So lately, upon alllll the books I have to read this semester for school (including for my senior thesis) and all the books on my bookshelf for fun, I've decided to expand my horizons and read some classics. I have a huge obsession with historical period movies, especially movies and TV shows/mini-series done by BBC and PBS because they're classic and British and just wonderful. Currently I'm watching Downton Abbey, which I'm beyond obsessed with. The other week I watched BBC's Tess of the D'Urbervilles and it was amazing. Also, one of my absolute favorite movies of all time is the 2005 Pride and Prejudice. I kind of lost the DVD and I had to declare a state of emergency. But luckily I found it and immediately watched it.
So since I love these classics in motion picture version and I love reading, I decided that it's time I read some of these books. I've already had Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, and Northanger Abbey for awhile but I never read them. And then while browsing the interwebs, I saw that Penguin Classics had these gorgeous clothbound classics and I just had to have some. Now I'll admit that half of the reason was because for my birthday/Christmas, I got a new bigger bed and a bookcase headboard and I felt I needed to fill it up with good books and not just a random bunch I already had. So along with my Sarah Palin books (yes I own them and they are good) and Bristol Palin's book (I love the Palins) and The Historian and Everything is Illuminated and other non paranormal young adult books, I filled up like, 2/5 of my bookcase headboard with the classics I already owned plus some new Penguin Classics.
I got:
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (of course), The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (because I love the recent Sherlock Holmes movies with Robert Downey Jr and that delicious yummy Jude Law), Lady Chatterly's Lover by D.H. Lawrence (because the plot seemed interesting), and The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins (also because the plot really appealed to me. And maybe a little because it has birds on the cover and I'm slightly obsessed with bird things)
Here are the covers for Pride and Prejudice (left) and The Woman in White (right, haha that rhymes)
You can see the other covers here. They're all so so gorgeous.
And last, but not least, I got
The Complete Novels of Jane Austen (because owning Pride and Prejudice and Northanger Abbey and having all the books on my phone on the Google Books AND Kindle apps wasn't enough. Honest to God, I almost got two copies of P&P plus the complete novels).
(Click the link to see the picture, Blogger crashed every time I tried posting it.)
I almost wish I also got Tess of the D'Urbervilles but I'll get that when I actually have time to read it because it's long and I already saw the mini-series.
But with Pride and Prejudice watching the movie isn't enough and that's why I'll always have a copy wherever I go.
I also wanted Shakespeare's sonnets because the book is just so pretty. But maybe sometime in the future.
But, today I was inspired to write this blog because I saw that Penguin came out with new designs for some classics called Thread Classics. The covers look like embroidery. It's so cute.
The current titles are Emma by Jane Austen, Black Beauty by Anna Sewell, and The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett.
This is the Emma cover. I love it!
See the other covers here.
By the way, order these on Amazon and get Amazon Prime. Seriously it's awesome. You get FREE 2-day shipping. Amazon Prime is free if you're a student, and with a paid subscription ($39 for students with student Prime and $79 for everyone else), you can also get lending library books on your kindle and you can stream tons of movies and tv shows FREE. Plus, if you want next-day shipping, it's only $3.99.
(By the way (I overuse that too much), this post took FOREVER! Blogger just did NOT want me to post these pictures. It'd all be good and then one picture would just throw it off and make it un-postable. That one picture kept causing it to crash so I had to go into edit and add each picture individually and repost and add another one. Finally I just gave up on the Complete Novels of Jane Austen picture. But at least I figured out how to see my saved drafts! Never knew how before so at least good comes from the bad.)
Check out some other really cute Penguin Classic covers:
Couture Deluxe Editions (designed by Ruben Toledo)
Penguin Ink (not really classics but they have a cute version of Bridget Jones's Diary which I love)
Graphic Deluxe Editions in case you're forced to read the Communist Manifesto for school and don't want to refuse to read it like I did, you can at least find a pretty cover to make it a tiny bit more bearable.
I soooooooooooo hope they make a pretty version of The Great Gatsby because I LOVE that book and it's one of the only two books I actually read in high school (well actually opened, and read. The other being Brave New World).
(By the way (I overuse that too much), this post took FOREVER! Blogger just did NOT want me to post these pictures. It'd all be good and then one picture would just throw it off and make it un-postable. That one picture kept causing it to crash so I had to go into edit and add each picture individually and repost and add another one. Finally I just gave up on the Complete Novels of Jane Austen picture. But at least I figured out how to see my saved drafts! Never knew how before so at least good comes from the bad.)
Check out some other really cute Penguin Classic covers:
Couture Deluxe Editions (designed by Ruben Toledo)
Penguin Ink (not really classics but they have a cute version of Bridget Jones's Diary which I love)
Graphic Deluxe Editions in case you're forced to read the Communist Manifesto for school and don't want to refuse to read it like I did, you can at least find a pretty cover to make it a tiny bit more bearable.
I soooooooooooo hope they make a pretty version of The Great Gatsby because I LOVE that book and it's one of the only two books I actually read in high school (well actually opened, and read. The other being Brave New World).
So if anyone is in the market for classics, check out Penguin Classics because they're so pretty and are a good investment because they can also be decorative pieces.
Stay beautiful, Katie xox