The Penguin Story
By ARM
@responsiveme (22926)
India
August 9, 2016 11:46am CST
These ' happy feet' creatures revolutionized the way people read.
Penguin Books is a British Publishing house. It is said that the founder of Penguin books , Allen Lane while waiting at a train station found that he wasn't able to afford a good quality fiction or nonfiction book which he wanted to read. His choices were available in expensive hardbound editions.
He decided to launch a series of superior writing in paperbacks at a very low cost which could easily be afforded by the public.Their sales exceeded the expectations of the publishers. These cheap paper backs are instrumental in spreading literature and knowledge world wide.
The series of books did not have any beautifully designed cover illustration. Rather they were colour coded with an imprint of the aquatic flightless birds living almost exclusively in the southern hemisphere, a.k.a the 'penguin'. Each genre had a different colour.The green covers were for crime fiction, the orange ones for fiction,red for drama, yellow -miscellaneous, blue -non fiction.
I began my love affair with books at a very early age and was lucky that I had access to my grandparent's libraries during holidays. I would haunt those cupboards, which were arranged according to colour especially the one that held the green books.
I agree, that a beautifully illustrated and designed cover page does make for an additional attraction. But these plain books without pictures and the unique logo will always hold a special place in my heart.
Have you read a colour coded penguin book? Are they available where you live?
Photo: Mine from my grandparents collection
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23 responses
@vandana7 (100297)
• India
15 Aug 16
@responsiveme .. Most of the classics I read were during school days. Personally, I liked Perry Mason (Erle Stanley Gardener), Agatha Christie, Jeffrey Archer and Sidney Sheldon, with some books by Ayn Rand and Harold Robbins making sense or touching my heart. I loved Atlas Shrugged. Definitely more than The Fountainhead. I cried my heart out in "A stone for Danny Fisher", and "79 Park Avenue". I read many books of Leon Uris. Maturity helped to keep things in perspective and differentiate reality from fiction, because it is easy to be swayed when you read "Mila 18" and "QB VII". Situations helped me understand that there can be other side of the story. I like Jeffrey Archer for his style of writing, I am indifferent to his perjury and personal life.
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@responsiveme (22926)
• India
15 Aug 16
They are common in India. What types of books do you like to read?
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@responsiveme (22926)
• India
15 Aug 16
@vandana7 you chose the two Harold Robbins which I love.I also read all those authors you wrote about..re-.reading Christie from time to time.
Sidney Sheldon..A rage of Angels is my favourite.
The latest series by Jeffery Archer is becoming too long and I keep forgetting the previous story.
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@DaddyEvil (137259)
• United States
13 Aug 16
Hmmm... I've never seen or heard of those type of books.
Since I haunt old bookstores and libraries I would think I have seen most types that were available here in the U.S.
My parents had a small library on our farm, but most of the books I read as a child belonged to the city library, libraries belonging to two of our neighbors and the books the librarians "borrowed" from the libraries in other cities for me.
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@DaddyEvil (137259)
• United States
14 Aug 16
@responsiveme My parent's books went to my sister. She retrieved them from my mom's house after my mom passed away in 2002.
IDK what you mean...? My childhood was the same as everyone else's childhood, I think...? We played, we grew a lot of our own foods, we raised different animals for pets/food.... Like everyone else.
I'm sorry, but maybe if you ask specific questions I might understand what you want to know about? (Not trying to be difficult or avoid answering your questions, but we lived just like everyone else around us... I don't know what is different without a frame of reference...)
Uhm... let's try this... @vandana7 can you explain how what I have told you about my childhood is different from what a person living/growing up in India might experience?
Thank you...
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@responsiveme (22926)
• India
15 Aug 16
@DaddyEvil no, I did not ask about what was different, I asked you about farm life( which you wrote about but very briefly), I grew up in a small town ,not a farm .
So I wanted to know your first hand experience.
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@responsiveme (22926)
• India
13 Aug 16
Penguin is still going strong .There is a Penguin group USA as I have just found out on the net.
The new editions are however not colour coded, these were around the 1940s.
Where are the books from your parent's library. ?
How was life growing up in a farm?
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@responsiveme (22926)
• India
9 Aug 16
The person who introduced these books thought of the idea during a train journey too
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@skysnap (20153)
•
9 Aug 16
@responsiveme yeah that's where they mostly get sold I am guessing.
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@crazyhorseladycx (39509)
• United States
9 Aug 16
what a lovely collection 'n i'm so glad'ja got 'em :) i must confess that i've not seen nor heard 'f these 'penguin books', what'n interestin' history lesson. those paperbacks way much less 'n sadly many don't survive well with many folks readin' 'em. now y'ave got my curiosity 'p 'n i'm gonna need to see if'n they've such't our local library'n town :)
2 people like this
@responsiveme (22926)
• India
10 Aug 16
the newer editions have illustrated covers and are not colour coded. too
too3 people like this
@MarshaMusselman (38865)
• Midland, Michigan
24 Aug 16
I've heard about the Penguin publishing company but I've never seen those particular books before nor heard the story of how they came to be.
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@responsiveme (22926)
• India
26 Aug 16
These are everywhere around me, as the collection dates back to my grandparents.
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@responsiveme (22926)
• India
21 Aug 16
Earlier editions, when the first came out.
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@shaggin (72141)
• United States
26 Sep 16
@responsiveme LOL oh yes it was the Bobbsey Twins. I didn't think Flopsy sounded right ha ha ha oh my I got a good chuckle at this.
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@responsiveme (22926)
• India
27 Sep 16
@shaggin sometimes it happens that way to me too...I remember the Bobbsey twins coz i would borrow them from library but that was long long ago.
@responsiveme (22926)
• India
26 Sep 16
I read those when I was a kid...Was it Bobbsey twins...there were two sets of twins?
@zebra2222 (5268)
• United States
24 Sep 16
I used to read Penguin books when I was younger. Don't see them around now.
1 person likes this
@responsiveme (22926)
• India
24 Sep 16
Lots of new publishers but Penguin still is a strong presence in India.
@marguicha (223097)
• Chile
12 Aug 16
Penguin books have been part of my life too. Although I mainly read in Spanish, Penguins are a good choice for English. And they can also be had as second hand books which, at some time of my life, was very important.
1 person likes this
@marguicha (223097)
• Chile
12 Aug 16
@responsiveme I go less as I read less and have more money for books.
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@responsiveme (22926)
• India
12 Aug 16
For me too, even now I love to go to second hand book shops.
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@SIMPLYD (90722)
• Philippines
27 Aug 16
@responsiveme Is she one of those authors of Mills and Boons?
@responsiveme (22926)
• India
27 Aug 16
@SIMPLYD yes she always write about nurses and doctors. Her romances were very sweet. My first Mills and Boons was Cindy tread lightly...funny how I remembered the name :) Whom did you like?
@responsiveme (22926)
• India
27 Aug 16
Mills and Boons......those were the days...I still read Betty Neels though.
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@responsiveme (22926)
• India
21 Sep 16
the colour coding ones are the older ones. 1940s ..after a while there were illustrated paperbacks
@Ceerios (4698)
• Goodfellow, Texas
9 Aug 16
@responsiveme - Ms Arundhati - I am currently an old, old person, still in my first life, however. I remember Penguin Books from back when I was a little kid.
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@Ceerios (4698)
• Goodfellow, Texas
9 Aug 16
@responsiveme - Ms Arundhati - I am doing as nicely as any old man might expect to be doing. By the way, there is a "penguin truth" that can be repeated. It was suggested that a person's mind can hold only up o a certain amount of information and that trying to load more information into the mind is much the same thing as can be witnessed as penguins jump onto an ice floe that is already loaded with penguins that arrived there earlier. When another penguin jumps up onto "this" side of the ice floe, an earlier arrival penguin has to leave the floe from the "other" side. If you want to load another thought into your brain, you have to dump an old idea to make room for it. (Well, almost so, but not really.) Anyway it made for something to talk about. 
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@responsiveme (22926)
• India
10 Aug 16
@Ceerios thank you, that was a truth which helped me a lot today. I interpreted it as if I have to have positive ides to make a bad situation good , I must cast out negative ideas....
I am a natural worrier which does not help the situation
I really mean it , that I enjoy your responses. I didn't reply yesterday because it was 11pm around that time and I went off to bed.
I guess you are 10 -12 hours behind me.
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@responsiveme (22926)
• India
9 Aug 16
I'm not that young either :) , as I said I too got introduced to the penguins as a child.
How are you doing ?
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@PainsOnSlate (21852)
• Canada
19 Aug 16
I don't believe I've ever seen them but i wish I had. I did enjoy reading as a child. We were always members of the local Library. I still am but now I listen to books on CD while I paint.
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@responsiveme (22926)
• India
20 Aug 16
That reminds me of the dramas that used to be broadcasted over the radio, we would listen to each episode ....than TV took over.
Yours is a good idea, to listen while painting.
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@epiffanie (11326)
• Australia
10 Sep 16
Yes I've read some of them before .. And I agree that the logo is eye catching ..
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@responsiveme (22926)
• India
10 Sep 16
They are world wide publishers , I guess
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@BelleStarr (61102)
• United States
12 Aug 16
I think it is an excellent idea and yes I have read Penguin books.
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@responsiveme (22926)
• India
13 Aug 16
Thank you. Penguin is a popular publishing company.
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@responsiveme (22926)
• India
11 Aug 16
Yes they were among my grandparents' library
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@responsiveme (22926)
• India
11 Aug 16
You can find at old bookshops.Newer editions have illustrated covers.
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