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:

  1. Louisa May Alcott    Little Women
  2. Jane Austen    Emma
  3. Jane Austen    Mansfield Park
  4. Jane Austen    Persuasion
  5. Jane Austen    Pride and Prejudice
  6. Jane Austen    Sense and Sensibility
  7. Harriet Beecher    Stowe Uncle Tom’s Cabin
  8. R.D. Blackmore    Lorna Doone
  9. Anne Bronte    The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
  10. Charlotte Bronte    Jane Eyre
  11. Charlotte Bronte    The Professor
  12. Charlotte Bronte    Shirley
  13. Charlotte Bronte    Villette
  14. Emily Bronte    Wuthering Heights
  15. John Bunyan    The Pilgrim’s Progress
  16. Frances Burnett    Little Lord Fauntleroy
  17. Frances Burnett    The Secret Garden
  18. Lewis Carroll    Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
  19. Lewis Carroll    Through the Looking-Glass
  20. Wilkie Collins    The Moonstone
  21. Wilkie Collins    The Woman in White
  22. Carlo Collodi    The Adventures of Pinocchio
  23. Arthur Conan Doyle    The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
  24. Arthur Conan Doyle    The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes
  25. Joseph Conrad    Lord Jim
  26. Susan Coolidge    What Katy Did
  27. James Fenimore Cooper    Last of the Mohicans
  28. Daniel Defoe    Robinson Crusoe
  29. Charles Dickens    Barnaby Rudge
  30. Charles Dickens    Bleak House
  31. Charles Dickens    A Christmas Carol
  32. Charles Dickens    David Copperfield
  33. Charles Dickens    Dombey and Son
  34. Charles Dickens    Great Expectations
  35. Charles Dickens    Hard Times
  36. Charles Dickens    Martin Chuzzlewit
  37. Charles Dickens    Nicholas Nickleby
  38. Charles Dickens    The Old Curiosity Shop
  39. Charles Dickens    Oliver Twist
  40. Charles Dickens    The Pickwick Papers
  41. Charles Dickens    A Tale of Two Cities
  42. Alexandre Dumas    The Count of Monte Cristo
  43. Alexandre Dumas    The Three Musketeers
  44. George Eliot    Adam Bede
  45. George Eliot    Middlemarch
  46. George Eliot    The Mill on the Floss
  47. Henry Rider Haggard    King Solomon’s Mines
  48. Thomas Hardy    Far From The Madding Crowd
  49. Thomas Hardy    The Mayor of Casterbridge
  50. Thomas Hardy    Tess of The D’Urbervilles
  51. Thomas Hardy    Under the Greenwood Tree
  52. Nathaniel Hawthorne    The Scarlet Letter
  53. Victor Hugo    The Hunchback of Notre Dame
  54. Victor Hugo    Les Miserables
  55. Washington Irving    The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon
  56. Charles Kingsley    Westward Ho!
  57. D.H. Lawrence    Sons And Lovers
  58. Gaston Leroux    The Phantom of the Opera
  59. Jack London    The Call of the Wild
  60. Jack London    White Fang
  61. Herman Melville    Moby Dick
  62. Edgar Allen Poe    Tales of Mystery and Imagination
  63. Sir Walter Scott    Ivanhoe
  64. Sir Walter Scott    Rob Roy
  65. Sir Walter Scott    Waverley
  66. Anna Sewell    Black Beauty
  67. William Shakespeare    All’s Well That Ends Well
  68. William Shakespeare    Antony and Cleopatra
  69. William Shakespeare    As You Like It
  70. William Shakespeare    The Comedy of Errors
  71. William Shakespeare    Hamlet
  72. William Shakespeare    Julius Caesar
  73. William Shakespeare    King Henry the Fifth
  74. William Shakespeare    King Lear
  75. William Shakespeare    King Richard the Third
  76. William Shakespeare    Love’s Labour’s Lost
  77. William Shakespeare    Macbeth
  78. William Shakespeare    The Merchant of Venice
  79. William Shakespeare    A Midsummer-Night’s Dream
  80. William Shakespeare    Much Ado About Nothing
  81. William Shakespeare    Othello, the Moor of Venice
  82. William Shakespeare    Romeo and Juliet
  83. William Shakespeare    The Taming of the Shrew
  84. William Shakespeare    The Tempest
  85. William Shakespeare    Timon of Athens
  86. William Shakespeare    Titus Andronicus
  87. William Shakespeare    Twelfth Night
  88. William Shakespeare    The Winter’s Tale
  89. Robert Louis Stevenson    Kidnapped
  90. Robert Louis Stevenson    The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
  91. Robert Louis Stevenson    Treasure Island
  92. Jonathan Swift    Gulliver’s Travels
  93. William Thackeray    Vanity Fair
  94. Anthony Trollope    Barchester Towers
  95. Mark Twain    Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
  96. Mark Twain    Adventures of Tom Sawyer
  97. Jules Verne    Round the World in Eighty Days
  98. Jules Verne    20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
  99. Oscar Wilde    The Importance of Being Earnest
  100. Oscar Wilde    The Picture of Dorian Gray