The 100 Classic Book Collection reminds me of a balance scale whereby the pros weigh the same as the cons. Let’s start out with the cons first. I don’t think I would be the first to highlight that the books on offer in this software are most, if not all, in public domain.
Reading them at no cost at all would involve downloading them from a website such as Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org), and reading it on a PC, or sticking the files into a flashkart and reading then with a homebrew e-reader software.
Just Browsing
On the other hand, the 100 Classic Book Collection has an interface on a class of its own. Holding the DS sideways to support either hand preferences, browsing through the books is like browsing through a book shelf, and it’s presented really nicely.
Slide the stylus left or right to go through the books on the shelf or tap the left and right buttons (tap too much sends the software to run through the shelf really fast, and pick a random title!). You can even sort the titles based on title or the author’s name.
Don’t like browsing? Use the search function or have the software recommend some titles by answering a brief, if not slightly disjointed questionaire in the Book Guide. Besides reading the book, tapping the spine of a book on the shelf allows you to find out more about the book and its author.
Reading, DND
Reading utilises both screens and the sliding of the stylus turns pages back and forth. There’s a handy slider which you can utilise to skip to a certain page. The ability to add bookmarks and read footnotes makes for an even more enriching reading experience.
Further adding to this experience are the reading options. You can set the font-size, the reading background music and assign the DS buttons as hot-keys.
Book Hoarding?
WFC connectivity is provided and with that, you can download an additional 10 e-books. You can also send and receive books from friends via the local wireless.
The Bottom Line
In summary, 100 Classic Book Collection is an accomplished piece of software but pity the books on offer. Fans of classic books should find themselves pretty comfortable with this software. 100 Classic Book Collection for the Nintendo DS is currently available at Amazon UK, click here for details.
Glossary
Here’s the list of books in 100 Classic Book Collection for the Nintendo DS:
- Louisa May Alcott Little Women
- Jane Austen Emma
- Jane Austen Mansfield Park
- Jane Austen Persuasion
- Jane Austen Pride and Prejudice
- Jane Austen Sense and Sensibility
- Harriet Beecher Stowe Uncle Tom’s Cabin
- R.D. Blackmore Lorna Doone
- Anne Bronte The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
- Charlotte Bronte Jane Eyre
- Charlotte Bronte The Professor
- Charlotte Bronte Shirley
- Charlotte Bronte Villette
- Emily Bronte Wuthering Heights
- John Bunyan The Pilgrim’s Progress
- Frances Burnett Little Lord Fauntleroy
- Frances Burnett The Secret Garden
- Lewis Carroll Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
- Lewis Carroll Through the Looking-Glass
- Wilkie Collins The Moonstone
- Wilkie Collins The Woman in White
- Carlo Collodi The Adventures of Pinocchio
- Arthur Conan Doyle The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
- Arthur Conan Doyle The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes
- Joseph Conrad Lord Jim
- Susan Coolidge What Katy Did
- James Fenimore Cooper Last of the Mohicans
- Daniel Defoe Robinson Crusoe
- Charles Dickens Barnaby Rudge
- Charles Dickens Bleak House
- Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol
- Charles Dickens David Copperfield
- Charles Dickens Dombey and Son
- Charles Dickens Great Expectations
- Charles Dickens Hard Times
- Charles Dickens Martin Chuzzlewit
- Charles Dickens Nicholas Nickleby
- Charles Dickens The Old Curiosity Shop
- Charles Dickens Oliver Twist
- Charles Dickens The Pickwick Papers
- Charles Dickens A Tale of Two Cities
- Alexandre Dumas The Count of Monte Cristo
- Alexandre Dumas The Three Musketeers
- George Eliot Adam Bede
- George Eliot Middlemarch
- George Eliot The Mill on the Floss
- Henry Rider Haggard King Solomon’s Mines
- Thomas Hardy Far From The Madding Crowd
- Thomas Hardy The Mayor of Casterbridge
- Thomas Hardy Tess of The D’Urbervilles
- Thomas Hardy Under the Greenwood Tree
- Nathaniel Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter
- Victor Hugo The Hunchback of Notre Dame
- Victor Hugo Les Miserables
- Washington Irving The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon
- Charles Kingsley Westward Ho!
- D.H. Lawrence Sons And Lovers
- Gaston Leroux The Phantom of the Opera
- Jack London The Call of the Wild
- Jack London White Fang
- Herman Melville Moby Dick
- Edgar Allen Poe Tales of Mystery and Imagination
- Sir Walter Scott Ivanhoe
- Sir Walter Scott Rob Roy
- Sir Walter Scott Waverley
- Anna Sewell Black Beauty
- William Shakespeare All’s Well That Ends Well
- William Shakespeare Antony and Cleopatra
- William Shakespeare As You Like It
- William Shakespeare The Comedy of Errors
- William Shakespeare Hamlet
- William Shakespeare Julius Caesar
- William Shakespeare King Henry the Fifth
- William Shakespeare King Lear
- William Shakespeare King Richard the Third
- William Shakespeare Love’s Labour’s Lost
- William Shakespeare Macbeth
- William Shakespeare The Merchant of Venice
- William Shakespeare A Midsummer-Night’s Dream
- William Shakespeare Much Ado About Nothing
- William Shakespeare Othello, the Moor of Venice
- William Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet
- William Shakespeare The Taming of the Shrew
- William Shakespeare The Tempest
- William Shakespeare Timon of Athens
- William Shakespeare Titus Andronicus
- William Shakespeare Twelfth Night
- William Shakespeare The Winter’s Tale
- Robert Louis Stevenson Kidnapped
- Robert Louis Stevenson The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
- Robert Louis Stevenson Treasure Island
- Jonathan Swift Gulliver’s Travels
- William Thackeray Vanity Fair
- Anthony Trollope Barchester Towers
- Mark Twain Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
- Mark Twain Adventures of Tom Sawyer
- Jules Verne Round the World in Eighty Days
- Jules Verne 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
- Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest
- Oscar Wilde The Picture of Dorian Gray
[…] Full review here […]
[…] Full review here […]
Hey i’m actually reading through dorian grey on this and all i can say is its awesome. i own most of the books in some shape or form but the ds compiles them into readable chunks and lets u mark where uve got to and has 3 bookmarks to play with and informs you if youve read them, i mean it has the whole of les miserables do you know how daunting that is if you can see all the pages, in ds format there are 15000 now smush that into real pages and imagine how daunting the small text is
@hayley: Strange, I always appreciated the fact that I can actually read without turning the pages every 3-4 seconds. I would agree with you on les miserables though, the number of pages is daunting indeed, but if place in the context of 100 Classic Books and my Nintendo DS, I’ve to click my shoulder button or press the screen 15000 times?
There’s no excuse from being lazy in turning pages, and I really doubt publishers are out to make readers blind. Don’t you think?