In Pocket

Gula Biblioteket is releasing pocket-sized versions of their classics first time.  They will start with ten books from different decades: Niko Kazantzaki's Zorba the Greek, Graham Greene's  The Quiet American, Alberto Moravia's Contempt, Kurt Vonnegut God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises, Toni Morrison's Beloved, John Steinbeck's Tortilla Flat, Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day, Alice Munro's Who Do You Think You Are? and Thomas Mann's Death in Venice. Another round of pocket books will be published in the autumn.

Pocket books are the fastest growing category in the Finnish book market, and grew in 2008 by almost 20 percent. Three million Finns have bought a paperback, and just last year, nearly two million paperbacks were sold in Finland. 

"Gula Biblioteket pocket books will be an excellent addition to the growing paperback market," says Tammi Publisher Annamari Arrakoski. "Gula Biblioteket is a strong brand, and we expect to pocket books will reach out to large groups of readers."

The pocket books will be available for sale in bookstores, department stores, supermarkets and online stores, for 9 Euros.

Facts:

• Gula Biblioteket was founded in 1954 in Finland, where there was a shortage of everything - even good translations of literature. 
• Gula Biblioteket  is a unique international phenomenon, and has published books by nearly 120 authors, 24 books by Nobel Prize laureate.
• The 400th book in the series comes out in autumn 2009.