Penguin "Great Ideas" - or, Why we still need bookstores

Penguin is publishing a series of slim (overpriced...) paperbacks under the "Great Ideas" heading.

I see 24 of them to date, mostly excerpts from (longer) existing Penguin Classics.

Do these books count as "Penguin Classics"? While not explicitly marked as such, they are "classics", and they are published by Penguin....

And, incidently, this shows why bookstores are still important - I discovered this series serendipitously, while browsing bookshelves. If we go on-line to buy only things that we already know we want, we miss the chance for discovering the new.

I wouldnt count them as "penguin classics" even though they are published by penguin...and classics. They are pretty good, if overpriced. I found the collection in one of my friends flats. Its a rework of an older idea where they published excerpts from classic texts such as the bhagavad gita and rights of woman.

I completely agree that we havent yet reached a stage where bookstores have become idle, not even by a long shot!