The Happy Reader - Issue 5

The Happy Reader #5

by Penguin Classics

The expansive reading habits of the musical genius GRIMES and the seductive secrets of Émile Zola’s extraordinary consumerist novel AU BONHEUR DES DAMES.

Genres: Nonfiction, 21st Century, Books About Books

62 pages, Paperback

Published December 1, 2015

About the author

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world, providing readers with a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. We focus on bringing together the best of the past and the future, using cutting-edge design and production as well as embracing the digital age to create unforgettable editions of treasured literature. Penguin Classics is timeless and trend setting. Whether you love our familiar black-spine series, our Penguin Classics Deluxe Editions, or our Penguin Enriched eBook Classics, we bring the writer to the reader in every format available.

Reviews

[Akylina · Rating 4 out of 5]

One more delightful issue. I really enjoyed the interview with Grimes (it sent me searching for the Hardcore History podcast immediately!) and the second part about Zola and Paris and fashion kept me interested even though I'm far from a fashion enthusiast.

[Austra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Atkal jau pārsteigums uzzināt, cik daudz domu ir Grimes galvā, bet otrā daļa par "Dāmu paradīzes" tēmu - īsts saldēdiens.

"Whoever said that money can't buy happiness simply didn't know where to go shopping." (Bo Derek)

[Beatrice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked up at Shakespeare & Co in Paris to enjoy on my plane ride back to the US. I intermittently read this issue in between readjusting to American life and school--so glad I read it through! I loved Grimes' interview and the other collection of interviews and opinion pieces, great magazine that I would purchase again.
Some of my favorite lines from Grimes' interview:
"I also hate the hard-line vegan shit. If everyone only ate meat once a week, that would be better than twenty people being vegan, you know?"
"All the greats, they've always been misunderstood and appropriated incorrectly."
"it's the tortured white-dude art that is often the bad art that is always revered."
"Feigning confidence is the number one important thing. Never express weakness."

[Jeff Howells · Rating 4 out of 5]

The winter issue of The Happy Reader follows the tried & tested formula. The front half is an interview with a famous (non literary) person (ok I have to admit I've never heard of this quarter's interviewee the musician Grimes...). The back half are short articles riffing off a book (this time Zola's 'Au Bonheur Des Dames). The best one being someone who follows in the footsteps of George Orwell by being a 'plongeur' in a French department store. This quarterly is exceptionally good value...if you subscribe you get 4 issues for the cost of P&P...treat the bookworm in your family and get them a subscription for Christmas!

[Noits · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really appreciate the inception of these simple, yet beautiful, little magazines.
It dropped a star this issue purely because the Grimes interview wasn't really "bookish" and didn't grab me. I'd never heard of her and when I looked her up on you tube I was left thinking "is that it? Is this what's classed as 'musical genius' these days?"

I am aware this makes me sound everyone one of my 47 years but you can't have everything, can you.

[Maureen Lo · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Sound of Spending is my favourite from this issue.