UK Getting 100 Classic Books On DS

European gamers will be able to expand their mind in between bouts of blasting baddies with this portable library of epic proportion.

Just in time for Boxing Day, Nintendo Europe and book publisher HarperCollins are teaming up to deliver a sizeable literary collection of timeless classics crammed onto a teeny, tiny DS cart. The appropriately named 100 Classic Book Collection may sound like a snoozer, but for anyone who loves to read, it's a veritable goldmine. How else are you going to fit 100 mostly excellent books into your pocket to carry around with you? You'll be lucky to cram just one in there on its own.

The collection packs in a ton of content. There are 22 Shakespearean plays, 13 Charles Dickens classics, five Jane Austen novels, and a sampling of works by Mark Twain, Herman Melville, Jules Verne, Oscar Wilde, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Lewis Carroll, Nathaniel Hawthorne and other notable authors. Holding the DS on its side like an open book lends itself well to reading for extended periods, which is exactly what bibliophiles will find themselves doing until the battery on their handhelds run out completely. Other nice touches include the ability to change text size, set and retrieve bookmarks, search through the index of tomes, and download other titles through the Nintendo Wi-Fi service.

When it comes to buying 100 great books for £19.99 - not to mention being able to carry them all around at once - 100 Classic Book Collection is a major money and space saver. The game ships in Europe on Dec. 26. There's no word of a U.S. release date, but hopefully the collection will come stateside.