Blowhard, Esq. writes:
- British crime writer Ruth Rendell thinks novel reading is becoming a minority activity.
- How many novelists are at work in America?
- This piece is a few years old, but Laura Miller’s advice to read at least one book outside your comfort zone remains good. I’ve been meaning to check out an Amish romance for years.
- The Daily Beast shares a few books to transform your sad life. I enjoyed both Sex at Dawn and I’ve mentioned A Renegade History of the United States before. Seneca’s Letters from a Stoic is pretty great, too.
- 25 sources of free public domain books.
- 55 great books that are under 200 pages.
- 100 must-read works of Southern literature. No Charles Portis?
- William Blake’s illustrations for Paradise Lost.
- Via Glynn Marshes, an illustrated guide to buying the classics. Personally, when it comes to reading copies, I think the Barnes & Noble Classic series is the best. They’re cheap and have lots of helpful supplementary info. They use footnotes and endnotes the most effectively, too, IMO.
Henri Cartier-Bresson, “Martine’s legs,” 1967
Blowhard, Esq.
Callowman
Sherbrooke
Eddie Pensier
Enzo Nakamura
Epaminondas
Fabrizio del Wrongo
Fenster
Brundle Guy
Glynn Marshes
Paleo Retiree
Atypical Neurotic
Question Lady
Sax von Stroheim
Sir Barken Hyena
The Mistaken
Uncouth Reflections 
The B&N paperbacks seem to yellow pretty quickly for me. Penguin usually has first-rate supplementary material, but are a little more pricey. Signets are good for shorter works, but the mass market format isn’t ideal for longer books (squished print). Not mentioned, but I think Bantam is still around. But I don’t like their new look for some reason, they remind me too much of Dovers.
LikeLike
The Penguin paper smells better to me too.
LikeLike
Curious: What don’t you like about Dovers? I think they’re well-put-together books that last ages.
I remember back when Dover had a bookstore back in the 80s, on the upper floor of an office building on Varick Street in downtown NYC. What a paradise. I spent hours there.
They’ve moved to Long Island now. Shame.
LikeLike
I don’t think I have any Dovers, so I don’t really have an opinion on them. For some reason I thought the new Bantam look was similar to them, but after a closer look they aren’t.
Penguin has a knack for picking great cover art.
http://www.us.penguingroup.com/nf/Book/CoverImagePopup/0,,9780141439723,00.html
LikeLike
I was checking out those B&N classics reprints at the store today, and it struck me that the paper was unacceptably transparent: You could see the ghost of the type on the reverse of the page behind the page you were reading. Now don’t laugh, but Readers’ Digest publishes a comprehensive and growing series of hardback classics (full text) called “World’s Best Reading”, would appeal to the design sense of UR readers. Each is soundly bound, with eminently readable type, adequate margins, and high-quality opaque paper. These are truly the best reading editions of the great books I’ve ever encountered, and I pick ’em up whenever they show up at book sales. Here’s more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World's_Best_Reading
LikeLike
Thanks for the tip, appreciate that. I’ll look for some next time I’m at a used book store.
LikeLike