Slim Pickings For English Readers!

I teach at a school in China, and my school’s English library consists of Harry Potter 6, Pride and Prejudice, A Tale of Two Cities and, inexplicably, Chicken Soup for the Single’s Soul. Harry Potter is printed on what feels like fax paper and haphazardly bound, with weird gutters and strange formatting choices.

Pride and Prejudice and A Tale of Two Cities are part of the same incredibly low-budget English classics collection. Actually, the typos have increased my enjoyment. I quite liked Mr. Dancy’s proposal and the Bennets’ trips to Iambton (to compose sonnets, maybe?), but Sydney Carton’s final exhortation to “Cod above” is my favorite passage.

Chicken Soup is expertly bound and proof-read, but is ultimately a collection of short stories about dying alone.