Jeeves and Wooster Collection

Jeeves and Wooster collection (all)

I have long been a fan of P. G. Wodehouse and his Jeeves and Wooster series.  In the US it was always difficult to buy these books—even though most of the stories were published here, sometimes before the UK release.  I already owned Life with Jeeves, a compilation of three books: The Inimitable Jeeves; Very Good, Jeeves!; and Right Ho, Jeeves.  But the only other Jeeves book I found in stores was The Jeeves Omnibus, a compilation of Carry On, Jeeves; The Inimitable Jeeves; and Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves which I didn’t buy because I already had one of the three titles.

Late last year (2015) I decided to spring for the entire set from the UK.  I already had compiled a list of titles and so I signed on to Amazon UK one evening.  Ordering was easy and the books were due to be “dispatched” in short order for a January 2016 delivery.  I chose to have the books shipped together to save money.  The entire order cost £173.53 (£121.70 plus £51.83 shipping) or $271.29 for 16 books.  Worth every pound and pence.

Amazon UK’s service was excellent.  Twice I received a surprise package at my door containing books with the message: “We’ve sent this portion of your order separately at no extra charge to give you the speediest service possible.”  Perhaps Amazon intentionally overestimates the shipping time, but I received all of my books well before the estimated date.  They crossed the Pond and arrived in perfect condition.

Sure, I could have saved the shipping cost and bought the ebooks.  But where’s the fun in that?  I’d much rather look at this matching set of physical books.  Wodehouse books certainly fall under “Buy–Print” on my “Book Worthiness Scale”.

P. G. Wodehouse is one of only two authors who can consistently make me laugh out loud (the other being Douglas Adams).  The plots are a bit repetitive if you read the stories back-to-back within a short period of time.  They were published months apart and weren’t expected to be read in one sitting.

I have read only the three books in Life with Jeeves and the 34 stories in The World of Jeeves.  I’ll dole out the other books in-between serious reading whenever I need a laugh.  I’ll write more once I’ve read a few more books in the series.

If you’re interested in sampling some Jeeves and Wooster, you can download My Man Jeeves and Right Ho, Jeeves for free.

Jeeves and Wooster collection (set)