Clicking the Classics

I recently discovered Digital Classics, which is a library of "over a hundred literary masterpieces, digitized, and bound in the finest electronic leather." They have a "reader" that pops up, and you're able to view the pages as you would with a normal book, and click on the corners to turn backward and forward.

Though I do prefer a paper copy of a book in my hands, this was a pleasant way to ingest a little classic that was perfect for this time of year--Frances Hodgeson Burnett's The Secret Garden. What a perfect thing to read this time of year, when everything is becoming green and growing. Despite some of the melodrama (people making exultant exclamations!! All the time!!) of the time, the book was sweet and as charming as I'd remembered it, and I do recommend it.

If I were reading it to a child, I might consider skipping some of the bits about India, as the view of "primitive natives" at the time it was written doesn't fit in with the world these days. That, or take a couple minutes to discuss with the child about the time it was written.

These little things don't stop the book from being wonderful and magical, and one I loved dearly as a child. Speaking of books, I'm making over a cheapie little book-shaped wooden box from a craft store, and hopefully it will turn out to look at least somewhat like an actual book.

I've used an exacto to cut fine lines on the edges of the box, and have used a dry brush to paint on some gold for the edges of the "pages." Hopefully they'll eventually look like actual, weathered pages by the time I'm done with the outside.

I'm also "imprinting" the top of the book with a design I've blatantly stolen from a gorgeous 1910 copy of Oliver Wendell Holmes' Autocrat of the Breakfast Table. It's a beautiful book--even the inside cover pages are gorgeous. In any case, I'm trying to engrave that same sort of design into this book, though I'm not sure what the title will be, yet.