Do you read your Lakeside Classics

Or do you just collect them? I've plucked Warpath and Bivouac from the pile and started it. It's from Xmas 1955 and the first one R. R. Donnelly didn't write the intro for himself.

I've wondered if other LC collectors actually read their books. All of mine are newer (1995 to present), and I have removed them from their clear wrappers for inspection. I really admire their look and feel, but I haven't actually read any yet.

I read mine. They're wonderful books to read -- great paper, great type, good margins, wonderful size -- it's a major reason I collect them.

I have read some of mine...Hardtack and Coffee and Rough Riders, for two examples.

I'm finishing up The Englishwoman in America. Very interesting take on the Yanks & the Canucks. Travelling by rail at that time was a hair raising mis-adventure. Likewise, her visit to Niagara, not to mention the fact that cholera seemed to be everywhere.

I just finished last year's offering Narrative of the Narvaez Expedition and it was excellent. Somebody needs to make a movie about this guy's life. Wow! Talk about a misadventure!

Has anyone made a chart yet on how many of these are misadventures?

It seems most of them. I've started the 1935 volume Narrative of the Adventures of Zenas Leonard. He was a young man who decided to make his fortune in the fur trade so he left his comfy home in the east to head west. Shortly thereafter, things began to go wrong. His family had thought him dead for five years before he turned up one day. He became a celebrity in his own time.

I'm finishing up the 2008 offering Jailed for Freedom. I'm sure I would have been marching with those suffragettes, but my lord, this telling of their struggle is boring.

I've started the 1928 offering Bidwell's Echoes of the Past. The introduction is interesting in that they talk about font and format and what their thoughts were about the future of the books. This was the 26th year and one in which they changed the color to red.

I'm just finishing up Bidwell's Echoes of the Past and In Camp and Cabin, so here's my review. This is two memoirs in one volume. The first by Gen. John Bidwell occurs slightly earlier and details his overland journey from Missouri to California and gold exploration during the early days pre-rush. He became quite wealthy, with extensive land holdings and a long career in politics. The second memoir by Rev. John Steele starts as a very young man of about nineteen arriving in the gold fields to try and get rich. He goes into the details of how the gold mining process worked, but he was also a keen observer of his fellow man and sensitive to the plight of those around him. He speaks of the rough and cheap life of those earlier Californians with many eyewitness stories of the toll alcohol took on the native Americans, the extreme violence and lawlessness that pervaded the area and the hardships faced by all. These kind of details never turn up in the movies. It's a very worthwhile look at the early west particularly for those interested in California.

Finishing up last year's offering The Race Around the World by Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland. The Lakeside editors abridged their stories and alternated chapters by each of the travelers. Talk about a changed world. They were the unwitting competitors in a race to generate newspaper sales for their NYC employers with their dispatches. They were both keen observers of how people lived and the look of things around them from little conveniences or inconveniences to people's manner, dress and behavior. They touched on every area of life from colonial administration, the perils of transportation, public executions, hygiene, children, extreme wealth, extreme poverty and how people kept their homes. Quite enlightening.

I've just started the 1932 offering Wau-Bun, which looks like it might be particularly interesting if you're interested in early Chicago area (northern Illinois) history.

I've been reading the 2000 offering The Americanization of Edward Bok. He certainly had a high opinion of himself. He wrote it in third person which is sort of weird. I did learn a lot about the publishing industry. He brought The Ladies Home Journal and Saturday Evening Post to prominence. In his opinion he was the luckiest, most brilliant man who ever lived and never made a mistake.

I own 32 Lakeside Classics, but to date I've only read 5 of them, and I'm currently reading a 6th: Dakota War Whoop. I intend to read all of them in retirement! One of the most interesting I've read is Narrative of the Narvaez Expedition.

I have every Classic printed (1903-1918) and have read around a half dozen. Every time I acquire a new book, I read the publisher's preface. I have several more books on my 'to read' list.

>15 Betelgeuse: I loved the Narvaez Expedition. I still think they ought to make it into a movie.

>17 varielle: Agreed! It was like an Odyssey of the Conquistador era, with a little Robinson Crusoe and Donner Party thrown in!