{"id":60644,"date":"2016-05-30T12:21:49","date_gmt":"2016-05-30T01:21:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.booktopia.com.au\/?p=60644"},"modified":"2016-07-24T23:05:32","modified_gmt":"2016-07-24T12:05:32","slug":"last-day-win-pulp-classics-book-pack-valued-150","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/2016\/05\/30\/last-day-win-pulp-classics-book-pack-valued-150\/","title":{"rendered":"Last Day: WIN a Pulp! Classics book pack valued at $150."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/pulp-the-classics-editions\/series2417.html\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-60659\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-60659\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.booktopia.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Pulp_-Classics_Competition_Rotating_Homepage_Banner.jpg\" alt=\"Pulp!_ Classics_Competition_Rotating_Homepage_Banner\" width=\"745\" height=\"194\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>We shouldn&#8217;t <span class=\"il\">judge<\/span> a <span class=\"il\">book<\/span> by its cover. But we do. And often.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s why Pulp! <span class=\"il\">Classics<\/span> have come up with their crazy covers. We&#8217;ve been trained to think of the <span class=\"il\">classics\u00a0<\/span>as dour, dry, descriptive and dire. But they&#8217;re not. They&#8217;re wild, wicked, wayward and whacky. And Pulp!<span class=\"il\">Classics<\/span> get this.<\/p>\n<p>Some people may find these covers disrespectful, but that&#8217;s why I like them. We shouldn&#8217;t lock these vibrant and dynamic novels up in a museum, they shouldn&#8217;t be forced upon resistant students, broken into bits and studied to within an inch of their life &#8211; they should be celebrated as the bestsellers they are. These are the most popular of popular novels!<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/pulp-the-classics-editions\/series2417.html\" target=\"_blank\"><b>Order any one of these Pulp! <span class=\"il\">Classics<\/span> and go into the draw to win a book pack worth $150!\u00a0<\/b><\/a><\/h2>\n\n\t\t<style type=\"text\/css\">\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 {\n\t\t\t\tmargin: auto;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-item {\n\t\t\t\tfloat: left;\n\t\t\t\tmargin-top: 10px;\n\t\t\t\ttext-align: center;\n\t\t\t\twidth: 33%;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 img {\n\t\t\t\tborder: 2px solid #cfcfcf;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-caption {\n\t\t\t\tmargin-left: 0;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\/* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes\/media.php *\/\n\t\t<\/style>\n\t\t<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-60644 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-large'><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<img width=\"375\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Romeo-and-Juliet.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<img width=\"436\" height=\"700\" src=\"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Tess.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<img width=\"249\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/The-Hound.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><br style=\"clear: both\" \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/the-picture-of-dorian-gray-order-now-for-your-chance-to-win--oscar-wilde\/prod9781843441847.html\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-60645\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-60645 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.booktopia.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Picture-of-Dorian-Gray.jpg\" alt=\"Picture of Dorian Gray\" width=\"261\" height=\"419\" \/><\/a><\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Review by John Purcell<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Though it looks harmless, this book is dangerous.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">You may think you know the story. It has been retold in picture story books, comics, bad movies and cartoons. A handsome man has his portrait painted. He remains youthful and the painting ages, taking on all of his sins. Things don&#8217;t end well.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">A horror story. How quaint.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Oscar Wilde has just distracted you. In your hands is a ticking time-bomb of a novel. Inside he has packed enough pointed barbs, acid remarks and dry wit to blow apart the hypocrisy of the world we live in. Vanity, greed, self-delusion, falseness are the eternal foe of the truth seeker, they are not confined to Oscar Wilde&#8217;s times.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">This book is dangerous because, if you are good natured, it will leave you equipped to defend culture against the brute and the boor. But if you are wicked of heart&#8230; well&#8230; who knows what you&#8217;ll make of these witty weapons.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr size=\"1\" \/>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/the-great-gatsby-order-now-for-your-chance-to-win--f-scott-fitzgerald\/prod9781843441304.html\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-60653\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-60653\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.booktopia.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/The-Great-Gatsby.jpg\" alt=\"The Great Gatsby\" width=\"272\" height=\"436\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>Review by John Purcell<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Everyone loves Gatsby. He&#8217;s the man of the hour. He spends up big. He&#8217;s handsome. He is friends with the right people. He has great parties. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">But when the morning comes and your head is clear and you think about that guy Gatsby, you have to admit, you know nothing about him.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Fitzgerald&#8217;s most famous creation, <i>The Great Gatsby<\/i>, takes a long hard look at the flashier side of the American dream and finds there are more shadows than sparks. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I have met people who declare there is no better book than <i>The Great Gatsby<\/i> &#8211; they read it over and over and over. And I understand why. There is always more in it. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Forget the films. Forget those teachers who may or may not have tried to force it down your throats. Forget that it&#8217;s a &#8216;great book&#8217;. Read it like you would any other book. And with your guard down, the book may just get a few good punches in.<\/span><\/p>\n<hr size=\"1\" \/>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/frankenstein-order-now-for-your-chance-to-win--mary-shelley\/prod9781843443858.html\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-60647\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.booktopia.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Frankenstein.jpg\" alt=\"Frankenstein\" width=\"269\" height=\"431\" \/><\/a><b>Review by John Purcell<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">When you&#8217;re eighteen or so, hanging out in Switzerland with two of the most reviled\/revered men in the world, if you have nothing better to do, why not write one of the finest novels ever written?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">That&#8217;s what Mary Shelley did.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">On a dark and stormy night, Mary, her husband, the poet Shelley, and their friend, the very wicked Lord Byron, the most famous man in the world at that time, were just sitting around when they decided to pass the time by coming up with ghoulish stories.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The story Mary Shelley came up with was<i> Frankenstein.<\/i> As you do. (She was the daughter of two of the finest minds in England, but even so, wow!)<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>Frankenstein<\/i> is as much about a monster as <i>Dorian Gray<\/i> is about a painting in the attic. Mary Shelley uses the monster, who has to learn how to be human, to expose our greatness and our meanness.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">This heartbreaking book is so much more than a ghoulish tale, which is why it has been read by every generation since its birth two hundred years ago. It is ever youthful, ever relevant, ever frightening and ever meaningful. You really must read it.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\t\t<style type=\"text\/css\">\n\t\t\t#gallery-2 {\n\t\t\t\tmargin: auto;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-2 .gallery-item {\n\t\t\t\tfloat: left;\n\t\t\t\tmargin-top: 10px;\n\t\t\t\ttext-align: center;\n\t\t\t\twidth: 33%;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-2 img {\n\t\t\t\tborder: 2px solid #cfcfcf;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-2 .gallery-caption {\n\t\t\t\tmargin-left: 0;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\/* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes\/media.php *\/\n\t\t<\/style>\n\t\t<div id='gallery-2' class='gallery galleryid-60644 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-large'><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<img width=\"624\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Alices-Adventures-in-Wonderland.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<img width=\"475\" height=\"762\" src=\"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Dr-Jekyll-and-Mr.-Hyde.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<img width=\"624\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Othello.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><br style=\"clear: both\" \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b><a href=\"http:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/dubliners-order-now-for-your-chance-to-win--james-joyce\/prod9781843443308.html\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-60648\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-60648\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.booktopia.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Dubliners.jpg\" alt=\"Dubliners\" width=\"261\" height=\"416\" \/><\/a>Review by John Purcell<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">When you think James Joyce, you probably think <i>Ulysses.<\/i> That grand mess of a book many people aspire one day to read. And you probably should read it&#8230; one day. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">But can I make one suggestion? Read Joyce&#8217;s other books, <i>Dubliners<\/i> and <i>A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man,<\/i> first. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Ulysses makes much more sense if you follow the road Joyce trod himself &#8211; the road from the nineteenth century into the twentieth. You see, before he could take a mallet to the great tradition of the novel, he had something to prove. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>Dubliners<\/i> is a statement &#8211; facing the past Joyce declares, I can write like the best of you. Better even. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And it was true. <i>Dubliners<\/i> takes the style of the late nineteenth century greats, Henry James, George Eliot, etc and lifts it a notch. He finds things hiding in that austere mode of writing that no one knew were there.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>Ulysses<\/i> would change writing forever. The stories which make up the <i>Dubliners<\/i> are the first steps towards that greatness, and if he&#8217;d never written another word, these stories would have been enough to ensure his name was not forgotten.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\t\t<style type=\"text\/css\">\n\t\t\t#gallery-3 {\n\t\t\t\tmargin: auto;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-3 .gallery-item {\n\t\t\t\tfloat: left;\n\t\t\t\tmargin-top: 10px;\n\t\t\t\ttext-align: center;\n\t\t\t\twidth: 33%;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-3 img {\n\t\t\t\tborder: 2px solid #cfcfcf;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-3 .gallery-caption {\n\t\t\t\tmargin-left: 0;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\/* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes\/media.php *\/\n\t\t<\/style>\n\t\t<div id='gallery-3' class='gallery galleryid-60644 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-large'><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<img width=\"624\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Three-men-in-a-boat.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<img width=\"624\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/The-Metamorphosis.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<img width=\"250\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/A-Christmas-cAROL.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><br style=\"clear: both\" \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/heart-of-darkness-order-now-for-your-chance-to-win--joseph-conrad\/prod9781843444725.html\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-60652\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-60652\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.booktopia.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Heart-of-Darkness.jpg\" alt=\"Heart of Darkness\" width=\"268\" height=\"430\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Review by John Purcell<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">When I first read <i>Heart of Darkness<\/i> I loved it. It was short, straight talking and interesting. A man went up a river to find a guy who didn&#8217;t want to be found. I thought it would make a good movie.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The second time I read <i>Heart of Darkness<\/i> I hated it. It was an overlong short story or an unfinished novel, it was obscure for no good reason and left me with a bad taste in my mouth.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The third time I read<i> Heart of Darkness<\/i> I didn&#8217;t read it, it read me. Suddenly the book had nothing to do with a boat trip up a river. There was no adventure, no quest, no journey even. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">It is funny how books do this. If <i>Heart of Darkness<\/i> hadn&#8217;t been so short I probably wouldn&#8217;t have read it so often and I would never have known what the book could mean to me. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I don&#8217;t recommend <i>Heart of Darkness <\/i>in the way I recommend other books. Just make sure there is a copy in your home. When the time comes, you&#8217;ll pick it up. It&#8217;s only short. No harm can come of it. Surely.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/pulp-the-classics-editions\/series2417.html\" target=\"_blank\"><b>Order any one of these Pulp! <span class=\"il\">Classics<\/span> and go into the draw to win a book pack worth $150!\u00a0<\/b><\/a><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We shouldn&#8217;t judge a book by its cover. But we do. And often. That&#8217;s why Pulp! Classics have come up with their crazy covers. We&#8217;ve been trained to think of the classics\u00a0as dour, dry, descriptive and dire. But they&#8217;re not. They&#8217;re wild, wicked, wayward and whacky. And Pulp!Classics get this. Some people may find these covers disrespectful, but that&#8217;s why I like them. We shouldn&#8217;t lock these vibrant and dynamic novels up in a museum, they shouldn&#8217;t be forced upon resistant students, broken into bits and studied to within an inch of their life &#8211; they should be celebrated as the bestsellers they are. These are the most popular of popular novels! Order any one of these Pulp! Classics and go into the draw to win a book pack worth $150!\u00a0 &nbsp; Review by John Purcell Though it looks harmless, this book is dangerous. You may think you know the story. It has been retold in picture story books, comics, bad movies and cartoons. A handsome man has his portrait painted. He remains youthful and the painting ages, taking on all of his sins. Things don&#8217;t end well. A horror story. How quaint. Oscar Wilde has just distracted you. In&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":60681,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[6819,24],"tags":[1332,1391,6821],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/SocialMediaImage30.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60644"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60644"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60721,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60644\/revisions\/60721"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}