This is a fantastic series! I have close to 60 of them. Don’t let the Readers Digest label deceive you, these are complete and unabridged copies. I would start with the Sherlock Holmes anthologies soon as it meet the qualifications for Victober (but I’m bias as Doyle is one of my favorite writers).
This made me smile because I didn’t really know what they were I picked up 4 or 5 copies of these readers digest books and had no idea what they were like on the inside so my surprise they’re beautiful illustrated probably better illustration than special editions books like folio society in my opinion. I’m so glad to have found them. Thank you for sharing your collection I hope you keep collecting and show us more of your collection.
These are beautiful editions. I only have two of them, Great Expectations and A Tale of Two Cities, which have the original Hablot Knight Browne aka Phiz illustrations. I love these Reader's Digest Classics because they are sturdy, the text is readable and they come with beautiful frontispiece and illustrations. For these same reasons, they are popular and are quickly snapped up in our secondhand bookshops here. They can get pretty expensive, too.
I have 5 of the Reader's Digest (World's best reading) classics and I absolutely love them. The quality of the books and the presentation just feel like how books should be quintessentially. The paper quality is top notch, the print is absolutely tack sharp and the illustrations and the title pages are beautiful. And the Covers are simple and minimal while still communicating the vibe of the Book .I wish I could find them all but it would be an expensive and time consuming pursuit. Quite lucky of you to find 37 of them. I wish they would start printing them again. I would love it if they complete the Sherlock Holmes series since they don't seem to have published "The Sign of Four" "The Valley of Fear" "His Last Bow" and "Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes".
I have all the original Franklin Mint editions I started collecting at 13. They arrived once a month and included many classics having a lot of overlapping titles with your Reader’s Digest set. I once reread my collection in chronological order by publication date. It gave me a sense of politics and fashionability and time that I hadn’t realized before.
I have quite a few of those editions from my subscription service of them in the 1980’s. glad to see they are still wanted on shelves of collectors like you. They are extremely beautiful.
What a great video, Olive! I remember visiting my Grandmother as a child and the bottom shelf of her bookcase were lined with these books. You have so many great titles here. If you have not read Moby Dick or Treasure Island I would begin there. True Classics!
I thought I was alone for my love of this HUGE collection of novels published by Readers Digest! LOL!!! My mother, unbeknownst to me, had began a subscription to the ‘Worlds Best Reading’ Readers Digest thing when I was in high school…. Only after her passing in
I actually own Anne of green gables in this edition and absolutely love it! They’re so stunning and I wouldn’t mind owning more of these. Loved seeing your collection!
These are just gorgeous. I'm always going back and forth about wanting pretty editions and wanting the cheapest editions. I definitely need to get my hands on this edition of Grapes of Wrath though! I
Honestly, a mix of both will probably work for you. Get the cheap copies or read the text on project gutenberg if you haven't read it yet and therefore don't know if it's worth the money. But those classics you ADORE? Maybe those are the ones for which you want to invest a few extra dollars in a nice edition!
I once found King Solomon’s Mines in a swap meet. The cover was beautiful but I was very disappointed that the binding was not sewn. I recommend Heritage press for old, illustrated and beautiful classics.
I know many people prefer sewn bindings, but I have to say, these hold up extremely well! Not one of these is falling apart and some of them are very clearly on the old side.
They are stunning! I mostly have Penguin Classics and Oxford World Classics on my 19th century shelves. They are certainly not elaborately beautiful but I love their intros and notes.
I’m happy to own one Reader’s Digest and it’s my first time to read an unbridge book(the fourth physical book). I’m still a new reader, I hope it’s a good thing.
I recently went to my local mall and they were having a book sale. I saw the Sleepy Hollow copy and I really loved the binding so I bought it. I had no idea these are collectors books. That's so cool 🥰
Such beautiful editions!! I'm quite amazed!! Thank you for showing us the inside of the books! They are stunning! It must have taken quite some time :)
Thanks to this video, a friend and I got into hunting these down every time we go to Goodwill! I've resorted to getting some on Abe Books with varying degrees of success. My proudest World's Best Reading purchase is the UK version of Ben-Hur, which has a nice brown color that I feel will age better than the pale American cover. (It's the only one I've noticed with a different cover design between UK and USA.) Is this collection still an ongoing project for you? Any chance we can get an update video? The format in this video is perfect! 😊
wow i am in love!! i inherited a stack of readers digest classics from my grandmother and now I'm itching to find more. the sherlock holmes novels are some of my all-time favorites so if you haven't yet, you should totally read them- and I'd even recommend reading the books cover to cover, which i know not many people do, but the mythos that's developed over the span of conan doyle's works is just awe-inspiring.
Very well done videos. I just discovered your channel and immediately subscribed. These books look lovely. I have not read classics in years and there are many I have never read but need to. Thanks so much for doing this. From one obsessive reader and book lover!
Such beautiful books. And a reminder of the many classics that I have not read. A lot of these are still on my TBR. I need to up my classics game next year. Looking forward to seeing your reviews. Enjoy reading these! Oh, and form the ones I've read, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is my favourite. I love that book. So I'd start there if I were you.
What a wonderful collection! I can't help but think you've just made your collecting that much harder, now that you have turned most of us into converts. ;) In the group assembled, I'd do a Victorian era book for Victober. Sherlock or Dickens, perhaps?
They are quite beautiful. Your quest reminds me of a similar one I have embarked upon some years ago. I'm trying to get all the copies of The Best American Short Stories. They started in the the 70s or 80s and are still in print,; I too, am trying to collect them all. Happy hunting, Olive! 😀😀
Thanks for all the one-sentence summaries of these classics! Most of them I'm familiar with, but for the ones I haven't heard of it was really nice to get a quick idea of what they're about. I just finished reading through all the Sherlock Holmes stories with my husband, and they're a nice comfort read - I'd suggest sprinkling a short story in here and there around your other reading, since they do tend to be rather formulaic. I want to read Moby Dick so much - if you haven't already, maybe that would be a good fit for you? I've heard that Melville goes on a lot of tangents about whales and whaling in it, which seems like it might appeal to your nonfiction & nature history preferences.
Those are beautiful, I think the Good Earth was my favorite cover. I have these editions of the Sea Wolf and Robin Hood, but I hadn't realized they were 'a thing' until I heard you mention them. The Old Curiosity Shop is one of my favorite Dickens.
I have the sea wolf the same one that you have I think and I have Jane eyre reader digest as well the pictures are in black and while !! I had them both for years now .i love these copys.charles dickens and shelock homes looks nice .
Hi! I know this is an old video but I just wanted to ask if this edition's binding is sewn and not just glued i.e. does it lay flat? 😅 I have my eyes on this edition for quite some time now. I recently found a copy of Jane Eyre and I jumped at the chance to buy it because it's a favorite of mine however it is yet to arrive. I am contemplating if I should collect the rest of the classics in this edition (those that I can find anyway).
Ohhh this is the edition I borrowed from my library in Finland! I adored it but was stupid enough to not find out the name of the edition haha. Now when you talked about it, I really wanna have some of them. Is it okay to ask for the Ebay link from which you ordered them?
I'm not sure what good my ebay link would do since they're no longer available (since they live at my house now), but I can tell you the best way to search is by "Reader's Digest World's Best Reading" and then either the specific book you're looking for OR the word "lot" if you're looking for a bunch of them at one time.
Thank you so much for posting the links I have been looking for a beautiful hardback edition of A christmas carol and couldn't find one. I Love these additions will there's links stay active for awhile I would love to be able to purchase most im trying to read more classics this year too and these are beautiful!
I LOVE these editions! I have Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. I didn’t realize there were so many!! I need all the Sherlock Holmes ones! I hope I can find some more for my collection. They’re beautiful!
ohhh, so nostalgic! I love ANY collection of classics. I collect many editions, but Reader's Digest isn't one of them, though they are great :) I'd start with Sherlock Holmes or any Jules Verne. You made me want to pick up a classic :)
I've come across these in thrift shops and at used bookshops over the years. I've never picked them up because I don't like the font/layout inside. They are very nice though. My sister has and loves The 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea edition.
Those all look amazing. I had no idea they even existed. No idea where you should start. Maybe the one that yells at you the most? Maybe Hawthorne? Or Twain? I'd save Dickens and Sherlock for next month's Victober if you're participating.
I found Oliver Twist and The Prince and the Pauper Free on Kijiji. This guy's grandmother passed away and he was giving away all of her books. There in mint condition as though she purchased them and put them on a shelf and didn't touch them.
I also started looking for them, but oh boy they are indeed hard to find. I didn't even know there were over 100 😱 I was able to find 5 at different library sales. I believe that abebooks and eBay are your best options 😊
Never heard of these editions before. They all look fantastic. you can't go wrong with R.L. Stevenson or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle....but I would say that lol
I honestly didn't have too many before this. I have Rebecca and Jane Eyre on the shelf behind me. I had Emma at one point but felt weird about keeping it since I...really didn't like the book. I had Doctor Zhivago as well so the one I got as a part of this lot was the only duplicate. I don't think I have any others? I'll have to double check.
Cool editions - I have never heard of them. The Grapes of Wrath is really good, it's my least favourite Steinbeck I've read and it's still a great book! I am currently reading Moby Dick, it's a great book, though very dense. I really want to read a Tree Grows in Brooklyn, so I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on that one if you do pick it up.
If you like Jane Austen I think you would like Edith Wharton. On the surface it's all about trying to find a rich man to marry but it's actually about society and the very limited options women (even rich women) had and other social commentary.
I once found King Solomon’s Mines in a swap meet. The cover was beautiful but I was very disappointed that the binding was not sewn. I recommend Heritage press for old, illustrated and beautiful classics.
This is a fantastic series! I have close to 60 of them. Don’t let the Readers Digest label deceive you, these are complete and unabridged copies. I would start with the Sherlock Holmes anthologies soon as it meet the qualifications for Victober (but I’m bias as Doyle is one of my favorite writers).
This made me smile because I didn’t really know what they were I picked up 4 or 5 copies of these readers digest books and had no idea what they were like on the inside so my surprise they’re beautiful illustrated probably better illustration than special editions books like folio society in my opinion. I’m so glad to have found them.
Thank you for sharing your collection I hope you keep collecting and show us more of your collection.
These are beautiful editions. I only have two of them, Great Expectations and A Tale of Two Cities, which have the original Hablot Knight Browne aka Phiz illustrations. I love these Reader's Digest Classics because they are sturdy, the text is readable and they come with beautiful frontispiece and illustrations. For these same reasons, they are popular and are quickly snapped up in our secondhand bookshops here. They can get pretty expensive, too.
This is just mouth-watering! Now I want them all!
I have 5 of the Reader's Digest (World's best reading) classics and I absolutely love them. The quality of the books and the presentation just feel like how books should be quintessentially. The paper quality is top notch, the print is absolutely tack sharp and the illustrations and the title pages are beautiful. And the Covers are simple and minimal while still communicating the vibe of the Book .I wish I could find them all but it would be an expensive and time consuming pursuit. Quite lucky of you to find 37 of them. I wish they would start printing them again. I would love it if they complete the Sherlock Holmes series since they don't seem to have published "The Sign of Four" "The Valley of Fear" "His Last Bow" and "Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes".
I have one now and I feel the same way as you described:>
I didn’t read it yet and excited to dive in
The illustrations in those books are really nice!!
I have all the original Franklin Mint editions I started collecting at 13. They arrived once a month and included many classics having a lot of overlapping titles with your Reader’s Digest set. I once reread my collection in chronological order by publication date. It gave me a sense of politics and fashionability and time that I hadn’t realized before.
Reading them chronologically is a great idea! I would have never even thought of that.
The way you articulate things, I love it so so much
I have quite a few of those editions from my subscription service of them in the 1980’s. glad to see they are still wanted on shelves of collectors like you. They are extremely beautiful.
Oh my, I had never even considered myself a collector...but I guess I am, aren't I?
What a great video, Olive! I remember visiting my Grandmother as a child and the bottom shelf of her bookcase were lined with these books. You have so many great titles here. If you have not read Moby Dick or Treasure Island I would begin there. True Classics!
I thought I was alone for my love of this HUGE collection of novels published by Readers Digest! LOL!!! My mother, unbeknownst to me, had began a subscription to the ‘Worlds Best Reading’ Readers Digest thing when I was in high school…. Only after her passing in
I love Readers Digest versions, the quality is so good, I recently started collecting them.
Dayum!! Those are some really pretty editions.
I actually own Anne of green gables in this edition and absolutely love it! They’re so stunning and I wouldn’t mind owning more of these. Loved seeing your collection!
The Good Earth gave me such insight into lives-especially of women- in rural China. Be ready to sob. One of my favorite books of all time.
They're all so beautiful couldn't decide which is my favorite.
Just got ‘around the world in 80 days’ in this series and it’s stunning. I love it 🙂
These are just gorgeous. I'm always going back and forth about wanting pretty editions and wanting the cheapest editions. I definitely need to get my hands on this edition of Grapes of Wrath though! I
Honestly, a mix of both will probably work for you. Get the cheap copies or read the text on project gutenberg if you haven't read it yet and therefore don't know if it's worth the money. But those classics you ADORE? Maybe those are the ones for which you want to invest a few extra dollars in a nice edition!
These are beautiful. Are there any notes or introductions in these books?
I once found King Solomon’s Mines in a swap meet. The cover was beautiful but I was very disappointed that the binding was not sewn. I recommend Heritage press for old, illustrated and beautiful classics.
I know many people prefer sewn bindings, but I have to say, these hold up extremely well! Not one of these is falling apart and some of them are very clearly on the old side.
They are stunning! I mostly have Penguin Classics and Oxford World Classics on my 19th century shelves. They are certainly not elaborately beautiful but I love their intros and notes.
I’m happy to own one Reader’s Digest and it’s my first time to read an unbridge book(the fourth physical book). I’m still a new reader, I hope it’s a good thing.
I recently went to my local mall and they were having a book sale. I saw the Sleepy Hollow copy and I really loved the binding so I bought it. I had no idea these are collectors books. That's so cool 🥰
That's awesome! My first one was one I found at a used book store, so I also discovered they were a collectors series by accident. 😊
I want them all, they look beautiful x
Such beautiful editions!! I'm quite amazed!! Thank you for showing us the inside of the books! They are stunning! It must have taken quite some time :)
So much time, haha! I'm happy with how it turned out, though!
Thanks to this video, a friend and I got into hunting these down every time we go to Goodwill! I've resorted to getting some on Abe Books with varying degrees of success. My proudest World's Best Reading purchase is the UK version of Ben-Hur, which has a nice brown color that I feel will age better than the pale American cover. (It's the only one I've noticed with a different cover design between UK and USA.)
Is this collection still an ongoing project for you? Any chance we can get an update video? The format in this video is perfect! 😊
Great video great books
wow i am in love!! i inherited a stack of readers digest classics from my grandmother and now I'm itching to find more. the sherlock holmes novels are some of my all-time favorites so if you haven't yet, you should totally read them- and I'd even recommend reading the books cover to cover, which i know not many people do, but the mythos that's developed over the span of conan doyle's works is just awe-inspiring.
Wow. What a glorious collection. I’d start with A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. That’s one of my favorite books ever...but I have a lot of favorites!
Very well done videos. I just discovered your channel and immediately subscribed. These books look lovely. I have not read classics in years and there are many I have never read but need to. Thanks so much for doing this. From one obsessive reader and book lover!
Thank you!
Such beautiful books. And a reminder of the many classics that I have not read. A lot of these are still on my TBR. I need to up my classics game next year. Looking forward to seeing your reviews. Enjoy reading these!
Oh, and form the ones I've read, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is my favourite. I love that book. So I'd start there if I were you.
I've actually read that one! I loved it :)
Wow! What a great haul! So beautiful! ❤️
These books are a real treasure, I have never seen them before, no wonder you wanted them, they are beautiful !!
This was such a lovely collection! Thank you for sharing an up close look at them.
What a wonderful collection! I can't help but think you've just made your collecting that much harder, now that you have turned most of us into converts. ;) In the group assembled, I'd do a Victorian era book for Victober. Sherlock or Dickens, perhaps?
Haha! I hadn't even thought of that! Definitely shot myself in the foot with that one.
I'll have to put those on my Victober TBR next year, for sure!
They are quite beautiful. Your quest reminds me of a similar one I have embarked upon some years ago. I'm trying to get all the copies of The Best American Short Stories. They started in the the 70s or 80s and are still in print,; I too, am trying to collect them all.
Happy hunting, Olive! 😀😀
Thanks for all the one-sentence summaries of these classics! Most of them I'm familiar with, but for the ones I haven't heard of it was really nice to get a quick idea of what they're about. I just finished reading through all the Sherlock Holmes stories with my husband, and they're a nice comfort read - I'd suggest sprinkling a short story in here and there around your other reading, since they do tend to be rather formulaic. I want to read Moby Dick so much - if you haven't already, maybe that would be a good fit for you? I've heard that Melville goes on a lot of tangents about whales and whaling in it, which seems like it might appeal to your nonfiction & nature history preferences.
Those are beautiful, I think the Good Earth was my favorite cover. I have these editions of the Sea Wolf and Robin Hood, but I hadn't realized they were 'a thing' until I heard you mention them. The Old Curiosity Shop is one of my favorite Dickens.
I have the sea wolf the same one that you have I think and I have Jane eyre reader digest as well the pictures are in black and while !! I had them both for years now .i love these copys.charles dickens and shelock homes looks nice .
I have the Jane Eyre one, too! I got it a while ago so it wasn't a part of this haul, but it lives on the shelf behind me!
Hi! I know this is an old video but I just wanted to ask if this edition's binding is sewn and not just glued i.e. does it lay flat? 😅 I have my eyes on this edition for quite some time now. I recently found a copy of Jane Eyre and I jumped at the chance to buy it because it's a favorite of mine however it is yet to arrive. I am contemplating if I should collect the rest of the classics in this edition (those that I can find anyway).
What a wonderful collection!
Wow, all of them are gorgeous! ♡♡♡ Congratulations!!
Yay! I have four of these so far. They are such great editions. I’ve been snagging them as I find them in used book stores.
Love this!! I only have two of these, The Scarlet Letter and Tom Sawyer but I love these editions too. What a cool collection!!
Daaaang these are gorgeous!!!! Gotta keep an eye out for them....
I have only A tree grows in brooklyn of this edition. Love it.
Looking forward to buy more from Reader's Digest.
What gorgeous editions!!!
Going to get some of those Sherlock Holmes editions looks like they have good quality paper and a nice print size.
I have these editions as well, Olive and trying to complete them too. They are very comfortable to hold. Such a great haul! 😊
Holy moly, these are beautiful!
I've got 49. Usually inexpensive and fun to collect.
Ohhh this is the edition I borrowed from my library in Finland! I adored it but was stupid enough to not find out the name of the edition haha. Now when you talked about it, I really wanna have some of them. Is it okay to ask for the Ebay link from which you ordered them?
I'm not sure what good my ebay link would do since they're no longer available (since they live at my house now), but I can tell you the best way to search is by "Reader's Digest World's Best Reading" and then either the specific book you're looking for OR the word "lot" if you're looking for a bunch of them at one time.
I am low key obsessed with Jules Verne. So I would suggest Around the World in 80 Days, but that's just me, lol.
Such beautiful books!
They are gorgeous!📚📚📚😍❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Thank you so much for posting the links I have been looking for a beautiful hardback edition of A christmas carol and couldn't find one. I Love these additions will there's links stay active for awhile I would love to be able to purchase most im trying to read more classics this year too and these are beautiful!
The links should be good for as long as the item is available on Amazon!
I LOVE these editions! I have Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. I didn’t realize there were so many!! I need all the Sherlock Holmes ones! I hope I can find some more for my collection. They’re beautiful!
Update: I found 8 more :) I now have 10
Hurrah!! :)
The Grapes of Wrath is super good! Also Mark Twain: easy and fast to read + lots of fun :D
I own five of these as well: Kidnapped, Kim, Captains Courageous, The Sea Wolf, and Lost Horizon. They are quite lovely!
ohhh, so nostalgic! I love ANY collection of classics. I collect many editions, but Reader's Digest isn't one of them, though they are great :) I'd start with Sherlock Holmes or any Jules Verne. You made me want to pick up a classic :)
Some of those illustrations are sumptuous! A lot of Americana, maybe start there with the Mark Twain, Willa Cather, Washington Irving, etc.
Hello! I recently bought 19 books of this collection.
Do you have a copy of the master list? I would love to looks for all the books
I've just been using the wikipedia page for the collection: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_Best_Reading
Gorgeous books!
I've come across these in thrift shops and at used bookshops over the years. I've never picked them up because I don't like the font/layout inside. They are very nice though. My sister has and loves The 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea edition.
Those all look amazing. I had no idea they even existed. No idea where you should start. Maybe the one that yells at you the most? Maybe Hawthorne? Or Twain? I'd save Dickens and Sherlock for next month's Victober if you're participating.
I NEED IT!!!!
My favorite is O Pioneers! Such a good book 💜
Can't wait to read it!
Good for you! Enjoy.
My grandparents bought me 6 of these when I was 2 for posterity.
I found Oliver Twist and The Prince and the Pauper Free on Kijiji. This guy's grandmother passed away and he was giving away all of her books. There in mint condition as though she purchased them and put them on a shelf and didn't touch them.
That's so lucky!!
they're stunning! 😍
I also started looking for them, but oh boy they are indeed hard to find. I didn't even know there were over 100 😱
I was able to find 5 at different library sales. I believe that abebooks and eBay are your best options 😊
Yup, ebay is where these bad boys came from!
What treasures !!!!
Are you going to be hosting the nonfiction readathon this year?
Sure am! The announcement is coming soon.
@@abookolive I'm so excited!
@@e.abebooks me too!!
Never heard of these editions before. They all look fantastic. you can't go wrong with R.L. Stevenson or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle....but I would say that lol
It would be nice to see the classics in this edition that you already own.
I honestly didn't have too many before this. I have Rebecca and Jane Eyre on the shelf behind me. I had Emma at one point but felt weird about keeping it since I...really didn't like the book. I had Doctor Zhivago as well so the one I got as a part of this lot was the only duplicate. I don't think I have any others? I'll have to double check.
“Around the world..”, “Moby Dick”, “A Passage to India”, “Kim”, and anything by Mark Twain. So good.
The spines 😍
Right?! They're going to look amazing on a shelf all together. I think I'm getting a bookcase specifically for these editions and I'm SO EXCITED!
I have read treasure island, a Sherlock Holmes book, not sure which. The count of monte christo. Not sure if you mentioned that one 🤔
gorgeous!
Nostaligic love love💞👌
Cool editions - I have never heard of them. The Grapes of Wrath is really good, it's my least favourite Steinbeck I've read and it's still a great book! I am currently reading Moby Dick, it's a great book, though very dense. I really want to read a Tree Grows in Brooklyn, so I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on that one if you do pick it up.
That's actually one of the few of these I've already read! I reviewed it here: th-cam.com/video/KPX5W6CIKQw/w-d-xo.html
What a wonderful addition to your collection. Congratulations.
I think you should start with "Lost Horizon" - only because I loved it. :-)
That one is definitely calling my name!
I collect these, now the question is, I have duplicates too. Do I keep them?🤣
Oops…. I pressed send before I intended to.. Anyway, only after her passing in 2016 did I realize what a great collection she had collected….
Have you read The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins?
Sure have!
@@abookolive This book would make for an Excellent film.
I have pride and prejudice and Little women in these editions😁
Jealous! I'm hoping to add both of those to my collection soon :)
If you like Jane Austen I think you would like Edith Wharton. On the surface it's all about trying to find a rich man to marry but it's actually about society and the very limited options women (even rich women) had and other social commentary.
I love what I've read of Edith Wharton so far! I really liked The Age of Innocence but the House of Mirth was TRANSCENDENT.
❤❤❤❤❤
Waw i envy you for that great treasure
i'm gagginggg i want them all, watch ebay be swiped clean of these editions..
Booktube: Helping ebay sellers, one book haul at a time lol
Nice looking but with the words "Reader's Digest" I worry they are abridged.
Nope! Unabridged 😊
@@abookolive Good to know
I once found King Solomon’s Mines in a swap meet. The cover was beautiful but I was very disappointed that the binding was not sewn. I recommend Heritage press for old, illustrated and beautiful classics.