Happy, Little, Time Waster

 

I just heard about Internet Archive.  You can watch movies, television, listen to music and borrow books all for free. You just have to create an account.

I was hoping to find a translation and critique of the Arthurian romance, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, by J. R.R. Tolkien and I did. Except the book was listed as Borrow Unavailable Bummah! But what does it mean, Borrow Unavailable? Are there so many Medieval Lit scholars out there clamoring to read a book translated somewhere in the 1930s or 1940s and published in 1975 after Tolkien's death?

"Summary

More than 500,000 books have been taken out of lending as a result of Hachette v. Internet Archive, the publishers’ lawsuit against our library, including more than 1,300 banned and challenged books.

Books that are shown as “Borrow Unavailable” mean they cannot be borrowed by our patrons, including books you may have previously read or consulted. .."

Bummah. The lawsuit is under appeal, but that may take a long time to settle the dispute.

Meanwhile there are lots of other books, movies, and television series you can read or watch.

The Archive has the complete series of The Time Tunnel, a 1960s sci-fi series from producer, Irwin Allen (Lost in Space, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea)

So while there may be books you can't borrow because of the pending lawsuit, there are tons of other things that can happily waste your time.