Where's the cover, Penguin?

A reader's personalized cover of The Picture of Dorian Gray

Penguin, the British book publisher based in the UK, has recently launched a line of classic books called "Books by the Greats, Covers by You." Basically, the book covers just come in white and you get to put your personal touch to them. You can draw, paint, doodle, spatter blood, cough phlegm, etc. on them. It's rather an interesting concept, and I just wonder if people are taking it seriously. Apparently, they are, at least in the UK. The forgettable band Razorlight and that brilliant but stinky Beck did their own artworks for The Great Gatsby and The Lost Estate.

I saw a couple of these books at Fully Booked and I initially thought that they were misprints. (There's a new Fully Booked in town by the way. It's at the lower level of the tres posh Greenbelt 5.) I think they would make great gifts to book lovers or to anyone who just collects Penguin books for the covers.

See what kind of book covers people have come up with here.

Classic Penguin book covers