This summer, the American Library Association is auctioning off a rare cache of its iconic READ posters to commemorate the org’s 150th year of doing business.
Thanks to a partnership with Heritage Auctions, the largest collections auctioneer in the world, readers from all over can now own a piece of literary history. The books (so to speak) are open, and the bets are on until July 10.
Any Millennial or Gen X-reader who preferred to spend recess in the library—and I’m assuming that’s you, if you’ve found yourself on literary hub dot com—will remember the classic READ poster, with its staged, surreal charm.
And to be sure, the fun of scouring this trove comes from revisiting those book/celeb pairings. Some more convincing than others. Who might have guessed, for instance, that the late Bernie Mac would be a Bible-thumper? Or that Kelly Ripa would ride for the Narnia series?
Other celebrity book picks made an implicit sense. Note the poster of the defector Mikhail Baryshnikov hawking Crime and Punishment. Or this one, where the mage Nic Cage totes Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha.
