All of my Penguin English Library & Clothbound Classics!! (my prized possessions)

Today I'm showing you my prized possessions, also known as my "trophy books." That is, my Penguin English Library and Clothbound Classics collection / bookshelf tour!

Hi friends!

I'm back with the next episode in my bookshelf tour / classics collection series! This is where I show you all of my different editions, their pros and cons, and if I think they're worth collecting!
I hope you enjoy seeing which books are in my collection, as well as find this helpful in some way!

Sending my very best wishes to you,
Carolyn Marie :)

Videos Mentioned -

My Social Media: CarolynMarieReads

***Want to write to me or send something?
Carolyn Castagna
P. O. Box 773
Greenlawn NY 11740
United States
***Please don't feel like you need to send me anything, but if you'd like to I would be honored!!!*** :)

***About me -
I'm a freelance illustrator and writer who recently graduated from college at the Fashion Institute of Technology with my Bachelors of Fine Arts in Illustration with a minor in English/Writing.
My greatest passion in life is combining my love of illustrating, writing, and reading!

Happy Reading :)

#classicbooks #bookshelftour #penguinclassics

[RickDaltonHollywood]

Never much of a reader, but listening to you and Emma talk about books made me pick a few up :) have read 2 so far this year :D cheers everyone

[subtlefire]

The Penguin English Library books are all so stunning. I agree that they're great for annotating. And while these editions wouldn't be my choice for my first reading of a very challenging book because of the lack of notes, I do enjoy the essays at the end a lot.

[Ninaofthes]

I own the entire clothbound classics collection. A lot of books 😀 I have read quite a few of them and so far I've been very lucky. I haven't ruined any of them 😂😂 I also think the notes are pretty great.

[theaparaskeva]

I love the clothbounds! Penguin now releases them with a paper strap around the back of the book so they don’t have to put a bar code sticker on! I personally hate reading from hardbacks but I really want to have a full collection of hardback classics, so at least it’s a gorgeous one 😂 I completely get you. You have a gorgeous collection❤️

[zamnordic]

An aesthetic book collector and an ardent reader. What a grandioso combo!

[jasmineelizabeth]

I love the penguin hardbacks! I actually loved reading from them, something about the thickness of the paper and how good it feels to hold just enhances the reading experience for me! But I agree, they can be difficult to use due to how easily the cover wears off and such 😂

[jasminedubois]

I like the Penguin English Library books. I'd love to get a copy of Pride and Prejudice in that edition.

[Tania.atlasinajar]

📚I love these editions and can’t wait to grow my collection. 🍂 I have beautiful cloth bound versions of A Tale of Two Cities by Dickens and a gorgeous copy of Moby Dick Herman Melville! 🥰

[jenm]

I’ve been reading my clothbound classics and embracing the pattern partially coming off. The pages are so nice and thick!

[katerina]

North and south is my favourite classic!!

[LexieMoon]

My Penguin Classics are my babies. I look through thrifts stores to find any

[mizuki]

I love those editions, I don't have any of them but they're beautiful. I can't, however, just buy books for aesthetic purposes. If I'm not going to read it, then it's not worth to buy it. I don't have the money and, most especially, the space to have 3 or 4 editions of the same book, no matter how much I love them or their edition.

[tstockto]

If you read any book in your shelf this year, make it North and South! I just read it this year and I loved it so much.

[sammy__]

I own two of these! 1984 and Tess of The D'urbervilles! They're so pretty <3

[johnadams]

A lovely collection. Might I suggest vintage Modern Library editions and also the hardback Everyman's Library edition. Also, you might want to check out the Mary Martin performance of Peter Pan.

[beatrizgarcia]

Hi, Carolyn! I recently bought a clothbound edition of “wuthering heights”, can’t wait for it to arrive!
These videos are great to analyze the editions, specially because they are VERY expensive here (I’m brazilian) thank you!! 💙

[Missfrankiecat]

I'm a fan of the Penguin black spines - really good notes and intros (which I read after I've read the book!) and I think they look quite good on the shelf. All books deteriorate over time even if you don't touch them (I'm a lot older and speak from experience over decades of book buying). I am not a fan of cloth jackets because they attract dust far more than paper - if I had the money I would go for leather bindings. You have a lovely collection and it is great to see such love for books.

[leoquesto]

Mrs. Dalloway and To the Lighthouse are phenomenal — Virginia Woolf is such a great artist, a giant.

[ewelinahernon]

I used to have a plan to collect the Clothbounds ever since my husband bought me Persuasion in Jane Austen Centre for our 1st wedding anniversary . Initially I thought that there was only Jane Austen in this format and so 2 months later I decided to get Sense and Sensibility, because I fell in love with the colour combination (my favourite shade of blue), but then as I was searching for it online, Amazon suggested Orlando to me and I thought I'd die of excitement :p I quickly forgot about Jane Austen, because if I ever have a choice between any book and Virginia Woolf, I always go for Virginia. And I also noticed Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (my favourite book of all time) and bought it together with Orlando. It was while reading Alice from that edition that I noticed the problems with the Clothbound that you were talking about. So I've only ever read Persuasion, Alice, Orlando and Little Women from PCC (Surprisingly, Orlando & Little Women still look ok). And even though I decided not to collect them anymore, because of the lack of practicality, my husband still gets them for me for special occasions :) He got me The Picture of Dorian Gray, Great Expectations and Jane Eyre for my birthday in 2020, Mrs Dalloway for Christmas 2020 and Villette for my birthday this year :) I also got myself Wuthering Heights because it's also one of my favourite books of all time and I wanted to have it in this gorgeous edition, especially because I'm obsessed with blue :)
But yeah, nowadays I've given up on getting them myself and if I do get them, it's as a gift :)

[bookworm]

This video is so helpful, especially when someone is starting their classic reading journey! Personally I decided to collect the English Penguin Library books. I love the cover design, the price and the floppy binding. I think it's a real shame that the gorgeous Clouthbound editions are practically unreadable, if you want to keep them in good condition 🥴 Otherwise I would have loved to collect them 😕