Need something to read? This will keep you busy until 2025...

[Moonliner]

Looks like Amazon has created the ultimate summer reading list.


The Penguin Classics Library Complete Collection, consisting of 1,082 books. List price: $13,317.74. Discount price: $7,989.99.

Order yours today.

[Motorboat Cruiser]

I really liked this quote:

"I would easily and gladly send for them this minute, thrill at doing so, eagerly await their arrival, only to be shot dead by my wife when she found out I'd ordered them."

Now, if I was completely caught up on the books I already own, this offer might be more enticing. It looks like I'm going to need until 2008 to complete them though, so I'm covered for a while.

[Not Afraid]

I just want to purchase and read books by: Anonymous (38 titles).

[€uroMeinke]

Awesome - but I bet they're all paperback

[Matterhorn Fan]

Originally Posted by Not Afraid

I just want to purchase and read books by: Anonymous (38 titles).

Hey, of those 38, I own at least 8 of those exact editions.

I don't know how Amazon thinks they're gonna sell this. Surely this is just a way to get us to browse the "classics" and hopefully buy Penguin Classics versions over other editions. (Penguin Classics are pretty good; they've got good bindings for paperbacks, which is something I appreaciate. During a class today, I had a book literally come in two.)

So, if you're fool enough to purchase your books this way, here are some interesting things you'll get:

The Divine Comedy Volume I: Inferno by Dante Alighieri
The Divine Comedy, Volume 1: Inferno by Dante Alighieri
The Divine Comedy, Part 2: Purgatory by Dante Alighieri
The Divine Comedy: Purgatory by Dante Alighieri
The Divine Comedy Volume III: Paradise by Dante Alighieri
The Divine Comedy, Part 3: Paradise by Dante Alighieri
La Vita Nuova by Dante Alighieri
The Portable Dante by Dante Alighieri

So, not only do you get two different translations of the DC, you'll also get excerpts (probably not from a third translation) in The Portable Dante. The casual reader doesn't need this redundancy. The Dante student doesn't need The Portable Dante.

Beowulf by Anonymous
Beowulf: A Prose Translation by Anonymous
Beowulf: A Verse Translation by Anonymous

Here you have two different translations, as well as Michael Alexander's "how did he convince Penguin to publish this?" volume. The first you don't need unless you're reading Beowulf in the original and are too lazy to look up the vocab in Klaeber. I own at least ten different editions of Beowulf, but I was studying it.

Oroonoko by Aphra Behn
Oroonoko, The Rover, and Other Works by Aphra Behn

Same editor. Hmmm . . .