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by Antonius Wiriadjaja

At the rate @themediaisdying is updating its twitter status with career obituaries, book publishers look like they’re next in line to request for a government bail-out.  It’s both sad and scary that literature may not survive the decade in its current form.  But maybe it’s time for the industry to evolve.

Enter the 100 Classic Book Collection, an aptly titled program by Nintendo and HarperCollins that will provide 100 books in the public domain at the tip of your Nintendo DS stylus.  Classic works by the masters like Shakespeare, Austen and Dickens will be published on the very same medium that lets you jump on Goombas and catch elusive Pokemon.  The program also lets you adjust the text size, bookmark pages, and even lets you download additional books via wi-fi.  With two legible screens, a clamshell design that opens much like a book and current domination of the handheld games market, the DS may just be fiction’s knight in shiny plastic armor.

Turning the DS into a mobile reader isn’t a novel idea.  There are unofficial readers out there that the tech savvy can download, such as the DSlibris.  And last year in Japan, Nintendo released Bungaku Zenshuu, a collection of Japanese novels for the DS.  What’s important about this venture is that a prominent publishing company is willing to stamp its name on it.  Also, since the text is reportedly taken from the Project Gutenberg version, then one can be assured of its quality.  Maybe if DS e-readers catch on, taking out my pink DS Lite on the subway as an adult male won’t feel quite as taboo.

The 100 Classic Book Collection will be released on December 26, 2008, and initially will only be available in the UK for £20.  But with rising interest in the mobile reader market, programs like these are bound to hit the States next year.