Generic books (titled as such)

June 2, 2008 6:53 AM

Did the Generic Food people put out Generic Books?

I remember, during the 70's, the supermarkets in Maine (Shop-n-Save, now Hannaford's) carried low cost generic food (including generic beer - pleck).

I think I remember also seeing generic novels, with the same black print on a white background. They were titled simply, "Western" or "Romance."

Am I imagining these books? I doubt my 9 year old self would have been clever enough to come up with this concept (though my 9 year old self was a kook), and I have a fairly clear memory of flipping through some of them at the store.

Google has failed me, and the references I've found to the "generic" brand are only about the food and the beer.

posted by suki to media & arts (5 comments total)

Those were real, but short-lived. Jove Books ran a series of "No Frills" titles back in 1981 (three years before Repo Man was released). The books were sold in a variety of locations, including Jewel-Osco stores.
posted by Smart Dalek at 7:29 AM on June 2, 2008

Cool. Romance Complete with Everything: A Kiss, A Promise, A Misunderstanding, Another Kiss, A Happy Ending.
posted by mumkin at 8:09 AM on June 2, 2008

We used to have one at home. Black and white cover. "Generic fiction," complete with net weight and everything.
posted by rachelpapers at 9:51 AM on June 2, 2008

I had Science Fiction, but never bothered reading it. Later, I tore off the cover and threw the rest away. Don't think it was No-Frills, the cover with green and black writing on white, with a little atom symbol. As I recall, they also had Western in the same little out-front display, at a little bookstore near LAX in the late 1980s.
posted by Rash at 12:37 PM on June 2, 2008

Thank you! How cool to actually SEE one of the books! I really wondered about their existence.
posted by suki at 2:23 PM on June 2, 2008