White’s Fine Edition Books

2 facts:
1) I love classics. It happens that once in about 3 or 4 contemporary literature readings, I feel an urge to go back to classics and than it is just like I'm enjoying a beautiful, aged, great wine. You know the feeling? Like something that is beyond quality. Something that even before you try out, you know - It is Perfect.
2) I judge books by their covers. Yes, I can't help it. I won't read a book with a cover I don't like. And I enjoy my readings even more when their cover got an extra appeal.

For these reasons, finding out about White's Fine Edition series is quite a celebration. Looking at these is heart thumping.

In the last 2 years a lot of publishers have been bringing new editions of old classics with an emphasis on the cover's design. The best example is Penguin's hardcover classics series with its cloth-bound covers designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith.

Now White's Books, ex-Penguin designer David Pearson's new venture, had published eight gorgeous fine editions of the best-loved classics.

Unlike the Penguin series where all of its titles were designed by the same designer, the White's series covers were designed by different acclaimed artists and designers such as Petra Borner (a fashion designers that has worked for Louis Vuitton), Stanley Donwood (a wood and lino-cut artist that is best known for designing Radiohead’s album covers), and Joe McLaren (an illustrator for The Times and Monocle). Still, the series got a special character with it that makes it an actual series rather than a collection of books.

I would love to add them all to my library. Not only I love all the books White's had chosen to publish, These are fantastic design pieces and stunning keepsakes.
The fine edition is available through Amazon, mostly for under US$20 a book, which makes it an affordable luxury and a wonderful gift.

While I'm writing this, I'm thinking, in a time when Amazon is developing a new Kindle every year with prices that are now dropping to under US$150 and iPad is the new object of desire, do you find this and the likes of printed classics series a trick or a treat?

Do you think it makes a good buy or is it something nice to look at on the pages of a magazine or blog posts?

To make it simple, I'm curious - would you consider buying one of these or any other book as a gift for your loved ones or yourself?