100 Classic Books

$20, Nintendo DS

Teaches: reading

CTR Rating: 87.5%

CTR Review

In case you needed a reminder you're living in a digital age, how about 100 full-length books, like The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Robinson Crusoe, for $20, on a single Nintendo DS cartridge. That's 20 cents each. Of course, it's fun to imagine them to be dusty hardcovers, depicted in the main menu, which all fit on a single Nintendo DS cartridge. After you choose your book, you can hold your DS sideways like a book, and turn the pages by swiping the screen, or pressing the arrow keys. You can adjust the size of the text (small or large), select a variety of ambient noise patterns (such as a moving train) and place bookmarks so you can return to where you left off in a book. You can also download 10 more books at no charge via the Nintendo Wi-Fi connection, provided you have broadband Internet access. The main weakness is that the resolution of the Nintendo DS screen isn't nearly as clear as a laptop or phone. So the font seems a bit fuzzy. The game cartridge contains an assortment of books, ranging from The Jungle Book for kids, to The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes for teens, to Pride and Prejudice for adults. Each book includes a biography of the author and a synopsis of the plot and characters. If you are not sure which book you want to read, you can answer a series of questions about your preferences and it will recommend some books you might enjoy. When you have finished reading a book, you can rate it and upload the results to a central database using your Nintendo Wi-Fi connection, allowing other readers to see which books are rated funniest, most exciting, etc. A complete list of titles is located here: http://www.100classicbooks.com/digital-books.html