One of my goals in life is to own a copy of every single book in the Everyman's Library. I currently own between 50 and 60 books in the library so I think I'm well on my way. Only time will tell.

-Gonnosuke

What is this... Everyman's Library?

From the official site:

"In 1905 Joseph Malaby Dent, an established London publisher, resolved to publish a library of world literature that would appeal "to every kind of reader: the worker, the student, the cultured man, the child, the man and the woman." He promised 1,000 volumes, in pocket-sized editions, gilt-lettered, decorated, and inexpensive (they originally sold for a shilling apiece). Dent envisioned a balanced selection of classics and other worthy books, from the popular to the specialized: his master purpose was to build up the perfect library, "the most complete library for the common man the world has ever seen"--a project that became the ruling passion of his life.

Other popular series of reprints existed in 1906, but none was on the scale of what came to be known as Everyman's Library. At that time, inexpensive editions were rare, and it was indeed a boon to be able to buy, one at a time, a number of famous books that were more often talked about than read. By the end of 1910, 500 volumes had been issued, and within Dent's lifetime, Everyman had become the fullest and most prestigious series of the world's classics available in the English language, with writings from Aeschylus to Zola. By 1975, the series had surpassed even J. M. Dent's original vision, having produced 994 works in 1,239 volumes..."

For more information:

http://www.randomhouse.com/knopf/classics/

There's a link to the entire catalogue there as well.

-Gonnosuke

I own about 6 of them. They're very well made. Of course, I'm still working on reading all of them. How far are you in the 50 or so that you own?

Currently, I'm in the middle of Moby Dick.

Ryan

I've read 37 of them so far. I just ordered 8 more books so it looks like I'm going to be falling behind. I'm currently reading "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" which is a pretty slow read.

-Gonnosuke

So far, I've read 1984 and Heart of Darkness. I'm in the middle of Moby Dick and Arabian Nights, and have both Ulysses and Frankenstein waiting for me.

1984 I really enjoyed. Heart of Darkness was possibly the toughest 90 pages I've ever read.

I agree. It's much easier for me to digest the subject matter when I draw comparisons between the original Joseph Conrad novella and the movie 'Apocalypse Now'.

-Gonnosuke

What really surprised me was the similarities between the russian in Heart of Darkness and Dennis Hopper's photo journalist in AN. I would have never thought he would stay as close to the book as he did.

Ryan