Why Confine Books to Shelves? They're Street Art!

File under genius: Penguin recently gave ten of their modern classics to street artists for a cover makeover, (seem 'em over on Design Taxi), and the results are awesome. They chose books that, like street art, speak to the time.

This put us on the hunt to see where else literary inspiration met street art, and the results are fantastic. Just five we love:

• Brooklyn-based Jay Giroux created an ongoing sticker and poster campaign encouraging people to read. The campaign began in 2005 and is ongoing.

• Why restrict literary street art to walls? Next time you're in Jackson Square, San Francisco check out this jazz mural completed by bay-area artist Bill Weber. (It's the same one above.)

• This whimsical reading scene was created by Andreyante AO, a well know street artist from Nizhny Novgorod, Russia.

• Chicago-based Pawn Works was responsible for this book-themed mural in the Pilson neighborhood. We get it — sometimes we wish we could live inside of a book too.

• Buenos Aires based artist Patxi Mazzoni created a series of punks in artistic and intellectual settings to break down stereotypes of punks as lazy. We love this edgy and literary mural.

We love the idea of a bookish scene along our morning commute.