well read.

Seven Hundred Penguins.
Penguin, £20 list or £13 on Amazon

Not a handbook for Arctic ‘twitchers’, but a commentary-free compendium of paperback book covers from the 1930s until today. Not surprisingly, the editors have chosen to focus is on work from the Fifties onwards, when the groundbreaking publisher departed from its original tri-part covers, to embrace a more pictorial style. A real treat for visual arts fans, with graphic witticism from the likes of Derek Birdsall and Milton Glaser, and consummate illustration from Alan Aldridge and Andrjez Klimowski. A winning combination of graphic design and social history drip from every page. At last, a book you really can judge by its covers.

Get it from Amazon: ‘Seven Hundred Penguins’

Tibor Kalman - Perverse Optimist.
Ed Peter Hall and Michael Bierut
Princeton Architectural Press, new and used from £28 on Amazon

This incredible book is out of print now, but you certainly won't regret tracking it down. It’s a collection of work by, and snippets of writing about, the late Tibor Kalman, the mercurial founder of the influential New York design consultancy M&Co, who went on to edit the controversial, Benetton-sponsored Colors magazine. Published in 1999, the year Kalman died from cancer, the first few spreads of the book are reminiscent of his work on the magazine – arresting images, culled from all corners of the globe, overlaid with simple, yet profound statements. Curiosities, eye-openers and juxtapositions, all guaranteed to make you think. When you finally put the book down, you’ll see things differently.

Get it from Amazon: ‘Tibor Kalman’

Imperial Blandings - An Omnibus.
PG Wodehouse
Penguin, £12.99 list or £9.99 on Amazon

For an instant Christmas pick-me-up, you can’t beat a blast of ‘Plum’ Wodehouse. Having already gorged on the Jeeves and Wooster books, we’re finding the Blandings series provides a diverting alternative – with a broader cast of perfectly observed characters, from feckless young men to ferocious aunts and bumbling aristocrats. Wodehouse has an infectious love of language, his deceptively complex sentences flowing effortlessly like a meandering brook.

See below…

“It is no use telling me there are bad aunts and good aunts. At the core, they are all alike. Sooner or later, out pops the cloven hoof.”

“Barmy went to the door and opened it sharply. There came the unmistakable sound of a barmaid falling downstairs.”

“I could see that, if not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled.”

Get it from Amazon: ‘Imperial Blandings’