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Category book design:

Back in April I posted about these beautiful novels published by Les éditions du Panama. The Paris-based publishing house went out of business in July. It’s a shame—they put out a lot of lovely books, including some children’s books that you can still buy at Little Fashion Gallery.

In 2006 Panama began publishing French translations of “The Library of Babel,” a 30-volume series of fantastic stories by well-known authors selected and introduced by Jorge Luis Borges. The series is named after his story of the same name in which the universe is an unknowably vast library. The project was originally proposed to Borges in the 1970s by the Italian publisher Franco Maria Ricci and published in Italian as “La Biblioteca di Babele.” The books look beautiful and strange, like they came from an alternate universe—just like they’re from a Borges story.

From an early age we are warned not to judge a book by its cover, but now that I am an adult, I question this advice. Why can’t we judge a book by the cover? Isn’t that why new books are displayed face out, to capture one’s attention? Why are book designers and illustrators paid good money to create attractive covers if they don’t matter? Now there are certain books I will buy no matter what the cover is, but with undiscovered authors when I am wandering aimlessly through a bookstore? Something needs to catch my eye, and an ugly or boring cover isn’t going to do it.

So let’s conduct a little experiment here. Following are four covers for the same book, Chinua Achebe’s seminal Things Fall Apart.

Publication Studio Makes A Book from Mike Merrill on Vimeo.

I was reading the local newspaper this morning and came across an interesting article about a print-on-demand publisher called Publication Studio. Their publishing model is unique in that Publication Studio aims not just to print and bind books but to create a community interested in the books. The publisher thus sponsors get-togethers to discuss publishing trends, books, what have you.

I’m gazing longingly at the Folio Society website, particularly this lovely clothbound edition of Le Grand Meaulnes by Alain-Fournier, illustrated by Laura Carlin.

 

 

Here’s an interior illustration: 

 

I started reading books on my iPod Touch a couple of months ago. One of the first things I downloaded (for Stanza) was a free version of The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, which I’d never read before. That started me on a Wells kick, so I downloaded Tales of Space and Time. I also enjoyed that a lot. But the book cover used (from Project Gutenberg) was so ugly (below, left) it kind of bummed me out every time I caught a glimpse of it! But I figured that was just what you get with free books.

I discovered recently, however, that Feedbooks (one of the 13 collections offered on Stanza) generally chooses more attractive covers for their public-domain books. Below on the right is the cover that Feedbooks uses for the same work. Much easier on the eyes, in my opinion. I think it’s the cover for the first American edition, but I’m not positive.

 

     

 

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