Cups of Tea 0391 - 0393

So on Thursday, in an act of pure spontaneity on the behalf of me and my wonderful girlfriend, we took a look in The Dylan Thomas Center, Swansea. I've walked past it everyday for the last 2 years I've lived in Swansea and never been inside. I like Thomas' Poetry (one of the only poets I can really read and enjoy...) but I've had no interest of learning about him. The story's been drummed into my head about his past since Primary school. However, that being said,we threw caution to the wind and I'm glad I did!

They have a second hand bookstore inside and it was dirty cheap. I picked up a load of cheap Penguin / Pelican books from the 60s / 70s. Ever since I can remember, I've loved the penguin book design. I don't know why, I mean I've (to my knowledge at least) never owned a penguin that with the cover set in Gil Sans, that adhered to Romek Marber's grid system, but it's simplicity and the graphical styles of the front covers made me fall in love. For purely inexplicable reasons, I find myself judging books by their cover purely because they're Penguin or Pelican (I don't own any Puffin books... the designs are always too tame...).

I half wanted to set myself a challenge, to see if I could, somehow manage to search out all the Pelican books that were ever published (post 1969 specifically, when the wonderful Swiss Illustration style first donned the covers). But alas, (after a small amount of effort admittedly... ) not only can I not find a list of the published works, but I stumbled across an article stating there were "thousands" (yes, plural...) so I'm half heartily quitting while I'm ahead...



M x