Tell me flaws about penguin publishing.

They're good.

>>8466133
They have a remarkable feat of filling already finely printed books with errors.

>>8466133
old translations and questionable paper binding
that is it

>>8466133
Not many. There may be some isolated books that contain errors or that have shotty printing (1984 comes to mind) but they're good overall.

>>8466221
Any examples of shitty paper binding from them?

They can't write? Because they're penguins?...what's wrong with me I'm so sorry

>>8466663
penguin classics

>>8466687
Gonna be honest, it ain't THAT bad, but i've seen better.

>>8466700
if you get 300+ pages books of that is gonna show

>>8466133
Deckled edges on the Deluxe Classics range. I don't know what idiot though that was a good idea.

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Tell me flaws about Reclam.

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>>8467682
This tbqh

I was given a "Deluxe Classics" version of White Noise years ago, and the deckled edges made it such an unpleasant read that I will never buy another one like it.

Aside from that, however, there's nothing wrong with Penguin publishing. The contrarian crowd just hates them because they are a large publisher that commonly publish a lot of different books.

>>8467726
>>8467682
I keep getting tricked by seeing the cute covers online and not checking before ordering...it gets less annoying once you're into a book but just why

Mediocre translations, bad build quality, printing errors, and using uncorrected texts even when the author has put out the corrected version.

>>8467726
See >>8467738
Retard

actually
fuck penguin for having lena dunham write the forward to the liar's club
see also: all publishers who get blurbs from her so I have to see it if I get it from the library and have to keep the dust jacket on

>>8467740
>Retard
Wow. You are very passionate about your distaste for Penguin publishing

>Mediocre translations
/lit/ has proven time and time again that they cannot agree upon what constitutes a "good" translation, so this point is subjective at best

>Bad build quality
You get what you pay for. To my knowledge, Penguin doesn't hold themselves out as some sort of a high-end publisher. They put out commercial grade, $10-20 books to line the shelves of Barnes and Noble. At that price point, the quality of the books is about what you would expect.

>Printing errors
No higher than most publishers, I would assume

>using uncorrected texts even when the author has put out the corrected version.
I've not really heard of this, so I'm going to need some examples

>>8467765
>You get what you pay for
You overpay for the quality you get.
>>8467765
>No higher than most publishers, I would assume
Higher than most esteemed publishers on here
>>8467765
>I've not really heard of this, so I'm going to need some examples
Finnegans Wake

>>8467696
Every nation should have something similar to the Universal Bibliothek

>>8466472
>that have shotty printing
Come on now

>>8466133
They occasionally make some really retarded ass editorial decisions
For example, their Modern Classics edition of Isak Dinesen's Anecdotes of Destiny is published as 'Babette's Feast and Other Tales', which is disregarding the author's craftsmanship in using 'anecdotes', a word originally meaning 'secrets', and what makes it weirder is the fact that the title 'Anecdotes of Destiny' still features at the top of each page

But I will give Penguin credit for publishing in print the only English dictionary with etymological entries, as far as I'm aware, or at least the only dictionary you can carry around with you

>>8467696
Less durable than Suhrkamp, and Reclam usually doesn't point out when there's an entry for a word/passage in the Anhang, though this is personal preference and for some books I enjoy Reclam's system more

>>8467738
I heard the build quality on the "Clothbound Classics" was pretty good.

>>8467864
>>You get what you pay for
>You overpay for the quality you get.

This guy gets it
/thread

Their new editions are tacky, especially these stupid deluxe editions -- obviously designed for like instagram/pinterest book blogging young liberal mother crowd. And while the newest classics format is acceptable, I really really really like the old ones with the tan borders. Way more tasteful and comfy imo than the new ones with Modern Library-tier covers.

But of course the classics series is fucking incredible. Pro tip: a large amount of the cool shit that NYRB classics is putting out comes from out of print Penguin Classics (see Ernst Junger, Silvina Ocampo, Sir Thomas Browne, GV Desani etc.)

>>8468117
someone said they fade/the colors bleed
not 100% sure on that tho

>>8468573
My Iliad cover design peeled off every time I picked it up, but my Odyssey kept pristine no matter what.

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>>8466133
weak meme

>>8468524
>I really really really like the old ones with the tan borders
those are my least favorite, i prefer:

1. the original coloured border editions with the woodcut ornament.
2. the current editions
3. the full cover-image and rest black edition
4. tan border edition
(ok the full-tan 'popular classics are my least favorite, but those don't even make the list)

"The document that explains the {Penguin Classics} series style runs to 87 A4 pages. The first 18 pages explain and specify all of the detail; the remaining 69 pages are sample pages that illustrate the design--throughlyt the 18 pages of specifications there are cross-references to the sample pages."

"For the text itself, we went through a number of iterations as I tried to satisfy the editor's wishes to have a big text size as well as more words per page and my wish to eep some sense of space in the pages. Previousy the Classics default had been 10/12.5 Monotype Bembo x 23 pica measure x 36 lines. I changed this to 10.25/12.25 Sabon x 23 pica measure x 38 lines. The difference...may not seem much, but the version of Sabon we were using is unusually big on its body, so it is actually a significant increase in text size. The pages are denser-looking for sure, but they are not so uncomfortable to read...

from "Aspects of Contemporary Book Design", ed. by Richard Hendel

Does anyone want Reclam's css:

@font-face {
font-family: 'Dayroom';
font-style: normal;
font-weight: normal;
src: url(fonts/dayroom.ttf);
}

/* The book is always contained inside of #content; treat this as you would the HTML body */
#content {
font-family: Georgia, Baskerville, Garamond, Times, serif;
background-color: #ff0;
color: #000;
padding: 2em 4em;
margin: 0;
font-size: 100%;
}

/* H1 is used only for the Book title (e.g. "Book I") */
h1 {
font-size: 300%;
font-family: 'Dayroom', Georgia, Baskerville, Garamond, Times, serif;
}

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IF YOU SEE THIS ON THE FRONT PAGE STAY WELL AWAY

TAKE IT FROM MEEEE

SIGNET CLASSIC TRANSLATIONS ARE SHIT

SHIT I TELL YOU!!!

THEY GAVE ME A SIGNET CLASSIC VERSION OF THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO, IT WAS ABRIDGED AND A REALLY SHITTY TRANSLATION
SAME WITH ANDREW CARNEGIE'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY
AND MANY MANY OTHER BOOKS

IT'S WRITTEN FOR CHILDREN.... SIGNET CLASSICS IS FOR CHILDREN!!!!! DONT BUY SIGNET CLASSICS!!!

>>8470160
i got "hg wells: invisible man" for 5 bucks from signet classics. thanks for sharing this info

>>8469526
whose book shelf is this lmao

CSS for Reclam Verlag: http://pastebin.com/a9hBA5eU

>>8470160
is this well known already

>>8467864
>Finnegans Wake
It's Finnegans fuckin' Wake. How could you tell the difference?

>>8470160
>Signet
I read their Crime and Punishment translated by Monas and I enjoyed it very much. Compared some passages to PV and others and actually preferred Monas.

I also own their Chekhov: Selected Stories translated by Dunnigan who is academia approved and considered above PV and acclaimed for her War and Peace translation.

They're hit or miss.

>>8469526
Ew.

>>8470786
Fuck off back to /r/books, not even kidding.
Retards like you who think that everything's a fucking "EPIC MEEEEME AXDDDDDD" need to fuck off.

>>8466133
Their hardcovers are shit

The paper they use for the pages always seem to be very thin and flimsy. But penguin are ok/ mid-tier quality

>>8469526
Modern classics version of Nausea it probably the best feeling paperback I own, it's so supple

semiaquatic birds are unable to operate printing presses

Shit paper shit spines

Never buy them if there's an alternative.

Those plain orange covers they decided to use for hundreds of different books are a crime against nature.

>>8469526

Nice. But I think your top shelf is straining a bit with the weight.

I think they charge too much for what are supposed to be affordable paperbacks. Just an opinion, but given the impression they are supposed to be cheap and accessible, they force people (read: students and the working class) to be priced out into used books.

They are what they originally set out to be: a cheap-cost option for buying classics. Some of their translations are actually better than other publishers for some obscure works (like the Argonautica). For English-origin works that doesn't really matter; but paper quality and annotations and intro notes might.

Overall, Oxford Classics tends to beat them for translated work from antiquity and overall quality as being a paper-back all genre classics publisher, Hackett should be standard go-to for Philosophy, Everyman's Library has the best hardcover's that aren't ridiculously priced or fashioned or have archaic translations, and Everyman's Library tends to fill in gaps for Oxford World Classics. There's a few occasions where Penguin is the sole or best translator out on some obscure work out of the forementioned ones, but in most cases they're only worth buying in-comparison only if you find a great deal or in cases where the translation quality isn't that different.

Within three readings they're falling apart, especially the big ones.

>>8472678

>they force people (read: students and the working class) to be priced out into used books.

You'd have to be pretty fucking "working class" to be unable to save up 15$. If you were too poor to save that much, you'd probably be some sort of drunk or addict, or living in a wartorn country worried about survival, and not worried about reading at all.

>>8473077
Well I have a couple of the early Penguin Classics (Plato's Symposium and Last Days of Socrates from 1950s) and they are marked at 2 shillings.

There were 12 pence to a shilling and you could get a loaf of bread for say 4 pence in the 1950s. Meaning the cost of a Penguin Classic was say 6 loaves of bread.

Say 6 loaves these days cost £6, you'd be lucky to find a Penguin Classic at that price in Waterstones or even on Amazon. You're looking nearer £10 for most, or more if it's a larger, or more obscure volume (I recently paid £15 for a Modern Classics collection of Borges' Non-fiction).

Undoubtedly the relative cost has increased substantially by my reckoning (though obviously this is a very rough estimate).

>>8473138
Alternatively using this site:
http://www.concertina.com/calculator/

2 shillings is calculated as worth £3.80 in the year 2000. Penguin Classics certainly weren't that cheap a mere 16 years ago.

My overall point is that they're relatively more expensive these days, and in my opinion too much so given they're supposed ethos of accessible classics.

>>8473077
>>8473138
this is why libraries exist...
and I'm pretty sure used bookstores aren't a new thing...brand new books as one's primary reading material is a bourgeoisie thing to begin with (see gatsby)

>>8473232
which, to actually add to your point, is the reason penguin makes their books so collectable- so they'll be collected even if all of the actual material of a particular series isn't as appealing to collectors/completionists

don't read their Foucault !

>>8470160
I bought a few used books on Amazon expecting completely different editions but I got a shit tier Don Quixote from them.

>>8467726
>>8467682
What's your problems with deckled edges?