DLE Idylls of the King

I ordered this...I am drawn to the purple leather. Is it a nice volume?

This is on my short list, but actually the purple leather is a bit of a put off. Let us know how you like it and post some of your pictures.

(dupe posting)

>1 cu29640: Very high quality. I'm pleased I bought it--you will be too.

It has arrived. Here are some quick pics. This is a stunner. Nice thick paper...clear/crisp font and engravings. A huge book...possibly same size as the Captain Cook DLE.

The more I see this the more I like

Thank you for posting the picks. I have been debating on this one. The purple leather put me off a bit, but the reproduction quality looks very good.

Looks great, text and illustration looks crips, just trying to get over the purple binding :/

I personally like the purple...its the colors of the leather that have always drawn me to the EP books.

The purple itself doesn't bother me but the combination of purple, black, and extra gold just doesn't look quite right to me. If it were just a two-tone scheme, if a different color than black was used, and/or a lessening of gold was applied it would make more sense. It reminds me a little of a Barnes & Noble-style book with the extraneous design detail.

The interior looks fine, except, what's with the crooked captions? Is that an optical illusion from the page not being held flat or are the captions below those pictures really off level by 15-20 degrees? The one on page 34 looks straight but the rest (posted above) look crooked to me.

I just looked at mine and the captions don't look crooked to me. I think it must be from the perspective in the photos and not wanting to press the pages completely flat.

The light purple did stick out a little in my living room, so I put it in the penalty box in my den where my lighter, more colorful books are, right below my PlayStation. I think reds and blues and maybe even a white one might look good adjacent to it. I grouped all of my white ones in my master bedroom on side table shelves, etc. and they look beautiful together where a light, serene color scheme works well (apologies for the unmade bed and pillows on the floor).

> 11

That's good to hear about the captions not being crooked!

"Penalty box" - Hilarious!!

I wouldn't recommend placing white leather next to any colored leather for fear of dye transfer. The purple leather might also do well against some black volumes, as well, since there's some black contrasting on it. And, of course, there's also the other solution of buying more purple books to give it some like colored friends.

11: Hard to beat the EP/PS3 combo ;)

Beautiful book thanks for sharing!

Love the pics!

Glad to know I'm not the only to not have upgraded to PS4. What is that white book just above The Ship That Sailed To Mars?

>16 JuliusC:
To be honest, I have a PS4, and it's got obvious hardware improvements over the PS3, but in my mind the PS3 is still the sleekest and coolest console ever.....and that's from someone who still has an NES hooked up.

17: I love the PS3, but this beauty is way sleeker.



and an amazing console it was too. As for the PS4, it may be a great system, but not exactly eye candy.

>JuliusC (not sure if I'm replying correctly in proper forum format)

The book above the Ship that Sailed to Mars is the Aesop's Fables DLE. I like to read fables about having my credit card paid off before bed. Sorry the pic didn't come out better.

I play almost all of my games on PC now, so I haven't upgraded to the PS4. Plus, I just got married, so I have to share the TV. The PC graphics are incredible for some of the new games out there.

There is no crooked text in the book. Its a combo of me trying to hold the page and phone...and not bend anything.

>19 hmsdrco2001:: "I like to read fables about having my credit card paid off before bed." Good one! :-)

>17 Arknight: The Piano Black finish with the chrome trim finish was the best ever design. The newer ones are just meh.
>18 astropi: I had the 32-bit version, only thing I didn't like with the Genesis was their controller!
>19 hmsdrco2001: PC games are always going to be superior because of the hardware but then I don't know about now since I don't play as much anymore they develop more games for consoles because there's always piracy issues with PC.

The all white leather looks great BTW!

Just received my copy of Idylls todya. Beautiful book, so I am glad I took the plunge on this one during the $100 promotion (of course, not that I received this book for $100). This book is very big. Which is great, it shows off the Dore illustrations that much better.

The only concern I initially had was concern around condition. When I received the box, I could see that the box had received a battering during shipment. I was worried that the book or slipcase may be damaged, but was happy to see that this was not the case. It used to be that DLEs received substantial packing protection, usually in a couple of boxes with interim packaging material. This was just a simple clam shell design with an additional buffer pocket at the top and bottom. I bet that the heavy duty packaging simply cost too much and cut into profit margin, and they are able to offset the risk with a few returns. Again, no damage to my book, but I dislike the trend. Anyone else note the same with recent DLE packaging?

>23 hamletscamaro: Unfortunately, I have not nor have I ever seen a DLE in person because they are too rich for my budget. Enjoy your new DLE it looks stunning.

>24 Tolkienfan:, they are not too rich for you, you simply have to stop all the other EP series that you may be receiving! :) Yes, I had to dial back my orders and plan things a little more strategically since I was spending way too much on DLEs. Then again, EP helped by producing so many DLEs that I couldn't keep up nor was I necessarily interested in many of them.

>25 hamletscamaro: I would love to purchase some of the DLE's that I've had my eye on since I started buying EP books, but at the same time I love buying and reading my monthly titles I receive. I am currently getting titles from the Great Books of The 20th Century and Reader's Choice. I also look at the fact that I can receive two books each month compared to one DLE every 4-5 months. That's the problem I have with pulling the trigger on buying DLE's and I really don't want to stop getting my Reader's Choice titles since they only print so many copies. Unfortunately, I tend to compare the quantity received to my cost and that is my hump I cant get over.

>26 Tolkienfan: it is rare for me to purchase a DLE when Franklin and EP leather regulars are just fine, in fact extravagant in the scheme of things. So I purchase my very favorite works in DLE (profusely illustrated Hugo, Dumas, Defoe and I wish Stowe) and finance them with sales of Franklin and EP on eBay. Purchasing DLEs is not a rational act, especially since they are priced as high as a piece of furniture even high end electronics. So I indulged in 5 and treat them as if they were art pieces. For those who seem to buy every DLE I can only surmise that they are extremely wealthy.

>27 HugoDumas:
Actually, it doesn't take much wealth, just priorities. $500/month for books is like a car payment, and my cars are paid for. So is my house - getting old has its benefits.

>28 jroger1: most of my 401k withdrawals go to pay taxes - my top priority, thus I have little discretionary income. Maybe if I were younger (and could enjoy them longer) and had a job I might be more interested.

>27 HugoDumas: Good point and comparison made! I could handle purchasing one every 4-5 months along with my monthly Reader's Choice titles since I'm receiving my last Great Books of The 20th Century title "Nineteen Eighty-Four". I don't want every DLE title that EP offers anyway, so I could be content with that arrangement.

>25 hamletscamaro:: What hamlet said. I've not been tempted by most of the DLEs that have come out recently (say, in the last two years or so), and I've weighed my available exchequer against those that have caught my interest. I try to avoid having payments on more than two at a time, if possible :-O

>31 iluvbeckett: That's what I'm currently doing now with Reader's Choice and Great Books of The 20th Century which is just getting two titles per month and that seems to work for me and my budget. There are still many titles I want to get from the 100 Greatest Books collection also, but the majority of those I will just purchase on eBay.

> 23 re: $100 promotion, I wish it was like Folio's $100 promotion where you got $100 off an LE!!

>33 katielouise: Yeah, I wish that was an option. If they have any books that I have a modicum of interest in, i'll often order something I already had on my list to order. $100 off a DLE would be much more useful.

>34 hamletscamaro: Yes, it was too bad that the Easton $100 book promotion came around the same time as the Folio $100 off LEs promotion... I might have ordered from Easton if it had been that promotion alone, as one of the books I was interested in, but I instead ordered from Folio (especially since it was $100 off EACH LE ORDERED - boy how I wish EP had a promotion like that, but many of their DLEs are less expensive than Folio ones so I guess it maybe makes sense that they don't).

>34 hamletscamaro:: "$100 off a DLE would be much more useful." -We can breathe and hope!! :-/

Careful what you wish for...EP may very well start a $100-off-DLE sales campaign...right after they readjust their initial pricing on all DLEs to be $100+ more than what we're seeing today.

The DLE of Idylls of the King looks stunning, but the Easton website indicates it's at least 16 inches tall. Isn't it unwieldy?

>38 DavidMF: but how else are you going to see all the detail in those pictures!?

>38 DavidMF: Depends on what you call unwieldy. If you want to read this on a train, bus, or on your bike ride to work, yes, this format may not be the most practical. However, if you can sit down at a table and have a read, this is a beautiful book. I like the larger format books. The illustrations can ready be enjoyed and I sometimes like the heft and substance of the large format that just envelops you.

>40 hamletscamaro: Not to mention the larger type, a true blessing to those of us with declining vision.