It takes a lot of creativity to design a series of trade paperback classics that really stand out amongst the limitless options available today, but I think Neil Lang – cover designer of the Macmillan Popular Classics series put out by Pan Macmillan India – hit the ball out of the park with this series of B-format paperback books. Each volume has the author and titles in a circle with the series title running around the edges, and the front and back covers feature a watercolour photoshopped design, with the back also containing a quote pulled from the text. The spines are watercolour paint palettes drawn from the cover design.

There are 72 books in this series if you’re a completist, but a small stack looks lovely together, and this is definitely a collection where you want to put a couple of covers facing out if you can. However, other than the lovely covers, these volumes are still subject to the typical longevity problems with paperbacks – the paper will yellow over time, and the glued bindings will eventually lose their integrity.

The books were released between 2016 to 2017 and are rapidly going out of print, so although they are still mostly cheap now that is likely to change in future with reduced availability. I have found the best place to source them new is Abes, followed by Amazon. They are mostly out of stock at other stores, and rarely show up on eBay; however, I’ve included links to all below because you never know your luck!

Jump to authors starting with A-B | C-D | E-F-G | H-I-J | K-L-M | N-O-P-Q-R | S-T | U-V-W-X-Y-Z