A suitcase full of books
Alert Janeite Lisa sent us an article from The Denver Post, in which John Freeman, president of the National Book Critics Circle, chose his desert island, er, fantasy around-the-world-trip books, including the works of Jane Austen–and like many of us, he can’t stop at just one!
One of my recurring dreams involves selling all my possessions, shutting down my cellphone and e-mail, and setting off around the country – and then the world – by train with a small suitcase full of great books. If I ever do this, I’d take things I had already read. And if I had to narrow this group to a list of 25, here is what they would be. I’m not sure they would all fit in one suitcase, but they’d certainly be worth packing two.
Mr. Freeman, can we introduce you to the concept of e-books? Many of these books are out of copyright and probably available for free download, and paperback versions of the more recent books can be tossed in a backpack and still leave room for clean socks; and depending on your reading device, you might even be able to add a few audiobooks to mix things up a bit. Just saying. Try them, you might like them!
We have this on the brain as we recently have fallen in love with the portability of e-books and the availability of tons of classic literature for free download. More on this soon!
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May I take the liberty to indulge in a neo-luddite remark?
I have to confess, I can’t imagine reading a novel on a any form of electronic display, ever.
Nothing beats turning the pages by hand. I’m probably old-fashinoned, but you’d definitely see me on platform two with a packed suitcase next to Mr. Freeman. And with all that reading a bit of exercise can never hurt, anyway.
Yeah, well, neither did I until I tried it. Now I’m hooked!
I was amused to see that NA falls under the “Gothic” category along with novels by Mary Shelley, Radcliffe, Walpole, Le Fanu,etc.
Mags, do you have a preferred reader?
I read on my Treo, so I mostly use eReader. I tried Plucker and liked it, but it made my Treo crash so I ended up taking it off. I’m currently trying Mobipocket, which has a lot of great features that are onlu available on the upgraded (paid) version of eReader, but I like the variable-speed scrolling on eReader. Mobipocket has only one scrolling speed, at least as far as I can tell.
The “eInk” devices such as the Sony Reader are probably the most exciting development in eBooks, and I think we’ll be seeing lots of those in the next few years. However, for me it would mean carrying a separate device, and I like having everything on one device.