My painting instructor, Shannon, and other students in her class, share a great love of reading in addition to our interest in learning to paint. Shannon was excited to show us her new collection of classic literature by Penguin Books. As readers of my blog may remember, my goal in 2010 was to read all the great literary classics and although the year has passed, I am still on my quest to read them all.
The newest classics collection of great literary reads such as Great Expectations, Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, The Picture of Dorian Gray and many others have been reprinted with hardcover cloth bound covers designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith.
I was thrilled when I saw Shannon's growing collection of these cloth bound books; somehow the new covers make the books even more fitting of their title as 'classics'. I plucked one of Shannon's bookshelf but didn't open it because I didn't want to break the spine. Shannon urged me to flip through it, but I declined- she should have the honour of breaking the spine when she reads the book.
According to the Penguin website, "Penguin Classics presents seven more beautiful hardcover editions of the world's favorite books. Featuring gorgeous patterns stamped on linen cases, colored endpapers, and ribbon markers, these are rich and sumptuous volumes that continue what will be one of the most coveted sets of books ever produced."
The books are truly beautiful and any booklover would be proud to display these classics on their bookshelf or give them as gifts to the booklover on your birthday or Christmas list.
Not all the classic literature titles are available at the moment but new ones are being produced. Selected titles are available online through Chapters Bookstore, Amazon Books, and directly from Penguin Books.
Shannon advised that it is easier to track down some of the titles with the ISBN number and suggested the following site for the ISBN numbers:
CB Smith
If you are interested in obtaining some of these cloth bound classic books, visit the following websites for more information.
Penguin Books (USA)
Amazon (US)
Amazon (Canada)
Chapters Bookstores (Canada)
(Search by ISBN number)
Thanks to Shannon for sharing her great book find.
Happy reading!
Showing posts with label literary classics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label literary classics. Show all posts
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Monday, February 7, 2011
What's On Your BookShelf?
I never really thought much about it until a friend noticed that I had a stack of books sitting on the end table in my family room.
"How many books do you read at one time?" She asked.
I replied that it depended on what I was reading. If I was tackling one of the great literary classics, I am usually reading two books at the same time for the reason being that time may not permit for a 'heavy' literary read but something light will suffice if I want to read a few pages before bed or I have a free moment or two. (Coincidentally my 2010 new year's resolution to read all the great literary classics has spilled over into 2011 and no doubt will continue into 2012).
Presently, I have 4 books on the go. I started reading Tatiana De Rosnay's, A Secret Kept, after reading her other novel, Sarah's Key. I enjoyed Sarah's Key immensely and was anxious to read another of the author's works. Unfortunately, A Secret Kept, reminded me so much of the first one with its infusion of French words and notable famous French landmarks, that I lost interest midway through. Next, I picked up a 'cheapy' read off the discount table at my local bookstore; The Letters by Luanne Rice and Joseph Monninger. Unfortunately, with the busyness of the holiday season, I only managed to read the first few chapters, however, this book shows some promise so I will get back to it at a later date. It is not a literary masterpiece by any means but I think it will be an enjoyable read.
On boxing day, I couldn't resist a visit to my local bookstore and got a deal on Richard B. White's, Mr. Shakespeare's Bastard. I had been eyeing this one for a couple of weeks and was happy to get a copy on sale. I have been reading this one steadily for a couple of weeks and enjoying it. Of course, as my usual style, I am eager to finish it and move on to another book; almost done and will cross the finish line by the weekend.
A couple of weeks ago, I discovered Google Books and a whole slew of free literary classics. On my lunch break at work, if time permits, I will engulf myself in the online version of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations. This is a quite a long book to tackle so I am somewhat happy to read it online where it is broken down into small pages of print.
What is your reading style? Do you read one book at a time, or have many books on the go?
Drop me a line and let me know what you are presently reading.
Until next time...happy reading!
"How many books do you read at one time?" She asked.
I replied that it depended on what I was reading. If I was tackling one of the great literary classics, I am usually reading two books at the same time for the reason being that time may not permit for a 'heavy' literary read but something light will suffice if I want to read a few pages before bed or I have a free moment or two. (Coincidentally my 2010 new year's resolution to read all the great literary classics has spilled over into 2011 and no doubt will continue into 2012).
Presently, I have 4 books on the go. I started reading Tatiana De Rosnay's, A Secret Kept, after reading her other novel, Sarah's Key. I enjoyed Sarah's Key immensely and was anxious to read another of the author's works. Unfortunately, A Secret Kept, reminded me so much of the first one with its infusion of French words and notable famous French landmarks, that I lost interest midway through. Next, I picked up a 'cheapy' read off the discount table at my local bookstore; The Letters by Luanne Rice and Joseph Monninger. Unfortunately, with the busyness of the holiday season, I only managed to read the first few chapters, however, this book shows some promise so I will get back to it at a later date. It is not a literary masterpiece by any means but I think it will be an enjoyable read.
On boxing day, I couldn't resist a visit to my local bookstore and got a deal on Richard B. White's, Mr. Shakespeare's Bastard. I had been eyeing this one for a couple of weeks and was happy to get a copy on sale. I have been reading this one steadily for a couple of weeks and enjoying it. Of course, as my usual style, I am eager to finish it and move on to another book; almost done and will cross the finish line by the weekend.
A couple of weeks ago, I discovered Google Books and a whole slew of free literary classics. On my lunch break at work, if time permits, I will engulf myself in the online version of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations. This is a quite a long book to tackle so I am somewhat happy to read it online where it is broken down into small pages of print.
What is your reading style? Do you read one book at a time, or have many books on the go?
Drop me a line and let me know what you are presently reading.
Until next time...happy reading!
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Aspire to Write?
Many individuals dream of writing whether it be a simple poem, the next great novel to be awarded a prestigious book award or to be featured on Oprah Winfrey's Book List. However, a common complaint amongst those who aspire to write is that they cannot find anything to write about.
Most experienced writers have learned that one must use various sources of inspiration to help them create their works of art. You may argue that you cannot find anything that will spark the creative spirit in your soul but think again. Inspiration can be derived from the simplest of pleasures:
Ø A early morning walk around your neighborhood
Ø A unexpected sunset or vibrant sunrise
Ø A look from a stranger
Ø A touch from your significant other
Ø Rage over an injustice
Ø The sound of a pounding rain
Ø The quiet of the hour
Ø The chatter of a toddler
Ø The giggle of a group of school girls
Ø The clickety clack of your keyboard
Ø A longing, a love, a hope.
The possibilities for inspiration are abundant and readily available if you seek beyond the mundane of everyday life. The key to finding inspiration is to break down an event, experience or emotion and focus on that single aspect. If it is a great fiction story you are after, dig deep in your past, examine the present or look into the future. For poetry, let your emotions run high and embrace your tears, laughter, fears, happiness, grief and sorrows. Write it when the moods strikes - do not sit on it or the inspiration will fade.
The great writers, both past and present, knew this and wrote when the inspiration struck them regardless of the place or time. Follow in their footsteps; this is the stuff great literary works are made of.
Until next time..keep writing
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Literary Classics: Alive and Thriving in my Computer
It has been said that great readers make great writers; I would somewhat agree with this statement however, not all book lovers aspire to write. Unfortunately, in a world of digital electronics and advancing technology, the English language has been sacrificed. Transmission of the written word via email, texting and twitter has pretty much butchered the language into 4 letter words sans vowels, punctuation, and proper sentence structure.
Last year, I decided to take it upon myself to revisit the classics and read the great literary works of Leo Tolstoy, Charles Dickens, and Mark Twain. Somewhere along the way, I missed reading them in high school; perhaps I found the smoking area more interesting!
So throughout 2010, I tackled Leo Tolstoy's, Anna Karenina - all 850 pages of it. Next I read, Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte and will soon immerse myself in D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover. Currently I am making my way through the free online version of Great Expectation by Charles Dickens. Many of the classics are available online for free because their copyright has expired. A copyright expires after 100 years and the content becomes public domain thus Google and a few other sites offer the classics for all to read. I am not exactly sure how it got there, but my online version of Great Expectation is stored nicely within the confines of my gmail.com email account. When I visit my 'books', it comes up automatically to the last page that I read. How cool is that?!
Although I have somewhat veered off topic, the point I am trying to make is that the classics are beautifully written; the sentences are long, flowing, dramatic and descriptive. However, in this modern environmentally conscious and digital era, it is a distinct possibility that some of the classics would have been passed over by the traditional publishers for being too wordy, long and drawn out and too costly to produce. Likewise, if the book was written for exclusively for the web, the writing is too 'loose' and rambling and would not hold the reader's attention for long because writing for the web differs greatly than writing for print. Studies have proven that Internet surfers only read the first few paragraphs of a body of text that is posted online and do not read each word but rather scan down the screen picking up words and ideas. Web writing is written in a very tight and concise manner to pack as much into a paragraph as possible to accommodate the Internet surfer's online reading behavior.
When my sister found out that I was ploughing through the classics, her first question was 'why'? As I explained to her, for whatever reason, I missed reading the majority of them the first time around in high school and to be great writer, one must be a great reader of the literary giants. I wanted to absorb myself in the prose of previous eras and literary works that differ so greatly from the great authors of present day.
If you are interested in reading the classics, visit these sites:
Google Books
Project Gutenberg
*Note: Some sites offer the books in a variety of formats suitable for various portable readers.
Until next time...happy reading...
Last year, I decided to take it upon myself to revisit the classics and read the great literary works of Leo Tolstoy, Charles Dickens, and Mark Twain. Somewhere along the way, I missed reading them in high school; perhaps I found the smoking area more interesting!
So throughout 2010, I tackled Leo Tolstoy's, Anna Karenina - all 850 pages of it. Next I read, Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte and will soon immerse myself in D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover. Currently I am making my way through the free online version of Great Expectation by Charles Dickens. Many of the classics are available online for free because their copyright has expired. A copyright expires after 100 years and the content becomes public domain thus Google and a few other sites offer the classics for all to read. I am not exactly sure how it got there, but my online version of Great Expectation is stored nicely within the confines of my gmail.com email account. When I visit my 'books', it comes up automatically to the last page that I read. How cool is that?!
Although I have somewhat veered off topic, the point I am trying to make is that the classics are beautifully written; the sentences are long, flowing, dramatic and descriptive. However, in this modern environmentally conscious and digital era, it is a distinct possibility that some of the classics would have been passed over by the traditional publishers for being too wordy, long and drawn out and too costly to produce. Likewise, if the book was written for exclusively for the web, the writing is too 'loose' and rambling and would not hold the reader's attention for long because writing for the web differs greatly than writing for print. Studies have proven that Internet surfers only read the first few paragraphs of a body of text that is posted online and do not read each word but rather scan down the screen picking up words and ideas. Web writing is written in a very tight and concise manner to pack as much into a paragraph as possible to accommodate the Internet surfer's online reading behavior.
When my sister found out that I was ploughing through the classics, her first question was 'why'? As I explained to her, for whatever reason, I missed reading the majority of them the first time around in high school and to be great writer, one must be a great reader of the literary giants. I wanted to absorb myself in the prose of previous eras and literary works that differ so greatly from the great authors of present day.
If you are interested in reading the classics, visit these sites:
Google Books
Project Gutenberg
*Note: Some sites offer the books in a variety of formats suitable for various portable readers.
Until next time...happy reading...
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