Gift for a Book Lover

If you’re looking for a gift for a book lover in your life, this set of Penguin postcards might be just the thing. The set contains 100 different and iconic Penguin book jackets, all tucked into a nice little box that looks like a book. The list price is $25, but there seem to be plenty of online stores offering the postcards at a discount.

The package contains a brief introduction to Penguin Books that goes something like this: While waiting at the Exeter railway station one day in 1934 after a visit with Agatha Christie, Allen Lane looked in vain for a good book to read during the trip to London. Disappointed in the poor selection of paperbacks available, he decided to start Penguin Books. Penguin became the first imprint to mass produce quality books at cheap prices. Lane believed that “good design is no more expensive than bad,” so Penguin covers have always had a very distinctive, easily recognizable look.

There are lots of ways to use these postcards. You could send meeting reminders or birthday greetings to your book club members. You could frame some for your office or classroom. You could make a collage of The Big Sleep, Tender is the Night, and A Room of One’s Own and hang it over your bed. Or you could give a set to your favorite engaged bookworms to use in place of a guestbook at their wedding.

Or you could keep them all for yourself and hang a postcard up each time you read one of the books. You’d have a full wall (and brain) eventually!