Are News Books Still Popular? Yes: 'Daily Mail' 5 Vols. Of Pops n Pix

Are book shops closing down because less and less people are reading text on paper as more and more are mousing or tapping the Internet to read from Kindle,  e-reader, iPad, Tablet or smart-phone, since they find it convenient and sometimes free to read off these technological miracles? Now is this statement true? I'm not sure.

It took me a while to collect this set of five volumes.

But I'm still lurking in book shops and book sales and some two years ago managed to get a set of coffee-table ones that I found so useful. They went for a dream price of ten dollars each.  In a nutshell, I paid about sixty dollars for what I thought was a bargain. And it was.

From the news and picture archives of the Daily Mail this fabulous British newspaper charted people, places and events that made up five memorable decades (from 1960 to 2000) into readable volumes. And the contents, according to the blurb, were photographs from the momentous and the apocalyptic to the offbeat and the trivial. And it's true.

Cover of the first book in the series.

At a cute 17 cm. square per book, I couldn't buy them all at one time, having to hunt for three of the five volumes after getting the first (1960's) and the third (1980's).  I remember paying a little more for two of them. 

But it was fifteen pounds (S$30/00) each when it first came out in 2010.  Using quality paper and beautiful photographs in black and white each book by Trans Atlantic Press from Hertfordshire, England is nearly 400 pages thick. Nobody would pay for five books now since portable hard disks are a bargain?

The Beatles and Folk Group Peter, Paul n Mary.

I don't think I have the stamina to write a review on each of the five books and even if I had I'd probably be sued by the publishers for exposing their hard work so I am highlighting Decade of Our Lives 60s (above) and had it narrowed down to only pop music and relevant news and pictures. With a picture on every page it's quite a task.  But let's take a peek inside.

For the liberated woman: Plastic Dresses and The Pill.

The series is an exciting picture journey all the way with a clear description for each and every image taken. According to the introduction, the 1960s was a swinging decade when postwar baby boomers came of age and found themselves in a new permissive era as the Pill launched a sexual revolution. 

As hemlines rose all you needed was love; flower power challenged old orthodoxies and Kennedy carried the hopes of a generation when he became US President.  Like Martin Luther King after him, John F. fell to an assassin's bullet.

Youthful Cliff 's 'Summer Holiday'

In the movies there was John Wayne, Anthony Perkins, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton and the Magnificent Seven gang of Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen and friends. On stage were Adam Faith and Cliff Richard, clean living members of society...

I'd better not carry on. The volumes are still with me on my library shelf. Love reading directly from solid, hard copies, especially in bed. No blue light giddiness nor sleeplessness afterwards... 

But never stop reading, hard copies or from tablets.

Comments are welcome...

The Beatles: 'Paperback Writer' 

YouTube Video from The Beatles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYvkICbTZIQ

Paperback Writer

Dear Sir or Madam, will you read my book?

It took me years to write, will you take a look?

It's based on a novel by a man named Lear

And I need a job

So I wanna be a paperback writer

Paperback writer...

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: John Lennon / Paul McCartney

Paperback Writer lyrics © Iricom US Ltd, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group

Disclaimer:

There is no intention to promote any publication nor make financial gains. Any copyrights misdemeanours and this posting will be deleted. Do let me know.