Students: Free reading on Internet
“Are you a schoolboy or a schoolgirl?
Do you find it inconvenient to go to the library and look for the book you need? You should visit the new Internet portal “”Free Reading,”” where plenty of famous writers’ works are available free of charge.
The new web service includes the authors whose works are mandatory reading in Polish schools. At the web site address www.wolnelektury.pl can be found the poems of Adam Mickiewicz and Jan Kochanowski as well as the novels of Henryk Sienkiewicz and Stefan Zeromski.
The Polish classical masters of the pen alternate with such foreign classics as Hans Christian Andersen and William Shakespeare, although the core of the “”Free Reading”” project consists of works written in the Polish language.
“”I like the idea of ?Free Reading? very much,”” says Artur, a Warsaw high school student.. “”It’s difficult at the beginning to get used to reading from the screen. However, it’s very convenient for people who live far from the big cities and don’t have access to the well-equipped libraries.””
With “”Free Reading”” it is possible either to read the book online or to download the files on a computer or on a mobile phone.
The books can be located through several categories: authors, literary eras, genres and themes, as well as by the connections between different books. The users of this Internet portal can exchange opinions about the books on the electronic “”Discussion”” page.
The creator of “”Free Reading”” is the Modern Poland Foundation in cooperation with the National Library and the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
Readings on the web site are limited to those which have no copyright restrictions. Commentaries, annotations and explanations for the texts are provided by teachers from reputable schools and research workers from the Institute of Literary Research. One more merit of the project is that it popularizes the trend towards creative reading and that it changes the usual school duty into a fascinating journey in the world of culture.
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