The following is straight from the Penguin Books weekly newsletter:
Elda Rotor and Dan Sanicola Lead the Successful Launch of Penguin Enhanced eBook Classics
"Penguin has set the bar for ebook quality... *this* is the ebook experience we've been wanting." —Amazon customer"
This spring, Elda Rotor, Executive Editor of Penguin Classics, and Dan Sanicola, Digital Manager, led the successful launch of the Penguin Enhanced eBook Classics Series. Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen was the first title to be released. The eBook, which debuted at #6 on Amazon's Kindle chart the first week after publication in May, showcases an array of special features which were selected by Elda Rotor, including a filmography, book reviews from the time of the original publication of the novel, a chronology of Jane Austen's life and times, recipes, instructions on period dancing, social etiquette, and how to prepare a tea, a literary tour of famous Austen sites, black-and-white illustrations of fashion, home décor, and architecture.
Pride and Prejudice earned swift, high praise from consumers, who were delighted with the new format, as well as its special features. Here's just a sampling of what customers had to say:
"One of the Best versions of this book in any format." —Laura from the Midwest
"Penguin's P&P is the closest ebook equivalent to the joy of reading a quality physical book - the text is perfectly formatted for the Kindle, it's been proofed, and the supplemental material is almost overwhelming. Detailed intros, useful hyperlinking and a wealth of information on Austen's times, including fashion, furniture, and food and drink, are included. It's truly an immersive experience... Penguin has set the bar for ebook quality with this release. I urge anyone with a Kindle to get a copy - *this* is the ebook experience we've been wanting."—David Hensley from Dallas, TX
"I learned a great deal more about Austen's novel in the convenient Kindle format than I did 42 years ago in college. Hopefully, I'll be able to add many enhanced Penguin classics to my Kindle Library." —Gary from Ohio
Those extras sound pretty neat. It actually strikes me as something that would be great to bring to a book club meeting. Are any of my readers into ebooks? If so, you may want to check this out. If you have read this new ebook and viewed the extra features, please share your thoughts in the comments!
3 comments:
I'm glad to see P & P is being read on ebooks. It's interesting to note that two of the three comments hailing its praises are from men. Guess the new format does reach a certain sector of demographics. Also, I just thought of another advantage of ebooks: You don't give away what you're reading by the cover. So for those who may shy away, now's the time to catch up on all those Austen books they've been missing.
Welcome back!
I've downloaded several Austen books from the Gutenberg Project to have on my Palm Pilot. The screen is small, so it is bare text, with no formatting, but the words are what is important. I like having them available wherever I am.
Arit has a good point about the privacy factor. I've been reading some reviews of the Kindle thgouh, and it sounds like the design is a bit clunky, page loading is slow, and there really is not a wide range of books available for it.
Ann's approach would limit one to the public domain texts, but add the versatility of using a device for more than one function. One of the big complaints I've seen about the Kindle is that you can't load other file types into it (like the way you can load mp3's into an iPod in addition to files bought at iTunes.)
I am fascinated by eBook technology, and would love to condense so many texts into one bok-size item, but I just don't think the Kindle is for me.
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