1 post tagged “scan”

I've heard/read some of the controversy about this Google feature.

Funny though that I never used/looked at the product itself, just listened to the pros/cons swirling around it, then moved on.

Today though, while reading a mystery novel that referenced another mystery novel, I gave it a whirl, on accident.

It all began with "Design For Murder".

Carolyn G. Hart can go on at (sometimes too great) length about other mystery writers and their creations in her "Death On Demand" series.

They are American Cozy Mysteries, but she has me hooked anyway.

Her main character for this vehicle is the owner of a mystery genre bookstore and herself a fanatic.

So, it can be expected and forgiven (just barely) how often she will expound for paragraphs on the works of other writers inside her own works.

In the case of the reference to "Fire-Tongue" by Sax Rohmer, I was more intrigued than irritated.

Rohmer began this effort without having the solution in mind, and at the end, could not solve his own mystery to complete his manuscript.  It was at this point that Rohmer sought the help of a friend, Harry Houdini, who was able to provide the solution and conclusion for the mystery.

I had left myself a Post-It in the book to go back and research that text to see if I could find a copy to experience myself.

So I Google it, and what do you know?  The first result is the Google Books listing!

I have at this moment in my other browser pane, the very text of the novel I was interested in.

I can understand the copyright argument about Google scanning texts.

However, for me to use for hard to find or out of print texts, this will be one of those resources that you don't know how you lived without it.

Now, back to "Fire-Tongue".