100 Classic Books - Nintendo DS

Just received this yesterday. For just $20 you get a lot of bang for your buck. At first, I was worried that the font might be too small, since I have a DS Lite. Ends up that even the smaller font was easy to read. You can also trade up to a larger font. A book like The Wizard of Oz takes over 700 pages (small pages) to read on the DS Lite, to give you an idea of size. I have also already downloaded an additional title, although, I must admit, I had to get my husband to plug in all the wireless info (IP address, SID, etc.) before it would work.The only issue I have, and others have mentioned it, is that you can only bookmark one book at a time. I do hope that in the future Nintendo creates a version where you can bookmark multiple books. If you want to keep track of what page you are on manually--little slip of paper tucked into your DS case--you can read more than one selection, of course.For me, page turning is easier if I just push the arrow key below the screen. You can also flip using the stylus. Either way is fine, but you can really flip through quickly with the arrow keys.I really am glad I stumbled across this product. I love that I can read anywhere I am, as long as I pack my DS Lite in my purse. If you love the classics, or want to start reading them, this is a great product. THe best part is that you save space on your bookshelf for your contemporary novels. War and Peace alone would take up the space of several mysteries. Now, it fits in a cartridge the size of a postage stamp. With all the titles that are public domain, Nintendo could easily come out with more books for its DS line. I'll be eagerly waiting.

As an avid fan of words in general, I decided, upon learning of its existence, to purchase 100 Classic Books for the Nintendo DS.First things first: all of the books included in the software are now out of copyright, so some people will invariably scoff at the idea of paying actual money for them, particularly since they can be had legally for free on places like [...]. This is certainly a valid point. My feelings on the matter are thus: I like to read, but I am not terribly fond of reading books on the computer. Had I an e-reader such as the Kindle or the Nook, there might be little reason for me to purchase a title such as this. However, decent e-readers are still relatively expensive, and then there's the cost of a cover or case to help protect the thing, and possibly the optional protection plan, etc. Without having used one at any length, I'm not sure whether or not it would be worth it to me to drop the coin required for such a purchase.Since I already have a DS, making a small purchase like 100 Classic Books is a much easier pill to swallow in order to dip my toe in the waters of e-book reading.When the title starts up, there is a pleasant and soothing tune playing, as an owl flies across a row of books and settles on the non-touch screen to watch you. The owl also serves another feature. If the thought of choosing what to read from the 100 books available is somewhat daunting, you can ask the owl for a recommendation. He'll ask you a few questions about what you want to read (length, genre, reading level, etc.) and make a suggestion based on your answers.You can also get recommendations through the online rankings. Once you connect to the Nintendo WFC, you can update the rankings on the books, and there will be stickers applied to various books that are the highest rated in several categories (most romantic, most humorous, most scary, best overall book, etc.). This is a neat little feature, but wholly unnecessary, particularly since most people won't want to keep going online just to update the rankings again and again. Whilst connected to Nintendo WFC, you also have the option to download ten additional books to the software, which immediately integrate themselves into the bookshelf (there's a little "DL" on the bottom of the spine of each book so you can see which ones are hard-coded in the software and which are DLC).You can recommend books yourself after you've finished reading them (or after you've skipped ahead to the last page and "finished" the book if you're just eager to give a high rating to your favorite book). You get to rate it from 1 to 10 and then pick an adjective that describes it (the adjectives correspond to the categories a book can be stickered in).There are really only two things that are important in a title such as this, and that's the quality of the books and the quality of the interface.I've typed up a list of the books at the bottom of this review, and there is quite a large variety available across all genres, which is a plus. With authors ranging from Louisa May Alcott to Oscar Wilde, and the books themselves going from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea to Wuthering Heights, there is literally something enjoyable here for practically anyone who even remotely likes to read.The one big problem I had with the books is that there are sporadic typos to be found. As an example, there's a passage in The Jungle Book which erroneously says "hoys" instead of "boys" (on page 376 if you are using the standard font size). They're not everywhere, but I found a couple in the Jungle Book and elsewhere (I've only read a few books in the game). However, they are very off-putting when you find them, and it puts a bit of a taint on what is otherwise a very solid title.As for the interface, it is so intuitive that practically anyone could figure it out within a matter of seconds. However, there's also a tutorial that plays the first time you start the game (which you can skip if you so desire). You hold the DS sideways (like a book - clever, no?), and you can use either the buttons or the screen to turn the page. The d-pad or face buttons (depending on whether you're a righty or lefty) can be used to turn the page left or right, and you can optionally set the shoulder buttons to change pages as well. On the screen itself, tapping the left or right side of the touch screen will turn the page back or forward. You can also slide the stylus across if you want a more "realistic" page-turning motion.You can set up to three different bookmarks per book. This is nice if you have a particular passage that you want to refer to later, or if you have multiple people reading off one cartridge. If you want to remove a bookmark, just go to that page and take it out. Or you can simply place it somewhere else in the book and it will move automatically (you don't have to go and pick it up before you can set it down somewhere else, which is nice).The font size can be changed between two settings, and I found both to be quite easy to read. There's also several background ambient noise choices you can use. Some of them are a little unpleasant (actually, both the music selections of "Classic" and "Easy Listening" sounded a little too harsh and synthesized for me to enjoy reading by), but I found some that were very relaxing and actually enhanced the reading experience ("Summer Night" is my favorite, but "Moving Train" and "Park" are both good too).It's obvious that a lot of work went into making the interface as smooth and as intuitive as possible, and it really shows. It's extremely well thought out, though it's not perfect. One glaring omission is the lack of a dictionary to look up unfamiliar words (I understand that the Kindle has a built-in dictionary for just such a purpose). With all the books being from 1922 or prior, it is not uncommon to run into many unfamiliar words, particularly from the international authors such as Tolstoy, Kipling, or Hugo. Secondly, there's no search functionality. Unless you've bookmarked the page, you're stuck hopping from page to page looking for whatever phrase or quote you wanted to find. Another feature that would have been nice (though it isn't strictly necessary) is a text-to-speech feature (also included in the latest model of the Kindle). Synthesized speech has made many advances over the past decades, and although it's not perfect, it would be nice to be able to turn on a text-to-speech function if I wanted to listen to a book whilst browsing Amazon, for example.One of the other interesting things you might notice is a lack of an ESRB rating for this title. Apparently, due to the content being entirely literature-based, this title does not require any age classification. Granted it doesn't affect the software in any way, but it might be a bit of a collector's oddity for this reason.So, as I mentioned at the top of the review, I basically purchased this as an experiment to see whether I would get any use out of an e-reader before I whip out the wallet and buy one. So how did the experiment go? Well, I just placed my order for a Kindle.And now, here's a list of books included with the software (Books with an asterisk are not on the cartridge, but are available for download via Nintendo WFC):Louisa May Alcott: Little WomenJane Austen: Emma, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and SensibilityL. Frank Baum: The Wonderful Wizard of OzR.D. Blackmore: Lorna DooneCharlotte Brontë: Jane EyreEmily Brontë: Wuthering HeightsFrances Hodgson Burnett: Little Lord Fauntleroy, The Secret GardenRichard Burton (Translator): Tales from the Arabian NightsLewis Carroll: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking-GlassMiguel de Cervantes Saavedra: Don Quixote of La ManchaG.K. Chesterton: The Man Who was Thursday, The Napoleon of Notting HillKate Chopin: The AwakeningWilliam 'Wilkie' Collins: The Moonstone, The Woman in WhiteJoseph Conrad: Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim, The Secret Agent*James Fenimore Cooper: The Deerslayer, The Last of the MohicansSteven Crane: The Red Badge of CourageDaniel Defoe: The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, Robinson CrusoeCharles Dickens: Bleak House, A Christmas Carol, David Copperfield, Great Expectations, Nicholas Nickleby*, Oliver Twist, A Tale of Two CitiesFyodor Dostoyevsky: The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and PunishmentArthur Conan Doyle: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Hound of the BaskervillesAlexandre Dumas: The Count of Monte Cristo, The Man in the Iron Mask, The Three Musketeers*George Eliot: Middlemarch, Silas MarnerGeorge and Weedon Grossmith: The Diary of a NobodyHenry Rider Haggard: Allan Quartermain, King Solomon's MinesThomas Hardy: Far from the Madding Crowd, Tess of the D'UrbervillesNathaniel Hawthorne: The Scarlet Letter, Tanglewood Tales for Girls and Boys, A Wonder-Book for Girls and BoysO. Henry: The Four MillionHomer: The OdysseyAnthony Hope: The Prisoner of ZendaVictor Hugo: The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, Les MisérablesWashington Irving: The Sketch Book of Geoffrey CrayonHenry James: The Aspern Papers, The Turn of the ScrewRudyard Kipling: The Jungle Book, Just So Stories*, Kim, The Man Who Would Be KingGaston Leroux: The Phantom of the OperaJack London: The Call of the Wild, White FangGeorge MacDonald: The Princess and Curdie, The Princess and the GoblinNiccolò Machiavelli: The PrinceHerman Melville: Moby DickThomas More: UtopiaThomas Paine: Rights of ManEdgar Allan Poe: Tales of Mystery and ImaginationSir Walter Scott: Ivanhoe, WaverleyAnna Sewell: Black BeautyWilliam Shakespeare: Hamlet, King Lear, MacBeth, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Othello, The Moor of Venice, Romeo and Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew, The Tempest, Twelfth Night*Mary Shelley: FrankensteinLaurence Sterne: The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman*Robert Louis Stevenson: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Kidnapped, Treasure Island*Bram Stoker: DraculaHarriet Beecher Stowe: Uncle Tom's CabinJonathan Swift: Gulliver's TravelsWilliam Makepeach Thackeray: Vanity FairHenry David Thoreau: WaldenLeo Tolstoy: Anna Karenina, War and PeaceAnthony Trollope: Barchester TowersMark Twain: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, The Prince and the Pauper*Jules Verne: Journey to the Center of the Earth, Round the World in Eighty Days*, 20,000 Leagues Under the SeaH.G. Wells: The Time MachineEdith Wharton: The Age of InnocenceOscar Wilde: The Happy Prince and Other Stories*, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Picture of Dorian GrayThis list differs significantly from the 100 Classic Book Collection released in the UK. The UK version is a lot more focused on British Authors, and includes quite a few more titles from Jane Austen, the Brontë Sisters, Dickens, and Shakespeare. The US release has a wider variety of authors from many countries, although there is far less variety per author (Dickens and Shakespeare had some titles cut, but they're still fairly well represented).

The 100 Classic Books is a DS cartridge containing 100 classics, many of which are not offered in schools and / or read by young adults today. It contains books of various reading abilities, some of which are truly a challenge! I wonder, however, at the appeal of this DS for kids. My daughter LOVES to read and couldn't wait to begin reading a book on this DS cartridge. However, she's realizing that many of the books are either too difficult or set within a time period that she is not interested in. It really depends on the individual reader, I guess, but it may appeal more to an adult audience versus a young adult with a voracious reading appetite.

I've been wanting to get back into reading for a while, and when i read that Nintendo had this "game", I jumped on it. There are two font size choices which is good because with the larger one I can read without my glasses. The fact that the DSI is a lighted screen allows me to read in bed without disturbing my hubby. There are three bookmarks that can be used while you are reading a book. I've only read one book at a time so far, so not sure if reading more than one is possible. There is a feature that helps you choose a book by asking you several questions. This is not always so great, but it is helpful if you have no clue what to read next. When you finish reading a book, it will ask for your rating which is uploaded. You'll have to connect to wifi in order to do that, and also to update the ratings as others may be adding rating regularly. It's the poor mans kindle i guess. I think it's pretty cool, and I like the idea of reading some classics. You can't beat having over 100 books in your hand for about $20! i have the DSI, so it's smaller and not much heavier than a paper back book. I carry it in my purse just about everywhere I go and I can read at night easily without much hand or eye strain. I can hold the book and turn the page all with one hand by using the touch screen. It's pretty simple to use. It would be really great if they could get some more titles in the future! BUt for now, I have plenty to choose from. Of course the books in the "game" are all pretty old and the language can be difficult, but that can be challenging and I like that too.