mmm... pulpy

when listing all my favorite things, 'groovy book covers' is very high up on my list. i think i may have searched for book covers almost more than anything else. there's just something about a cool groovy paperback. (sadly, don't get me started on paperbacks now days... the cost of paper must be skyrocketing, because recently they've become insultingly, sickeningly flimsy... both the covers and the pages... ) but, back to the older groovy ones. hey, it's no secret i've been known to buy books just to obtain the cover art, and never read the content inside. (mmm, how i miss 'Atlas Book Exchange.') so... let's take a look at the book in front of us, shall we? 'His Lesbian Love' by the never-heard-of-him Wayne Wallace. i love the small print that lets you know what you're 'in for.' let's see, it says: '...he was innocent, inexperienced, and ready for his first affair... even if she was a gay call girl...!' mmm, hey how gay can she be? i guess if the price is right, i dunno. i've seen better cover art, but then again, i've also seen a LOT worse. its cheeky, campy, charming. i dig it.

groovy old books!

yeah, i love groovy old books. i remember the public library in my hometown before they moved into the hulking, weird, antiseptic new building. one of my favorite places to scope on groovy older paperback books was in the several vertical rotating 'Young Adults' section, which was downstairs. you walked down this hall from the main desk, and you were at the top of a groovy unwalled staircase, at the top of like, a thirty-five foot drop, looking down onto a glorious enormous pit of people and seating and books. that was probably my favorite view in that place; looking down from that staircase on a rainy day, with the skies gray and drizzly through the windows to the left of the checkout desk. you could always see plants there, growing in some kind of alleyway-slash-terrarium. there, in those young adult racks, you could find the goriest ghost stories, the most compelling 'afterschool-special'-fied books about teenagers with problems, all the music 'fan books,' and other cool novels. that was also where all the holy and hilarious MAD digests were kept. man, it sucks-serious that that building doesn't exist anymore. i only hope the majority of those books eventually landed in the hands of those that appreciated them. man, i miss those days... and i really, really, really miss that building.

(click to enlarge)

rag dolls

man, i really don't feel very inspired tonight, but i wanted to mark my place. so, i love looking for old and interesting paperback covers when i go pearldiving. i found this one a while back, and i love it. its probably not surprising that i've never heard of this piece of classic literature. but i dig the vibe, and i like the cover. i like the fact that live models were used instead of the far-more common use of illustration. i would've loved to have been hanging around during the photo shoot. and where are these people now? as far as the subject matter goes, i don't think 'the fashion world' would grip me, grip me by the page-turning brain. i don't even watch 'project runway.' (despite a weirdly bewildering amount of people telling me that i '...just have to watch it!!') but yeah, i dig this cover, in all its late 60's manufactured freakiness. let's take a look at the small print. if you click to enlarge, you'll see it says: '...they were the Rag Dolls - London's top young models and designers who set the style in kicky clothes and kinky sex...' mmm, sounds great.