Our home has eight bookshelves in it, and most of them are LARGE bookshelves. Despite continuous de-cluttering efforts, we always have more books than will fit on our bookshelves. We have books laying in front of books, or on top of books on the shelves. There are thousands more books we'd love to own, but cost and space prohibit it. I'm sure this problem is familiar to many homeschool families, especially those who use a literature-based curriculum as we do.
Yesterday's Classics offers an affordable solution that can help with this problem. They have reproduced hundreds of classic books in an attractive, easy-to-read digital format. Specifically, they have a bundle of 225 e-books available in both Kindle and EPUB formats. We don't own a Kindle, but we do have the free Kindle for PC application on both our computers.
When we received our download links for the Yesterday's Classics E-book Collection, I began looking at the individual titles. I was thrilled to find one that was on my purchase list for next year's history studies -- Famous Men of the Middle Ages. As I began to look more closely, I recognized many titles that are recommended in Charlotte Mason and Classical Education curriculums. Then I began to be intrigued by the more obscure titles I didn't recognize.
These images represent just a few of the 225 e-books available from Yesterday's Classics.
You can see all the other great history, science, and literature books included in this package at the Yesterday's Classics website. Each book is available in print format (if you really just want to hold a certain book in your hands as you read it), and in e-book format. You can buy the e-books individually, or in a money-saving bundle of all 225 titles. The e-books are available in Kindle and EPUB versions. You do not need to have a Kindle or other portable device to use these e-books. I downloaded the Kindle for PC free application from Amazon and have been able to use the Kindle Yesterday's Classics books without troubles on my laptop.
Though it was a little time-consuming, I had no problems downloading the thirteen zip files and the four other files that comprised this e-book package. Since our internet has download limits, I chose to take our laptop to the internet and download them there using the wi-fi. I discovered it went faster if I only downloaded 1 or 2 of the zip files at a time. Once I unzipped the files, I did have to manually move them to my Kindle library. (I definitely recommend backing up your files by copying them to a thumb drive in case you lose your hard drive or your Kindle.) There is a helpful file to walk you through the process of downloading and opening your files, both in Kindle and EPUB format. If you have any problems, the customer service is excellent!
I am very thankful I have these e-books and I plan to use some of them with our history and language arts studies. I assign reading to some of my older children directly from the laptop, and I read aloud to the younger ones from the laptop. Despite my own enjoyment of these books, I must admit that I do have two children (out of 5 readers so far) who strongly dislike older books. They don't like the style and tone that many classics are written in and will beg to read more modern books. If your children are like these two of mine, then this Yesterday's Classics collection will not be as useful to you. Though it does have a plethora of educational books, please keep in mind that these are classics and the science books (for instance) may have out of date information that was believed to be true at the time the books were written. But if you'll even use twenty of the 225 books, then their current special is a real bargain!
The Kindle e-book bundle is regularly priced at $149.95, but from May 1 - May 31, 2011, you can purchase this complete set for $99.95. That's 44 cents per e-book, and there is also a 100% money-back guarantee! If you aren't fully satisfied, just email and they'll reimburse your money. I'm pretty sure you'll be satisfied, though. We definitely are!
This item was provided free for our review as a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew. We received no other compensation, and this review is our honest opinion. Visit the TOS Homeschool Crew blog to read more reviews on this product by other Homeschool Crew members.
Trusting In Him,
April
