/lit/ - Literature

>could read a book and learn a bit
>shitposts on lit instead

>>7849435
>buy a penquin book
>read through it once
>not even a year old
>1-2 pages falling out already

People who complain about Penguin have never had Wordsworth Classics.

>>7849440

>>7849438
That's what you get for not buying deluxe edition.
>DeckledEdges~~~

What's so bad about the penguin editions? I've never had one fall apart and they look nice and uniform on my shelf

>>7849443

honestly what the fuck

>>7849443
>Wordsworth Classics.

>>7850073
>How I went from a sick and spiteful man to having this sweet built-in library
>oh and her

>>7850078
>Doctor Zhivago

>>7850078
>>7850073
>>7849443
who in the name of God thought this was a good design?
Even a blank cover would be better than this photoshopped shit.

So is Wordsworth the cheapest possible way of obtaining a copy of some classic work in the USA?

>>7850115
Cheapest is gutenberg.org

>>7850139
those are E-Books.
I meant physical

fucking kek

Why do people hate on Penguins? They are low-ish quality, sure, but they are cheap, and they usually get good scholars to write the introductions and any necessary endnotes. I have used Penguins in an academic setting for the quality of the scholarship. I mean, Penguin is no Norton or Oxford, but they do a good job.

>>7850179
People just like to whine

>>7849444
GOD FUCKING DAMMIT. why? Why does every new book have deckled edges? The new crying lot of 49 has it, the new infinite jest has it, the new gravitys rainbow has it, new east of Eden has it, both of the fagles translations for the Iliad and the odyssey have it. I wanted to read broom of the system the other day but the only edition in stock has FUCKING DECKLED EDGES. Some day deckled edge will be the norm. I'm going to buy a nook just to escape this nightmare we are all living.

>>7850179
Penguins hold together MUCH better than oxfords in my experience...

I have an Oxford Huck Finn- I've read it four times- and it is notably warped, the pages are wavy and crippled looking.

I have a penguin Don Quixote that I read 3 times. It is still in great condition, even though a big book would seem more prone to spine warping, the pages all look nice and not 'wavy' like the Huck Finn is.

>>7849443
hooooly fuck some of these are so funny. jesus.

someone post wordsworth candide

>>7849435
Penguin seems to actually be best for a lot of really old epics

>>7850252

>>7850373
In the Underground over the Sea is a great book what's the problem?

where's the wordsworth gravity's rainbow

>>7850373
Not bad desu

Wordsworth covers are straight up Mystery of the Druids tier

>buy classic online
>it's in spastic

>buy book online
>arrives in mail
>excidetly open it, ready to read it all day

>never actually read it

>>7850409
make it stop

>buy book online
>arrives in the mail
>it is an audiobook

>>7850206
O__________________o

>>7849438
>>7849435
Where the fuck are you getting books from.

I have contemporary and original penguin publications that are fine.
Why the stigma.

>>7850448
>he fell for the penguin meme

>>7850418

literally me

>>7849443

It's like they didn't even read the fucking book when it describes Rask as having blond hair multiple times.

>>7850156
Say, that's got potential
>image based on first few letters of title
>amusing mismatch ensues
How did I do?

>>7849443
There's an independent book shop that does 3 for £5 and I spend hours looking at the covers and listening to vaporware. I used to pretend I worked there because it had three stories so I could sit on the story without the WORDSWORTH CLASSICS LIBRARY (because it is almost a library up there) and ask customers to rank the books by their covers. The Master and Margarita had one man (he was about 60-65) weeping with laughter when I first explained what the cover wwas and then brought it down to show him. I was eventually banned from that shoppe because I was "creating an uneasy atmosphere"

man that was a good summer, I remember talking about UFOs in that shop because it was near a military barracks and we'd get all sort of marxist hippies and neo-fascists looking for Carlyle 1st editions (topgeg)

Oh to be 17 again...

>>7850470
This is the cover btw

>>7850409
Oh my god

I actually own the this kek

I think the Wordsworth covers are meant to be ironic.

>>7850384

>>7850476
They have to be doing this shit on purpose
Whoever designs this shit is on /lit/ and is doing this specifically to fuck with all of us
This is his brand of shitposting

lel. I remember someone posted the Odyssey and I thought it was a joke. clearly a photoshooped meme.

>the day I discovered wordsworth classics

SLUT
L
U
T

>>7850539
holy fuck why do they shop so hard

>>7850539
do you think they do multiple shoops and pick the best one or do they just give it one shot and print what ever happens. I can't see someone being like

"hey this is the cover all finished what do you think?"

"looks great. print it."

>>7849438
What the fuck are you doing when you read books? Do you have fingers covered in cheeto dust too?

>>7850073
it's like they try to actually miss the point of the book

>>7850078
The Idiot directed by Wes Anderson

>>7850206

>>7850206
People buying physical books like Very Real and Authentic, bruv.

Paper books are going the way of vinyl, fountain pens and typewriters.

>>7850560
dude they probably just hired some terrible artist to do all their covers because they would work for cheap

and then when he submits this shit to his bosses they are all like:

"well this is shit but we don't want to waste more money hiring a new artist to fix it or waste more time finding a new person so lets just roll with it"

>>7850476
this can't be real

>>7850633
oh it is, but is out of print.

is there a list of all the books wordsworth did with those retarded covers. I'm gonna collect as many as I can and frame them in 1 frame

Most Wordsworth covers are alright, but there are some godawful ones and I bought them

>>7850626
That's a meme, you dip!
Vinyls are for music, music can be heard on more than Vinyl and CD, almost every electronic device can play fine quality music somehow.
Fountain pens? Countless different affordable pen brands to comfortably replace a busted pen.
Typewriters? Printers, copier, fax machines even, can all print on paper if you need them to.
So, the three things above are retro technology that are still popular simply for the "analog" feel of it.
but Books? If that ereader gets busted, you don't have an option other than paper. Unless you want to be blind by 50 and read a whole novel on ur phone. So, no, paper books are not going anywhere until there are more affordable and comfortable alternatives.

>>7850653
I like this but I don't think there's a frame big enough. Maybe the Pope would let you use the Sistine Chapel

>>7850692
nigger you can frame anything. my dad has a frame with 2 hockey jerseys in it and some shit underneath. hes fucking pleb.

>>7850659
>if that ereader gets busted

You buy another one. Unless you're some survivalist type dreaming up doomsday scenarios, there's really no need for paper books anymore.

>>7849435

>He ignores the potential knowledge
>Focus on Material stuff that is highly irrelevant

>>7850429
That's entirely your fault

>>7850728
What part of paying over a hundred bucks for a good ereader and having to keep it charged endlessly is more convenient than paper to you?
I like ereaders, I do. But paper is not like vinyl, typewriters, or fountain-pens because it is still actually MORE convenient and comfortable to use than an eReader.

>>7850762
>having to keep it charged endlessly
That's bullshit and you know it

When the reckoning comes, and power is a valuable and rare commodity, you will wish you had an expansive paper book collection to preserve art and knowledge for the dystopian future instead of an e-reader which is now a useless slab of plastic as you sit in your shelter bored out of your mind. I will be in my shelter reading the greeks by candlelight laughing at you.

>>7850794

It's a hipster, logic will not work with this one. Remember his identity is purely founded on being speshul and going against commodity, unless said commodity is not well-known by the populous.

>>7850794
It's really not bullshit, the older an ereader gets, the faster its battery runs out. After five years, if it lasts that long, you're charging it twice a week. Having to charge it EVER already makes it less convenient than paper.
You gotta think solar powered, more durable, improved software. More affordable.
If you spend a hundred bucks for a book, that's a book you're planning to keep in your family a couple generations. When the same is true for an ereader, then you can say that paper will start to lose popularity.
The ideas have been around long enough, it's really just a matter of using the right hardware and software, not reinventing the ereader.

>>7850822
I'm not a hipster, I'm just being honest that ereaders are not some wonderful sci-fi level technology that you NEED for reading.
That being said, I'm buying a new one next week because paper takes up too much space and I can't wait for ereaders that actually are the marvels you guys seem think they are.

>>7850856

Ok, I retract my post.

>>7850708
you can't just frame ANYTHING

who said he could frame those jerseys BITCH DID HE EVEN ASK IF HE WAS ALLOWED

>>7850659
>vinyl
I dunno man, i buy vinyl because every album I've heard on vinyl sounds significantly better than an mp3 or CD version of it. I tend to have all three for, as you say, the ease of listening but I'd rather listen to vinyl despite its setbacks.

>>7850626
I like collecting books m8 its the only thing i invest my money in.

>>7851107
how the fuck does it sound better. I sounds worse. like terrible quality

>>7851107
>collecting anything
Weakness desu.

>>7850073

This looks like the cover of a cuckold fantasy piece of chick-lit

>>7850762
You charge it once every few weeks and you can keep hundreds of kilos worth of books on it.

I don't see how paper is more convenient and comfortable.

>>7850429

Did the mailman read it to you?

>>7850470
>>7850476
dood that sounds comfy as fuck

>>7849435
i don't get this meem

>>7851182
Well it seems to sound better to me.

>>7851205
It is, its compulsive by this point. But i enjoy the hunt for the older book.

>>7849435
>buy copy of Alice in Wonderland online
>excitedly open up the package that I got in the mail

>it's actually anime

>>7851339
Kek

>>7851339
this is probably how carroll would prefer it if he had lived to see anime

>>7851339
Best purchase of my life, desu

>>7851182
You obviously have a shitty player or a worn down needle

>>7851363
Oh, it's the original text but just with the illustrations in anime/manga style? That's legit...
Not better than John Tenniel but, legit.

>>7851363
is it in most major bookstores?

>>7851182
>>7851254
Vinyl is not superior altogether, but often vinyl albums have better mastering than digital versions. To an extent audiophiles are the target audience, so it's mastered to sound good on nice equipment.

>>7850424
>>7850478
>>7850409
What's wrong anons?

>>7851416
>>7851416

>>7849435
You don't check what edition it is before you buy it?

>>7851416
>>7851428

Mein Gott...

Can you post some pages from this?

>>7849438
I bet you fold back the pages when you read, don't you

>>7850078
This face is fucking hysterical

>>7851416

>>7851428
>There are people who pay $25 for this

>>7851475
We got a live one.

>>7851438
I didn't get any of the book at the time but heres some from the amazon kindle edition

>>7851505
fucking hell

>>7851505
Fucking abysmal. Makes me a little bit sad, t b h

>>7851511
>>7851543
The thing I don't get is for what purpose? I mean it probably started as a little joke, but they actually spent the time to do it for 60 books, get it published and then charge $25 for it.

>>7851553
>for what purpose?
P R O F I T
R
O
F
I
T

YOU SEE /LIT/ THIS IS WHY WE NEED TO ABOLISH CAPITALISM, IT MEANS PEOPLE CAN BE INFLUENCE TO DO SHITE LIKE THIS BECAUSE IT GIVES THEM MONEY.

>>7851553
I bet you some douchebag highschool piece of shit literally bought this and reads these summaries instead of the books for his English class. probably gets like 80 percent on all the tests too.

>>7851339
>>7851363
Oh shit, apparently they're releasing a similar edition for The Wizard of Oz in April

Still think that Alice is the cuter loli though.

>>7851553
>I curse the day I inexplicably transformed into a gigantic, six-legged metaphor!

>>7851360
top kek why

>>7851561

The problem has nothing to do with capitalism. It has everything to do with the people. They like that shit and buy it.
Most people are stupid and every system of everything breaks down because people's stupidity is always underestimated.

So which are the best publishers to buy from?

>>7851553
>not reading the Twitter versions to get the gist of books then acting like you've read them on /lit/

How long is Infinite Jest: Twitter edition? 5 pages?

>>7849435

>buy hardcover book online
>arrives in the mail
>excitedly open it, ready to read it all day
>the fucking dust jacket is missing

>>7849435
>buy paper back online
>cover is slightly wrinkled or bent a tiny bit
>not enough to justify a refund
>just enough to bother you every time you see it

>>7851886
LITERALLY EVERY SINGLE BOOK DEPOSITORY BOOK I'VE EVER BOUGHTEN.
The Faerie Queene
The Collected Poems of Lord Byron
Walt Whitman's Complete Poems
Sylvia Plath's Complete Poems
Anne Sexton's Complete Poems
A badass edition of LotR
The only book not to arrive with some kind of fold or crease or wrinkle was Gone With the Fucking Wind.
Fucking Abe Books from now on! The used books in very good condition are a third the price and come with less kinks!!!!

>>7850626
>be in a big, first-class company
>the work follow-up is done painfully through a dedicated MySQL database, Excel files and other smartphone applications
>people keep saving up and deleting the others' modification
>the “overview” is failing to help the managers allocating the workload correctly
>we're slowing accumulating weeks of delay
>make a bound print and ask people to manually wrote in it
>leave it on a desk
>the situation is resolved in a couple of days
>some managers still complain it's a bad idea
>their sole concern is that it isn't “tech” enough

The whole “prints will vanish” meme is ridiculous.

>>7850659
>Unless you want to be blind by 50 and read a whole novel on ur phone.
Citation needed or fuck off paper shill
>>7852912

>>7852912
Never said it will vanish, just that it will increasingly come the domain of tryhard posers.

>buy book online
>its actually in the form of a group of men who come round to your house and sing the entire book in quartet style doing different voices for each character

>>7849435
For me, the penguin logo is a dead giveaway...

>>7849443
Can lit use this as a meme instead of pic related

>>7850513
kek.

>>7850156
LOL

>>7855953
I second this, let's start that

It's sad how this is the first result on amazon when searching "moby dick"

>>7856995
>it's bad that a sturdy, affordable edition of a classic is the first result

>>7851229
I would pay for this. I don't know why, but I would.

>>7857020
The problem is you have to scroll way down to get a decent edition. The norton critical edition is nowhere to be found, unless you actually type it in the search

>>7855953
Why not just combine the two?

Just to be clear, what's wrong with Penguin books?

>>7857106
Absolutely nothing

>>7851339
I must have this.

>>7852559
Literally never had this issue with Book Depository.

>>7857074
Thank you for this.

you guys weren't joking

>>7858328
they must be memeing on purpose

>>7857074
>Checks & Duplicates

>>7849435

>Bought a used book online
>It arrives
>Start reading
>All the swear and curse words are drawn over with a black marker
>The book was 700 pages long

I have no idea how he managed to do that or why he would do that and then sell the book, the book was very full of swearing.

>>7851428
>penguin costing 25$
What fucking country? Holy shit

>>7851243
It was.

>Someone brings in a ~1300 page book on English waterways & canals
>Printed in 1876
>Slow day so I start reading
>Get a few hundred pages in
>"I feel.... Weird... Oh man..."
>Start to get high on the spores
>Feel dizzy and sick
>The (unfinished) Dorset and Somerset Canal starts dancing erotically with the Kennet and Avon Canal
>Soon all of them are at it together whooping and hollering
>"That's quite enough of that."
>Wake up hours later with the book next to me and a splitting headache
>A few weeks later the guy comes back in
>"Hey.. So about that book you dropped off the other wee-"
>"You saw them too?"

>>7857400
Same, all their books arrive perfectly

Amazon on the other hand doesn't pack shit so there are always dents, making new books look used. I tried to sumbit a packaging review once (they ask for it) but it didn't go through for someo dd reason and I couldn't fill it again. They'll never fix their shit.

>>7860055
KEK

>>7860078
doubt this really happened, but thnaks for introducing me to the fact there's hallucinogenic spores in old books

>>7860055
I've heard this before.

>>7860078

I want this book

>>7850476
top kekeroo

>>7850539
>current year
>slut shaming
looks like someone needs to be sent to the correctional facility

>>7852912
>>some managers still complain it's a bad idea
>>their sole concern is that it isn't “tech” enough
Were the fuck did these managers go to school and who the fuck keeps hiring them.

>>7857053
Is the 1999 edition really $10 better than the 1967 edition?

>>7850409
I just went on the guy's website and submitted a question, wherein I called him a degenerate.

Am I a bad-ass /lit/?

>>7849435
>buy book online
>doesnt arrive in mail

>>7860135
>buy book online
>book i own goes missing

>>7850409
Genius

>>7850409
I feel like this would actually be funny to read