Volumes of condensed books lined library shelves when I was young. These were brought out by a then popular magazine called the Reader's Digest. It was a magazine that looked more like a book and, while the magazine survives, its bookish nature has not. The magazine is no longer worth more than flipping through where once many hoarded copies and read them over and over. Every now and then, the Reader's Digest also brought out enchanting books on useful topics. Of all these achievements, their Condensed Books remains the best.
Each volume had a certain number of novels abridged quite elegantly. And this is a really honourable service for we cannot read all the good books in the world in one lifetime. And it is often a quick way to know what to expect when you finally get around to reading the unabridged version. A synopsis can often be found on the Net but most don't give you an adequate idea of the story. And many will try to make you pay for shoddy summaries by some person of low worth for the task.
Here is one of the volumes of the Condensed Books:
Readers Digest Condensed Books, Volume 4, 1973
The volume has the following:
La Balsa: The Longest Raft Voyage in History - Vital Alsar with Enrique Hank Lopez
La Balsa
This is the account of a great and unrecognized adventure in fairly recent times. My father was fond of a book about a similar, earlier escapade - the Kon-Tiki pacific expedition by Thor Heyerdahl.
The Sunbird - Wilbur Smith
The second novel covered by the volume is equally inviting. However, it lost popularity as it is reported to have a colonial stance. My attitude to such things is that we can surely read anything even if it conflicts with our stances on issues. Otherwise, we run the risk of being as narrow minded as those we oppose.
State Trooper - Noel B. Gerson
I could not find out much about this book but readers have enjoyed it.
The Search for Anna Fisher - Florence Fisher
From reviews online, I gather that it's a moving account of a lady who was adopted and who seeks her biological parents.
Mrs. Starr Lives Alone - Jon Godden
Again, the net offers too little about this story but it appears to be quite thrilling.
So, dive in and enjoy four books in one volume!
No comments:
Post a Comment