BL> books free, reelevant books written in the last 50 years for
 BL> adults, 

 PE> Yes, there is a great problem of relevance. The artistic works
 PE> of the past several thousand years seem to leave a lot to be
 PE> desired compared to the stuff in the last say 50 years.

  I don't think anyone has ever accused Conan Doyle of art.

 BL> instead of this awful old junk for kids.

 PE> I don't know whether I would call Sherlock Holmes kids books,
 PE> but if it is, then I'm happy to read kids books.

  Some books wear very well, and others do not, being strictly a
phenomenon of their times. There are many people who do enjoy Sherlock
Holmes, and there is even a fan club like that for Star Trek. This
only goes to prove my point. If you like detective stories, there are
many better than dopey old Sherlock. If you like SF, most are better
than Wells and Verne.

 PE> I'm also happy to read cowboy books, where the only thing that
 PE> changes is the name of the horse (and they're all 97 pages
 PE> long).

  Then the qualitiy of Sherlock Holmes must be astounding (to you).

 PE> In some of these cowboy books they talk about "dime novels". I
 PE> wonder if there really was such a thing, and whether this means
 PE> there are thousands of cowboy books there for the taking?

  The "dime novel" was the precursor of the paperback at the turn of
the century. They were even shorter than your 97-page epics, and even
worse. Have you tried Mills & Boon or Barbara Cartland? She writes
romances quicker than most of her fans can read them.

Regards,
Bob
     
___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.12
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