BEST HARDCOVER SERIES

Everyman's Library, published by Knopf in the U.S. (and by Random House in the U.K.), has issued more than 500 book classics since 1991, from the likes of Jane Austen and Charles Dickens to Toni Morrison and John Updike. Each new edition features wonderful introductions and chronological information. Prices vary by volume but generally range between $17 to $24.

When the series was originally founded in 1906, the publisher intended the volumes to be reasonably priced so you could buy piles of them and not end up in a Dickensian poor house.

Any number of paperback publishers can satisfy my craving for classic British literature. But nothing can replace a hardcover book, with its reassuring cloth binding and ink that doesn't make your nose itch.

--Lisa Dixon