Cafe Libri discussion

For discussions concerning October's book of the month Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott.

Just got my copy

Great! I'm looking forward to the discussions. I'm going to download a free copy to my Nook (birthday gift). :D

Which copy did you download, CK? I had trouble finding one that was the complete version and free.

Thanks for all the updates about Ivanhoe. It was extremely difficult to find one that was an unedited version with complete text. I didn't even think about the language.

I can't tell which version I got. It shows that it is 718 pages. The title page says Longman English Classics edited, with notes and an introduction by Bliss Perry A.M. The man was a professor at Princeton University, and it looks like this copy is from Harvard University. It has all sorts of textual notes, so it's looking pretty authentic. The original copyright is 1897 and shows updated copyrights of 1898, 1899, 1901, and 1902. Hopefully it's a good edition!

Any thoughts on the one I found? I think it was another Google book too.

I bookmarked your copy, and I'm going to ask J about it to see how it compares with the one I downloaded.

Also, the name change to Aerin here makes sense. From now on, I'll refer to you as Aerin instead of CK. :)

Mine starts in the same place with the same text. It looks like I got a good edition. I have no idea how to find the url. I was browsing on the Nook itself by looking at the covers. I'll probably just stick with this version.

Thanks for the help, Aerin!

Aerin wrote: "The only gripe I have about free books with Google is they are scanned in and so sometimes you run into a few characters in a ..."

Yeah, I noticed that with some of the copies I was looking at too. I wanted to buy a version of the book, but J said not to waste money on public domain books, lol. Oh well. I guess I will live! ;)

Aerin wrote: "Okay, I think I'm going to go with this version of Ivanhoe:
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/book...

It's a 1960 version -- free by Google books. There seems to be..."

This version of the book is no longer working. Does B&N change the links for their ebooks? I really needed a new copy of Ivanhoe, and since you were having a lot of luck with your version, I hoped to read it too.

Anyone have an outstanding quote from the book for our website? Seeing as I
haven't read much of it, I haven't chosen one. I know Aerin has posted some
passages, but none stand out as a really good quote...or at least none of them
struck me in that fashion. Let me know if there is a section from one of the
passages you want to highlight on the website, Aerin, or if someone else found a
passage that would shine on our website.

Thanks!

Aerin wrote: "Well, bummer. It looks like they removed the copy that I downloaded. I looked at the images for all 50 ebook copies of Ivanhoe they have at the B&N site and none of them match the ebook image of ..."

Darn...I can't believe they removed it. I wonder why...well, I might just purchase a copy if I can find a complete version for a cheap price. I was looking forward to reading this book too, and the experience is being soured by a bad scanned book. >.>

Aerin wrote: "I don't know how much you want to spend on a book, but the B&N classics version is usually a good inexpensive buy because it's their classic series. They have Ivanhoe for $1.99. It has a handful ..."

Thanks for the recommendation, Aerin. This was the title I was also the version I was considering to purchase. I couldn't tell if it was unabridged, though, and that is a major concern. If I'm spending money on it, I want to make sure I'm getting the full story. Do you know if the B&N classics are usually unabridged? Also, what's the difference between this title and the Borders version: http://www.borders.com/online/store/T.... I have gift cards for both stores (old birthday gifts), but this copy is only $.89. I'm not sure if you purchase ebooks from Borders, but I thought it couldn't hurt to ask. :)

Aerin wrote: "Here's a site you might like to try. It's called Feedbooks. They have a lot of free ebooks and below is their link for downloading Ivanhoe. It's in several formats. I downloaded the EPUB format..."

Thanks so much for all the research you did to find me this copy. Both yours and Jason's copies look really good even all snazzy with the footnotes being hyper-linked. I'm not sure which version I will use. Probably the one that has the more extensive introduction, lol. I'll save this ebook link in the Ebook Thread for other users too!

Aerin wrote: "Quite a bit of info in Ch. 1. It wasn't the most engaging start to a book for me, but it does set the history and politics of the time period. The first chapter tells it's the 12th century just a..."

Ok...I'm a bit sheepish to admit this...but I finally got through chapter one during the Thanksgiving break when I was at home visiting family. Wow...it was such a boring beginning. I was really not interested in the history of the period, and the descriptions were really overdone and distracting. I ended up reading a lot of it out loud and giving Gurth and Wamba funny voices just to finish the chapter. Jason kept getting confused, and I kept trying to tell him that nothing happened, lol, that the author was just describing what everyone was wearing. Not sure when I will tackle chapter 2.

A bit of trivia, Sir Walter Scott is one of the authors I had to study for the GRE Literature exam, lol!

AerinBlue wrote: "LOL! Laughing at your sheepish admission. :) Well, I can't blame you..."

Yeah, I'll pick up reading this book again when we head home for the holidays. I like to take my Nook with me when we're traveling. So, I might have more comments to make at the end of this week.

And, yeah, pretty funny! His writing style didn't really change from book to book. :-P