Help me find miniature books!

April 10, 2020 11:23 AM

Like what you find at in the racks at the cash register of a bookstore...but all the bookstores are closed.

I'm looking for little books to put on my home (now also work!) desk. I'm thinking of the little paperbacks you find in the "gift racks" at Barnes & Noble, like "The Ancient Art of War" or "Best of Shakespeare."

But for the life of me, I can't find these (or other) books on Amazon or BN.com. I've tried searching mini, miniature, and other words, but very little comes up. I know there are whole series of these, not to mention little box sets like this, but I just can't seem to find them.

Am I crazy? Are they only sold in store? Or am I just missing an obvious search term?

Thanks for your help.

posted by Flying Saucer to Media & Arts (8 answers total)

There's a line of small paperbacks from Penguin called "Little Black Classics," but they're not really any smaller than a standard mass market paperback. You mean something much smaller than that, right? Like maybe 2 inches by 4 inches?
posted by slenderloris at 11:37 AM on April 10, 2020

Best answer: Most of my smaller book titles are prefaced by something literal - perhaps try adding these search terms: ‘the little book of [eg quotes]’, ‘the pocket [eg Pema Chodron]’.
posted by The Patron Saint of Spices at 11:50 AM on April 10, 2020

Best answer: I searched for "penguin minis" on amazon, here's one, there were others.

There are also Dover Little Activity Books, here's one with dinosaurs

Try "pocket" as a search term, found some RBG quotes, many others.

And here's what I found for "minature shakespeare"

I'm not sure why the searches would find things for me, and not for you. Have you tried limiting the searches to only the books department?
posted by yohko at 11:54 AM on April 10, 2020

Best answer: You can also search by author/publisher - eg Helen Exley (UK) seems to turn out rather a lot - hers are described as ‘gift books’, and similar sized titles also show up as recommendations.
posted by The Patron Saint of Spices at 11:58 AM on April 10, 2020

Shambhala is the publisher for the pocket Pema Chodron, the pocket Dalai Lama, etc. I think they are an imprint of Penguin.
posted by blnkfrnk at 7:11 PM on April 10, 2020

Maybe something like these, from Peter Pauper Press? Little hardcover books appx 3" x 5".
posted by xedrik at 7:27 AM on April 11, 2020

Depending on the state, Barnes & Noble is doing curbside pickup like a restaurant. You go to the website, do the buy online-pick up in store thing and swing by in an hour to get the stuff. I found the kinds of books you are looking for here and here. If you're not finding quite what you want, Amazon's alternative suggestions are a little more robust than B&N's, so you can take an approximate choice from B&N and plug it in there.
posted by BibiRose at 9:11 AM on April 11, 2020

The mini books and kits that turn up on tall revolving stands in British bookshops are often US imports published by Running Press. I couldn't get a useful listing on the Running Press website itself, but searching Amazon seems to be more fruitful.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 2:52 AM on April 14, 2020