For my birthday my sister got me the Nintendo DS application "100 Classic Novel Collection", which is something that I thought was quite exciting when I first heard about it just after Christmas. To give it a go I decided to re-read a novel that I thought was really interesting when I first read it a few years ago, The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.
I'm not going to say too much about the novel itself - you should definitely check it out, whatever your views on classic literature, it's a fantastic story and really effective - but I wanted to say a word or two about the presentation medium. Given the price and restrictions of some ebook readers, it's quite nice to see something simple like this for the DS. A hundred novels (for around £15 if you shop online) all on a little cartridge and the interface is a piece of hardware that is relatively cheap compared to the current generation of electronic readers. The display isn't quite big enough, as even the smallest text it displays is quite narrow on the screen, almost like a newspaper column.
There's a big homebrew movement for the DS, so I'm sure there are people out there who have put together some kind of ebook reader, but this is something that Nintendo should definitely get on to - nevermind classic novels and plays (the application for the DS at the moment is a collection of out of copyright works), I want to be able to use my DS to read ebooks that I've downloaded, or even pdfs I've produced! Nintendo, get on to it!
From the library I got Something's Down There by Mickey Spillane; I got it in lieu of being able to get one of his Mike Hammer novels (I'll check the online catalogue soon, see if they have any). It was a pretty interesting thriller, as gritty as his Mike Hammer stuff, but I didn't find it quite as interesting as, say, My Gun Is Quick. Haven't read a good piece of noir for a while; I'm currently re-reading the complete Chronicles of Narnia, but think I will go looking for some more noir when I'm done with that, maybe something by Raymond Chandler.
Monday, 2 February 2009
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Nintendo DS as a book reader - we think that this is the future. With more titles (100 for £14.99) you can't go wrong.
There is a review of the 100 classic books at ;
www.ndsbook.co.uk
and they also show you the cheapest place to buy it online.
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