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DS Book Collection allowing you to be nerdier than ever before this Boxing Day photo

If you felt that being a hardcore gamer just isn't uncool enough these days (hell, everyone has a DS now), then perhaps you'll be looking to raise  the nerd stakes considerably by acquiring the 100 Classic Book Collection for DS.

Yes, starting from Boxing Day (December 26 to you non-UK chaps), you can get your hands on 100 classic plays and novels, crammed into a single DS cart. By classic, we do of course mean copyright-free. That also means no Harry f*cking Potter ... thank God.

As if you couldn't already guess the central gimmick, the idea is to hold the DS sideways, mimicking a book, and you can flick through pages with the stylus. There are to be search and bookmark functions, and additional literature will be made available in Wi-Fi download form. 

Amazon has the full list of titles included, but for an idea of what you'd be getting into, there will be Shakespeare, Dickens, Bronte, Hardy and Austen, as well as less dreary stuff like Arthur Conan Doyle and Jules Verne.  

For the amount and variety of books that come included, an asking price of £17.99 looks like an amazing deal to me. I must say, this is actually a great idea.








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Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize. Likes PS2, iPod Touch, Silent Hill 2, Metal Gear Solid, Dynasty Warriors 3 Meet the rest of the team



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26 comments | showing # 1 to 26
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pendelton21's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/01/2008 09:12
pendelton21
What the hell is Boxing Day? You Europeans so crazy...
Char Aznable's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/01/2008 09:15
Char Aznable
That's actually pretty fucking awesome. Books, woo!
the Golden Avatar's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/01/2008 09:16
the Golden Avatar
It's a great idea, but I've never been able to read books electronically. It just feels wrong and becomes a strain after awhile.

Also, we need Boxing Day in the US, but instead of December's Black Friday or the more traditional day of charity, it should be a day when you can beat the shit out of anyone and everyone without retribution.
Excel-2011's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/01/2008 09:18
Excel-2011
Moonbooks beat them to it. Rather convenient that this news breaks at the same time the owner of that site announces that Moonbooks was shut down due to DoS assaults.
njsykora's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/01/2008 09:20
njsykora
That's actually a pretty good idea, given that £18 is about the price of a standard hardback these days it could possibly become a decent avenue for book publishing at some point.

Highly unlikely that that'll happen though. Would be nice though.
PhazonYoshi's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/01/2008 09:30
PhazonYoshi
Pendle, boxing day is the day after Christmas, meaning you no longer have to be polite, and can box the shit out of your granny for buying you socks again.
Jim Sterling's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/01/2008 09:39
Jim Sterling
Boxing Day is so called because, many decades ago, the day after Christmas was the day for opening presents. Christmas Day itself was devoted entirely to the family and the dinner stuff. They waited a day before the materialistic shit.

Now is no longer the case, but we keep the day because, hey, everyone likes an extra day of old family movies on TV.
mix's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/01/2008 09:40
mix
Kind of a neat idea as $19.99 is the price of a single book anyways.
the Golden Avatar's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/01/2008 09:44
the Golden Avatar
@mix

Where do you buy your books? Either that's an on sale hardback or a drastically marked up paperback. Slightly marked up trade?
gamesronlygames's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/01/2008 10:01
gamesronlygames
We dont celebrate St. Stephen's day, Christmas, or boxing day here for the most part. Boxing day is a day for over indulgent greedy folk to box eachothers ears for sale items, or trample kindly old men.
Demtor's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/01/2008 10:04
Demtor
Yikes, classics? You mean the stuff they make you read in school where everyone learns to hate reading?

That list needs R.A. Salvatore and George R. R. Martin >:-(
Demtor's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/01/2008 10:06
Demtor
That is to say... they could save some would be readers from boring themselves to death.
Drakonikarma's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/01/2008 10:08
Drakonikarma
NEEDS MOAR H.P LOVECRAFT!
the Golden Avatar's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/01/2008 10:16
the Golden Avatar
@Demtor

It's just the choice of "classics." Some are good (The Idiot, War and Peace) and some are terrible (The Old Man and the Sea). Unfortunately, the terrible ones are usually taught.
falinter's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/01/2008 10:33
falinter
digital books? what is the world coming to!
exodus1925's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/01/2008 10:34
exodus1925
Wait, a clever idea using the DS' full potential?
DinnertimeNinja's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/01/2008 11:22
DinnertimeNinja
"Wait, a clever idea using the DS' full potential?"


Are you joking? So you're saying the DS' "full potential" is displaying static images of text?

It's a sad state of affairs when something as simple as this gets more attention and praise than the last 50 DS games released.

GIVE ME SOMETHING TO PLAY ON MY DS, NINTENDO!
DinnertimeNinja's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/01/2008 11:26
DinnertimeNinja
Oh, and 17.99 GBP is actually equal to about 26 US Dollars.

If you're paying that much for a single book (as many of you say you are), then you're doing it wrong.
Grasshopper7's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/01/2008 11:34
Grasshopper7
I think it's a cool idea. The touch screen always made the DS pretty versatile, I'm surprised they didn't do this earlier.
electrokinetica's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/01/2008 12:21
electrokinetica
American post-Thanksgiving "Black Friday" == Canadian post-Christmas "Boxing Day". There is some history in there, but w/e.

This has long been an ability of many DS flash carts. Yes, OMG. Flash carts for things other than NOT games? Yes. My prefered tool is DSLibris. Great for Creative Commons works an not just public domain stuffs.
pendelton21's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/01/2008 12:45
pendelton21
@Jim

Sounds like fun.
welkstar's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/01/2008 13:58
welkstar
Why has it taken this long for something like this to arrive? I want my DS to become a Kindle post-haste!
el_chack's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/01/2008 18:37
el_chack
It took too much time for developers to release this software, the Nintendo DS is perfect for apps like this one!

Do you think there is a chance for an American release?
ZekeThePlumber's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/01/2008 18:44
ZekeThePlumber
I used to use my R4 to read some short stories that I converted to .txt. I'm all for this. Damn cheap too.
Sam Spectre's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/01/2008 20:34
Sam Spectre
....I love Harry Potter
renamecor's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/02/2009 03:43
renamecor
DS as a book reader - long overdue.

I do believe that the 100 classic titles will be coming to US shores with titles more relevant to the US market.

I don't know when though, but there is another review at ;

http://www.ndsbooks.co.uk/

Worth a read, and their news section/news letter might keep you up to date on the US issue.
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