Fire and Knowledge

Great Non-Fiction Gets Slimmed Down

With its snazzy new “Great Ideas” series released this month, Penguin Books hopes to provide an economical remedy for time-pressed readers in search of intellectual sustenance.

Each of the paperbacks costs $8.95 and offers readers a sampling of the world’s great non-fiction. For example, the Gibbon book is a slim 92-page selection called The Christians and the Fall of Rome. It presents Gibbon as sort of an intellectual tapas to be savored in one sitting. . . .

Originally released in Britain this year, the series has earned attention not only for the concept but also for its distinctive visual impact. Printed in rust-red and white, each cover is “debossed” (the printing is lowered into the paper), senior editor Caroline White says. And the typeface and look of each cover fits the historical period in which it was written.

via Justin Taylor