Reading on a screen never really took off until Amazon released their Kindle, and quickly created a new book market based on convenience, a cheaper price point and the idea that you can now put something else on your bookshelves. I’m an avid reader, so I liked that last part. I’ve read maybe 20 books on my iPhone then iPad and that’s just one year. These things add up and cause clutter. Still, a Kindle, Nook, iPad or iPhone/Pod Touch is an expensive option for onscreen reading. That’s why I’m so impressed that Nintendo has been forward thinking enough to put out 100 Classic Books for their ubiquitous handheld.  All on a single cartridge. Article UPDATED 6/10.

If you’re not interested in reading on a handheld – it’s very easy to get used to. Easier than you think anyway.  I got used to it on the iPhone because I could hold it up easily, turning pages with my thumb, and changing the font size is worth almost any inconvenience. The DS is more like a book in shape, and page turning can be done with a a finger, or, more awkwardly, with the stylus. Most of the advantages are here, you can increase the font if you’ve got old people eyes… like me, you can bookmark and there’s a nifty little program that will help you find a book suited to you.

Now, if you have one of Apple’s solutions the app store is an easy way to get these titles for free. (I recommend Eucalyptus.) The reason is that these books have past their copyright date and the Gutenberg project has made them all, and many more, available for free. Somewhat better put together versions are also available at Amazon for Kindle for a $1 or so, but that kind of logic is far more expensive then this. 100 Classic Books is $19.99. That’s $0.20 a book for books that cost up to $14.99 or more in the bookstores.

These are all good books, classics and exactly the sort of books more people should read at some point in their lives. I’m not going to list them all but some obvious choices are Jane Austin, Mark Twain, Lewis Carroll, Dickens and some dude names Shakespeare, are represented. Teens might be tempted more by Dracula or Frankenstein (or Treasure Island or Pride and Prejudice – the one without zombies) and it makes a good compromise on screen time.

Uncool Parent: Okay, if you read for an hour on your DS you can play a game for another hour.

The game isn’t ESRB rated and I’d recommend 10+ simply for difficulty level (some kids earlier, some later) of the books. Beware that these books do have some racy content.  Most interesting to me is that they claim more books will be available at the DSi store. I couldn’t find any info on what, however. For now it’s a few classics that should be in the main program – like Treasure Island and The Prince & the Pauper but the website doesn’t say there’s a charge for the extras* or if there are any plans to release a few Bestsellers creep in there? HarperCollins’ logo is on the box, does that mean we’ll get to buy books from their catalog? Only their catalog? I’d feel more comfortable recommending this if there was a promise you could buy current books sometime soon. Again, it is $20 for 100 books on a system you probably already have.

Oh, and it looks great on that bigger DSi.

The website isn’t forthcoming about any of that.  Still, this is a bargain at the price because the literature is priceless and encouraging your kids to read pays dividends that last a lifetime.  The main question you have to answer is: When you jump on the electronic book trend, do you want to do it on a DS?

It’s not a bad option really.

* UPDATE

PR tells me that 10 more titles will be available for download for the low, low price of FREE and that there are currently no plans to make this into a full book reader by offering a modern catalog.

Tags: Game Reviews