First of all, apologies for the triplicate submissions on the same topic. I wasn't getting through to the list.
Secondly, the question about resource use with the plucker list underscores my idea that we should be encouraging torrent-downloads of format-specific DVDs, arranged with some sort of genre or index stronger than merely alphabetical author & title. In a real bookstore, folks might want to peek at the first two pages of dozens of books before they buy. In ebooks, is there a way to serve the customer and save bandwidth? This is one way.
I'm working on a compilation DVD in HTML format. If I were to do it over again, and had a computer to select things, I'd do something like this:
1) Find "Best of" lists. Some IIRC were on the pg web site. I'd start with the one about 100 books to read for a liberal education. Then add a well-rounded selection of items from "best of " lists for other genres: mystery, history of science, history, scifi, religion, etc., etc...
2) Figure out how much space you have and what format sceme (all, plucker, zipped txt's, HTML, etc.) you're going to concentrate on.
3) Start with the #1 item on every list. Add the complete works of each author. (My idea is that the most obscure work of Author #1 may be more fun to read than the everyone-knows item from Author #99. ) Continue down the list until you've filled up your space requirement. (If you're doing HTML format, skip the >20 MB books. )
4) Indices: Author Alphabetical, Title Alphabetical, LOC classification (not my original idea this one), and editors' picks. ( Strongly encourage 3-12 well-read and opinionated folks to come up with "Editor's Picks" lists.)
--
Greg M. Johnson
http://pterandon.blogspot.com