Mastodawn

#1199 Thor Heyerdahl - Aku-Aku: The Secret of Easter Island. Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1976, 1st Penguin edition, 6th reprint.

#ThorHeyerdahl #PenguinBooks #EasterIsland #RapaNui #Megaliths #Archaeology #BookOfTheDay

Steve Mitchell Feb 12

I haven’t actually finished any of the books that I’ve already started reading, but I’m going to start to read this today and hope to finish it before the day is over. Happy Darwin Day everyone!

#CurrentlyReading #Goodreads #ReadingChallenge #Bibliophile #Booklovers #Bookworm #CharlesDarwin #OnNaturalSelection #Evolution #NaturalSelection #TheoryOfEvolution #DarwinDay #PenguinBooksGreatIdeas #GreatIdeas #PenguinBooks

Chris Bond Jan 20

#1172 Denys Val Baker (ed) - Cornish Short Stories. Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1976, 1st edition.

#DenysValBaker #PenguinBooks #Cornwall #JackClemo #DaphneDuMaurier #WinstonGraham #CharlesCausley #ALRowse #BookOfTheDay

Andi Chorley Jan 12

Mystery Mile is a crime novel by Margery Allingham, first published in 1930, in the United Kingdom by Jarrolds Publishing, London, and in the United States by Doubleday, Doran, New York. Following his first, supporting appearance in The Crime at Black Dudley (1929), it is the first of many novels starring the mysterious Albert Campion, and introduces his butler/valet/bodyguard Magersfontein Lugg. - Wikipedia

Albert Campion is much more central in the second volume of the series, and we find out more about him. Not so sure this is comfy crime given some of the grisly deaths. I look forward to Look To The Lady!

#MargeryAllingham #AlbertCampion #MysteryMile #Reading #Novels #ClassicCrime #PenguinBooks

Robert Fairhead Jan 7

Spotted a post by #PenguinBooks (UK) with great tips on how to start writing a novel. 😉✍️ #writers #writing #amwriting #novel

Link to article on Penguin Books (UK) website: https://www.penguin.co.uk/discover/articles/how-to-start-writing-a-book

How to start writing a novel

Had a book idea that’s been waiting patiently at the back of your mind? Make writing it the goal for this year.

Saul Newman Jan 4

I have a front-of-catalog book coming out this spring with #PenguinBooks and MIT.

Famous professors try to sleep with 14 year old girls.

I'm asked to exhume a famous corpse.

A 12-year-old is stolen, the world's oldest man is debunked, and a CIA bloke accuses us of being Kremlin spies in #WaPo.

People die.

It's a non-fiction book.

You might be in it. Oxford, Stanford, Harvard, and Cambridge professors are in it. Billionaires you know are in it, too.

Order it now.

https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262052719/morbid/

iokevins Dec 16

RE: https://mastodon.world/@exocomics/115725447375222579

Three books on Li Chen's desk! I think the red one looks like the forthcoming Detective Beans book, "Detective Beans and the Map of Mystery", with a publish date of May/June 2026 😺 🕵🏻 📖 🌟 💜

https://www.penguin.co.nz/books/detective-beans-and-the-map-of-mystery-9781761353420

#LiChen #DetectiveBeans #PenguinBooks

Rebecca's Reading Room Nov 15

At The Yard, Salisbury — A Morning with Penguins

HOW PENGUIN BOOKS GOT ITS NAME — AND STARTED A PUBLISHING REVOLUTION

At the Yard, Salisbury, A Morning with Penguins

It was a bright August morning when we wandered into The Yard, a tucked-away coffee shop in Salisbury that felt like a secret shared among friends. The scent of espresso mingled with freshly baked muffins, and the walls featured book covers — rows of orange, blue, and green Penguins, those timeless companions of readers everywhere.

At the Yard, Salisbury, A Morning with Penguins

As we sipped our coffee (and yes, the hot chocolate was extraordinary), I remembered a story that began nearly a century ago — one that changed how the world reads.

At the Yard, Salisbury, A Morning with Penguins

In 1935, Allen Lane, managing editor at The Bodley Head, stood on a train platform in Exeter after visiting Agatha Christie. Searching for a good-quality paperback for his journey back to London, he found only cheap, flimsy magazines. That moment sparked an idea that would transform publishing: books should be both affordable and beautifully made — quality literature priced like a daily newspaper.

Lane envisioned a series of paperbacks that would bring fine writing to everyone, sold not just in bookshops but in railway stations and corner stores. A young secretary, Joan Coles, suggested the name ‘Penguin,’ friendly and memorable. Lane sent 21-year-old artist Edward Young to the London Zoo to sketch the bird that would become one of the most beloved emblems in publishing history.

What many readers don’t realize is that the earliest Penguins were colour-coded — a design both simple and brilliant. Each colour represented a different genre: orange for fiction, dark blue for biography, red for drama, green for crime, black for serious non-fiction, purple for essays, and grey for world affairs. Together they formed a mosaic of modern reading — bright, confident, and accessible. When we looked at the colourful covers on The Yard’s walls, we were really looking at the visual history of how reading became democratic.

The literary establishment was scandalized. Serious literature, sold beside the morning paper? But readers had the final word. Hemingway, Christie, and Maurois found new homes in satchels and coat pockets across Britain. Within a year, millions of Penguins were in circulation — proof that good books belong to everyone.

As I looked at those covers in The Yard, I realized that the Penguin revolution wasn’t just about paperbacks. It was about trust — the belief that ordinary people deserved access to extraordinary ideas.

At the Yard, Salisbury, A Morning with Penguins

In a quiet corner of Salisbury, over coffee and conversation, I was reminded that revolutions don’t always begin with noise. Sometimes, they start with a small bird and a bold idea.

Until the next page,

Rebecca

#books #PenguinBooks #RebeccaSReadingRoom #Salisbury #TheBodleyHead