I got an email from Amazon today...
As someone who has recently purchased literary classics, you might like to know that the Penguin Classics Library is now available in one complete collection--only at Amazon.com. "The Penguin Classics Library Complete Collection"List Price: $13,317.74
Our Price: $7,989.99
You Save: $5,327.75 (40%)
Dang, if I had $8,000 lying around, I'd definitely go for it. But where would I keep it? You'd need a pretty big bookshelf:
From Edwin A. Abbott to Emile Zola, the 1,082 titles in the Penguin Classics Complete Library total nearly half a million pages--laid end to end they would hit the 52-mile mark. Approximately 700 pounds in weight, the titles would tower 828 feet if you stacked them atop each other--almost as tall as the Empire State Building.
Whoa. Someday, someday.
But what's up with the shipping? When I place it in my cart:
Order Summary Items: $7,989.99 Shipping & Handling: $3.99 Total Before Tax: $7,993.98 Estimated Tax: $0.00 Order Total: $7,993.98
$3.99? That's gotta be the best deal on shipping in the history of e-commerce.
Posted by smit2174 at June 17, 2005 12:14 PM | TrackBackHm. Well, it SEEMS like a good deal- you save $5,327.75, but you know what, that way is wrong wrong wrong. I mean, sure a book may be a "classic," but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's good or that it's WORTHY of "the collection," if you know what I mean. No, as for me, I'll take the slightly longer and more honorable road and buy my books one by one until they hit 52 miles... or the end of my second bookshelf. How else can you sift through the unnecessary excess- the books that bring down your collection as a whole? Besides, I bet they include Puritan literature like (ew) The Scarlet Letter. Yeah. I checked. They have it. Oh didn't your grandmother buy it for your sister? Well, she meant well and she's a very lovely woman. So no offense to her. Also, it's probably the kind of collection that fails to include in their "Selected Poetry of..." series all the poems that are really great- just enough poems to fill a book- poems that some Penguin chump probably figured were okay or whatever.
Therefore, if you ever end up with $8,000 dollars "burning a hole in your pocket", you should probably say- invest in the stock market... or buy me a enormous trampoline or just buy good books one by one.
PS: I don't know if it's just me, but some "classics" actually suck. Bukowski found that "all of them" fit that description, but I'm personally not as critical. haha.
PPS: "I know not seems."
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