CD of the Month Series
From: B&R Samizdat Express
Compiled and Indexed by Richard Seltzer
Genre: History, Literature
Reviewed by Rochelle Caviness - March 15, 2006
Are you looking for a unique gift for yourself or the bibliophile in your life? Do you want to encourage your children to read by providing them with a vast array of literature and histories to read. Look no further than B&R Samizdat Express' CD of the Month program. This innovative program is similar to a book of the month styled programs. The difference is, however, that rather than only getting one book a month, you get a thematically organized collection of books. These books are compiled onto a single CD-ROM that will play on your computer, and it contains the texts of the books in the form of plain text (ASCII) files that you can open with almost any web-browser or word processing program.
The CD collections in the CD of the Month program can be purchased individually, or you can subscribe to an entire year's worth. You'll be amazed at the breadth and variety of topics and books that you will find in these collections, all of which comprise books that are in the public domain (i.e., their copyright has expired).
Most of the CD of the Month CDs include both fiction and nonfiction works, and while some of the collections only contain 10-30 books, other collections are much more expansive, containing more than 90 books. Best of all, if you purchase a year's subscription, you will, by the end of the year have acquired a vast library of works for about the same cost as three or four hard-covered books!
Here is an example of some of the past CD of the Month collections:
Sociology up to World War I
This collection contains 84 books, and covers a range of related topics including Socialism: Pro and Con, the Salvation Army, the roles of women and Black Americans, and Hygiene, Birth Control, and Sex. Other topics covered included books on Sociology based theories and applied Sociology and the work of Jane Addams.
The American Southwest (Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico)
One of the smaller collections, this CD contains 28 books devoted to the history and literature of the American Southwest, as well as autobiographies by such notables as Calamity Jane and William 'Buffalo Bill' Cody, and works of fiction by writers such as Mark Twain, Zane Grey, and Edward L. Wheeler, a dime novelist.
California
This is a collection of 45 books devoted strictly to the history and literature of California. From the story of the Donner Party and the California Gold Rush to the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, this collection provides readers with a general overview of California's early history. The collection is rounded off with several works of fiction, including Ramona by Helen Hunt (H.H.) Jackson.
Shakespeare, His Contemporaries and His Sources
This sweeping collection contains 138 books and plays by William Shakespeare and his contemporaries such as Sir Francis Bacon, Ben Jonson, and Christopher Marlowe. Also included are works that Shakespeare referenced when composing his own works, including Raphael Holinshed's The Historie of England and Plutarch's Lives. This collection also includes some of Shakespeare's works in French and German translation. In addition to providing the books in plain text, many of the works in this collection are also provided as AbookReader files.
These collections will be of special interest to visually impaired readers, as well as anyone tired of reading 'little print' because, as these books are in plain text files, once you open the files you can easily increase the font size or color to suit your needs by simply using the controls already contained in your web browser or word processing program. In addition, these files are readily accessible using computer screen reading or text-to-speech programs, as well as computer magnification programs. In addition, these collections ship with a freeware version of the windows-based screen reading program called ReadPlease.
This CD of the Month program is a perfect way of building a large, yet portable, library of books that will keep you reading for years to come. Best of all, this program is ideal for anyone who likes a surprise, as you never know the theme of the next collection of books on CDs that you will find in your mailbox each month. One thing you can be sure of, however, is that you will find a plethora of books that will feed your need to read!
Related Reviews:
Ebook of the Week on CD, compiled by Richard Seltzer.
An eclectic collection of nearly ninety plain-text books, all on a single CD. Contains both fiction and nonfiction books, and includes plays, speeches, classic works of literature and social science, history, and more.
When Dickens Was News - Classic Magazines, compiled by Richard Seltzer.
A collection of hundreds of issues of various Victorian era magazines, including The Strand, The Atlantic Monthly, Punch, and the Mirror of Literature, all on one CD and in plain text format.
