Pick up a Penguin

     My thanks to Ros for alerting me to the latest batch of Penguin Classics which are being given away. Visit Blog a Penguin Classic, register, and they'll send you a free book, chosen at random. You then have six weeks to read it and write a review for their site.

     Ros mentioned that while she's getting some Nietzsche, a friend is being sent "The Wind in the Willows"! Have I drawn the short straw here by being allocated Samuel Richardson's Pamela: Or, Virtue Rewarded? We shall see....

    If you sign up, do come back and tell us what you've got.

Comments

[Juliet Doyle]

Balzac: History of Thirteen. Did yours arrive quickly? Mine's not reached me yet. I do hope the deadline's six weeks from receipt, not from signing up!

[Sarah]

Thanks for the heads up Cornflower!

The deadline is six weeks from receipt. I was assigned The Taming of the Shrew, which I've never read but should be fun.

[Maureen]

Thank you for the link to the Penguin site. I'm going to rummage through my ancient A-level notes to help me through Moliere's 'The Misanthrope and other Plays.'

[Sibylle]

Oh gosh, I got "The Song Of Roland", an English translation of the French book. Would it be really bad if I read the French version instead ? It's always best to read the original version, I have absolutely no luck, it's got to be a French book I could easily have found and read in French *sigh*
But free books are always good, thank you ! (I was shooting for Clarissa by Richardson because it's expensive and something I really want to read, oh well)

[Roobeedoo]

I signed up too! And I was allocated "Natural History" by Pliny the Elder - oh crumbs!

[Danielle]

I tried for one of these books the first time around and didn't get there in time. I suspect it will now be the same way. At least you didn't get assigned Clarissa!! That's much longer! :)

[Danielle]

Ha. Just out of curiosity I went there are gave it a try. I actually got one!! :) I'm getting Georges Simenon's Bar on the Seine. I've been wanting to read him now for ages--this must be a sign! And thankfully it's only 160 pages (not that I would have minded something longer...). How fun--thanks for the heads up.

[Barbara]

That's me getting Wind in the Willows. Surprise; I have read it before just a few times! Pamela is very long but at least it's not Nietzsche.

[Lisa]

I went straight over there and signed up. Unfortunately, I got Darwin's Origin of Species. Not exactly what I would have chosen, but it's a free book.

[Barbara MacLeod]

Well, I thought I would give it a go.

A very quick email response stated "Your book is: The Analects".

Help! Never heard of it!

Ah-h-h-h ... a collection of Confucius's sayings. And the Amazon site goes on to give: The First Sentence. The Master said, 'Is it not a pleasure, having learned something, to try it out at due intervals?

Great stuff! Right up my street!

[Zoe]

No, I've drawn the short straw - The Descent of Man - Darwin. Not exactly my sort of thing!!!! I was hoping for Thomas Hardy or Dickens.

[rosie]

I was beginning to worry that I'd missed out, but it looks as though I've already read everything apart from The Analects.

I ended up by loving Pamela (though it took my a while to get into it!)

[Juxtabook]

Thanks for the pointer. I have drawn - Wonderful Adventures Of Mrs Seacole In Many Lands, which i am looking forward to reading. I am glad I did not get the Pliny. Your Richardson is not too bad! I quite enjoyed Pamela in the end, it is Clarissa that is like watching paint dry. I managed the first 500 pages and it is one of only a handful of books I never finished.

[Lindsay]

After a failed attempt, I tried again, and have been allocated "Of Mice and Men" which I think is pretty good luck - highly regarded, famous and (by me) unread.

But those who got Darwin should be thrilled too - he's one of the four writers who shaped our world view, and who provide a context for everything we are and do (the others are Newton, Adam Smith and Einstein ... I feel a Dark Puss response coming on here!)

Enjoy, everybody!!

[Peter the flautist]

Dark Puss would like to commend E. Shroedinger who wrote some popular science books as well as his monumental contributions to Quantum Mechanics. No one should underestimate Maxwell (the electromagnetism one not the sentimental writing one) either. He is right up there with Darwin, Newton and Einstein.

[Lee]

Hi!I have been allocated The Tragic Muse (Henry James). Shall look forward to this - and to reading all your reviews eventually. Thanks for letting us know that books were being distributed again.

[sherry]

I did not get anything!

[Mr Cornflower]

Got Plato's Discourses. Hope my review of it is better than my undergraduate essay circa 1979.

[Carolyn Carpenter]

I got Petrarch's Canzoniere. I have never read it and am looking forward to it, after reading about it on Wikipedia.

[Peter the flautist]

Miaaaooowwww

I got "Lark Rise To Candleford:A Trilogy" !

[Sarah Cuthbertson]

Thanks for letting us know. I'm getting Kidnapped which I've never read so am delighted! Must be my lucky week as I've also just won a free signed copy of a book in a Bloomsbury competition. Aren't publishers splendid?

[Evie]

Darwin writes really well, and his books are so important, I would love to have received something by him. I had never heard of The History of the Church by Eusebius, but the title wasn't exactly heartening. Just you try and beat this :).

"Eusebius’s account is the only surviving historical record of the Church during its crucial first 300 years. Bishop Eusebius (c. AD260–339), a learned scholar who lived most of his life in Caesarea in Palestine, broke new ground in writing the History and provided a model for all later ecclesiastical historians. In tracing the history of the Church from the time of Christ to the Great Persecution at the beginning of the fourth century and ending with the conversion of the Emperor Constantine, his aim was to show the purity and continuity of the doctrinal tradition of Christianity and its struggle against persecutors and heretics, and he supported his account by extensive quotations from original sources."

[m]

Think I've been let off lightly - I'd never even heard of The Egoist and had to look it up (turns out it's by George Meredith) but it sounds as if it might be quite amusing. Thanks for letting us know!