-up to such a marvelous series. Quite the letdown

Spoiler:

and that’s aside from killing off Lady Glen! Grrr.

Unlike The Last Chronicle of Barset, one of the best books in that series.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by SomeSteve

It says "Other (specify)." How do I specify?

post in the thread

[John F]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Technically what I purchased wasn't public-domain. It was a new version of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea with a better translation and content added back in that was previously edited out.

https://www.baen.com/Chapters/978162...1625790392.htm

If you want the last poll option removed, how about deleting the second post since it is not about a copyrighted book?

[PeterT]

I seem to recall purchasing some PD books on a CD back in the '90s when I was reading them on a Sony Clie

[DNSB]

Should I be counting the 100 PD ebooks that came on the original Kobo and Kobo WiFi?