The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly: Book Cover Design

How much do you think about the cover of a book? Have you ever checked out a book just because of its cover? We know you're not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but we think (and it seems like publishers do, too) that their design can have a big impact, which we've talked about on this blog in the past. We can't pretend to be experts on book cover design, but we've come up with some interesting discussions by searching the web, which we've collected below.

Series Book Covers that Have Generated A Lot of eDiscussion

If you poke around online, you can find a lot of different blogs and forms discussing bad cover art. The two series listed below have had a lot of complaints.

Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time

Why are the U.S. covers so awful? [Dragonmount: A Wheel of Time Community]

Worst book covers [Chronicles: Science Fiction & Fantasy community]

The World of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time [SF Site]

Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels

The Subtle Genius of Elena Ferrante's Bad Book Covers [Atlantic]

"Dressing a Refined Story With a Touch of Vulgarity": An Interview With Elena Ferrante's Art Director [Slate]

Isn't it un-ironic? Why Australia has better covers for Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan series [Guardian]

Of Famous Cover Models, and the Perils of Using Stock Photos

Model Fabio Lanzoni is the most famous cover model we know - if you read romance novels in the 1980s-90s, you most likely saw cover art featuring Fabio. There probably aren't a lot of other easily recognizable faces today, but you might see two books with covers that look strangely similar - because the designer has used stock photos.

Meet the Guy Who Has Been a Hero, a Pirate, a 'Mountain of Molten Lust' [NPR]

Fabio's 54th Birthday Is Just a Good Excuse to Revisit His Best Book Covers [HuffPost]

Gallery of Clones [Indie Book Launcher]

Trending in Book Covers and Book Covers in History

Do you find that all book covers these days look disturbingly the same? Do you think you are less likely to pick up a book if the cover is "an eyesore"? Do you feel like "if a cover design is smart and interesting, the book is likely worth it too"? Have you seen some genres change their book cover design to try to market them to a broader audience?

The Decline and Fall of the Book Cover [New Yorker]

When Bad Covers Happen to Good Books [New York Times]

By design, you can tell a book by its cover [Chicago Tribune]

Urban Fantasy's Cover Makeovers [RT Book Reviews]

Collection of Book Jackets [New York Public Library]
"Despite the fact that dust jackets often include useful information about a book and its author, including biographical notes and often a portrait, it has long been Research Libraries practice to remove the jackets from new books during processing for their permanent place in the stacks. However, from 1926 to 1947, anonymous librarians selected and saved interesting jackets from books of all sorts. Arranged roughly by date published/acquired, these paper covers eventually filled the 22 large scrapbooks presented here."

The Book Cover in the Weimar Republic [The Paris Review]

Book Jackets and Unusual Designs

Are you someone who has strong opinions on book (or dust) jackets? Don't laugh if you're not, because many people do. Also, what's the most radically designed book you've ever seen? Have you seen an edible cookbook? A book made of mirrors? Did you know there's a book made of birch seed paper that you can plant after you read it and grow a tree? Can you imagine a book covered in shells and feathers or in rubber? We've noticed a lot of books lately which wrapped in a half-jacket (or smaller), which is called a "belly band."

Don't Hate on the Dust Jacket [Atlantic]

No dustjackets required [Guardian]

My Complicated Relationship To the Dust Jacket [Book Riot]

Against Dust Jackets [Flavorwire]

The Importance of Book Jackets [Biblio]

10 Crazy and Unusual Book Designs [Flavorwire]

Beautiful and unique book covers [Picador]

The Unusual and Sometimes Bizarre Book Binding [Cleveland Museum]

Covers Worth Judging [Abe Books]

Belly Bands [First Second]

The Process of Design

Here are a couple of articles which take you through the development of a book's design.

Book Covers [Mackenzie Dunn]

Book Cover and Belly Band Designs [Sarah Taylor]

The Evolution of a Book Cover: How Design Changes [Chronicle Books]

Are These the Best Book Covers?

Another old saying is that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. What do you think of these book covers? Do they reach out and grab you and say "Read me!"?

Best Book Covers of 2016 [New York Times]

The 60 Best Book Covers of 2016, As Chosen By Designers [Literary Hub]

The 50 Coolest Book Covers [ShortList]

The 30 Best Book Covers of 2016 [Paste]

Lurid: Books, Covers, Judgement - Top Ten Horror Designs [Lit Reactor]


Are These the Worst? 

Most of the lists we found online were "worst book covers and titles," and since we weren't looking at titles (and some of the titles were frankly disturbing) we elected not to include them here. But there still are a few covers that we can't help but find questionable listed below.

20 Embarrassingly Bad Book Covers for Classic Novels [Flavorwire]

The 16 Most Misleading Book Covers of All Time [Bustle]

13 Fantasy Novels That Are Good Despite Their Covers [BuzzFeed]


We hope you've enjoyed our book cover links! What did you think? Let us know in the comments!

Book Cover Love: Jewelry and Keys

Over the past few months, I've showcased book cover trends in young adult fiction. First, I focused on amusement parks, and then I focused on crowns. Today, I'm highlighting book covers with jewelry and keys on them. It's a small selection this time, but these covers are beautiful. I especially love the covers for The Keeper of the Mist and Burning Glass.

Love, Lies, and Spies by Cindy Anstey

Becoming Jinn and Circle of Jinn by Lori Goldstein

Empire of Dust by Eleanor Herman

The Keeper of the Mist by Rachel Neumeier

Rise of the Wolf by Jennifer Nielsen

Burning Glass by Kathryn Purdie

Which cover is your favorite? Is there a cover you love that I didn't include? Let us know in the comments!

Have a Hygge New Year

Winter is the most hygge time of year. It is candles, nubby woolens, shearling slippers, woven textiles, pastries, blond wood, sheepskin rugs, lattes with milk-foam hearts, and a warm fireplace. Hygge can be used as a noun, adjective, verb, or compound noun, like hyggebukser, otherwise known as that shlubby pair of pants you would never wear in public but secretly treasure. Hygge can be found in a bakery and in the dry heat of a sauna in winter, surrounded by your naked neighbors. It’s wholesome and nourishing, like porridge; Danish doctors recommend “tea and hygge” as a cure for the common cold. It’s possible to hygge alone, wrapped in a flannel blanket with a cup of tea, but the true expression of hygge is joining with loved ones in a relaxed and intimate atmosphere.
~Anna Altman, "The Year of Hygge, The Danish Obsession With Getting Cozy"

Lately, it's been cool to be Scandinavian. The past couple of years, we've heard a lot of talk about Norway's "slow TV" sensation, in which shows feature someone knitting a sweater, a 7-hour train journey, an evening's discussion of firewood, and the like. We've been reading books by Scandinavians that are not "Nordic noir", like Karl-Ove Knausgaard's multi-volume My Struggle and the works of Per Petterson and Fredrik Backman. And it's not the first time Scandinavian culture has crossed the pond - we have them to thank for some modern furniture design and saunas, for instance. Now, the Danish word hygge (pronounced "HOO-gah") was on the shortlist for Oxford Dictionaries' Word of the Year 2016.

"Danish winters are long and dark, and so the Danes fight the darkness with their best weapon: hygge, and the millions of candles that go with it," explains the website Visit Denmark. "Hygge is a philosophy; a way of life that has helped Danes understand the importance of simplicity, time to unwind and slowing down the pace of life." Hygge is usually summed up in English as "cozy," but many would argue that there's more layers to it than that.Why the sudden fascination with hygge? Well, Denmark is usually at the top of the World Happiness Report (the USA is usually #13), and hygge is considered to be a contributing factor, though the concept certainly has its detractors.

According to many pundits, hygge will be to 2017 what "tidying up" was to 2015. Are you ready to get hygge with it this winter? We've created a list of items from the library catalog to introduce you to hygge and other interesting slices of Scandinavian culture (for the purposes of this post, we're considering Finland and Iceland as members of Scandinavia, which is debatable) and bring a little Scandinavian flavor into your life. How do you hygge? Let us know in the comments!

Miscellaneous Culture

The Year of Living Danishly: Uncovering the Secrets of the World's Happiest Country by Helen Russell 

The Danish Way of Parenting: What the Happiest People In the World Know About Raising Confident, Capable Kids by Jessica Joelle Alexander and Iben Sandahl [eBook]

The Almost Nearly Perfect People: Behind the Myth of the Scandinavian Utopia by Michael Booth 

Viking Economics: How the Scandinavians Got It Right - And How We Can, Too by George Lakey  

Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube: Chasing Fear and Finding Home In the Great White North by Blair Braverman

Tales From the Loop illustrations & texts by Simon Stålenhag

I Am Zlatan: My Story On and Off the Field by Zlatan Ibrahimović with David Lagercrantz 

Names For the Sea: Strangers in Iceland by Sarah Moss


The Nordic Theory of Everything: In Search of a Better Life by Anu Partanen

Nordicana: 100 Icons of Scandi Culture & Nordic Cool by Nordicana with Kajsa Kinsella 
 
Finnish Lessons: What Can the World Learn From Educational Change in Finland? by Pasi Sahlberg

The Book of Hope by by Tommi Musturi ; translated by Pauliina Haasjoki


Food, Crafts, & Lifestyle

Fika: The Art of the Swedish Coffee Break, With Recipes For Pastries, Breads, and Other Treats by Anna Brones & Johanna Kindvall

Mind of a Chef: Season 3 - Magnus Nilsson

Scandinavian Home: A Comprehensive Guide to Mid-Century Modern Scandinavian Designers by Elizabeth Wilhide

Northern Delights: Scandinavian Homes, Interiors and Design edited by Emma Fexeus, Sven Ehmann, and Robert Klanten 

The Kinfolk Home: Interiors For Slow Living by Nathan Williams

Scandinavian Classics: Over 100 Traditional Recipes by Niklas Ekstedt

North: The New Nordic Cuisine of Iceland by Gunnar Karl Gíslason and Jody Eddy 

Scandinavian Stitches: 21 Playful Projects with Seasonal Flair by Kasja Wikman [eBook]

Scandinavian Feasts: Celebrating Traditions Throughout the Year by Beatrice Ojakangas [eBook]

Northern Knits Gifts: Thoughtful Projects Inspired by Folk Traditions by Lucinda Guy

Music
  

Rough Guide to the Music of Scandinavia 

Polka V by Frigg 

Ice and Longboats: Ancient Music of Scandinavia  

Folk Songs by Trio Mediaeval

DVDs

Babette's Feast 

A Man Called Ove


For Kids

Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren

Comet in Moominland by Tove Jansson 

 

Book Cover Love: Things in Glass Objects

Welcome to another edition of Book Cover Love, in which I talk about the book cover trends I love. Today, I'm focusing on things in glass objects. It's been a trend this year, and it might continue next year. I love it. I think these covers are absolutely beautiful.

Passenger by Alexandra Bracken
Blackhearts by Nicole Castroman
The Sleeping Prince by Melinda Salisbury
Firstlife by Gena Showalter
Wintersong by S. Jae-Jones (This is a 2017 debut novel, so it's not in our catalog yet. The image is from Goodreads.)

What do you think about this cover trend? Let us know in the comments!

Book Cover Love: Crowns

The last time I talked about cover trends, I focused on amusement parks. Today, I want to showcase covers that have crowns on them. These covers are gorgeous, and I can't get enough of them. It's hard to pick my favorite cover, but if I have to narrow it down, my two favorites are The Crown's Game and Three Dark Crowns.

Liars and Losers Like Us by Ami Allen-Vath

Bloodtraitor by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

Cruel Crown by Victoria Aveyard

Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard

Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake

Saving Hamlet by Molly Booth

Heartless by Marissa Meyer

Stars Above by Marissa Meyer

The Crown's Game by Evelyn Skye

Broken Prince by Erin Watt

The crown on Saving Hamlet is small, but it's there! What do you think about this trend? Which of these covers do you like the best? Let us know in the comments!

Book Cover Love: Amusement Parks

I'm always interested in book cover trends, and a trend I've been seeing since about 2013, that I absolutely love, is amusement parks. I've seen a lot of young adult novels that have Ferris wheels, roller coasters, or other amusement park rides on the covers, but it's also showing up in middle grade fiction and adult fiction. Here are my favorite covers that are part of this trend.

Undertow and Raging Sea by Michael Buckley 

Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen 

Our Brothers at the Bottom of the Bottom of the Sea by Jonathan David Kranz 

Whisper to Me by Nick Lake 

All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda

The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider

Welcome to the Dark House by Laurie Faria Stolarz

I think what I really love about amusement parks being on the covers of books is that the books aren't always happy stories. Usually when I think about amusement parks, I think of laughter and cotton candy and all other sorts of good things. But, Saint Anything, Whisper to me, and All the Missing Girls are anything but happy stories, and honestly, that's a big reason why they're some of my favorite books on this list.


Have you noticed this trend? What are you favorite books with amusement parks on the covers? Let us know in the comments!

Cookbook Design Trends

We salivate over the sizzling sardines and feel the Mediterranean heat on sun-kissed olive groves. The photography in cookery books is so visually enthralling that the smell of sea air is almost palpable in glistening shots of the fisherman’s haul.

When we come to cook, however, the cookbook stays on the coffee table. Instead, we turn to Google, according to the cookery doyenne Prue Leith. Or even order in a takeaway.

“Now the look of the book dictates the sale,” Leith writes in the Radio Times. “In my day you could still buy a good cookbook in paperback with no pictures at all. I doubt if that would sell today. But those books were much used: they lived in the kitchen and got splattered with custard and gravy.

“Today, if we cook, we Google it. New cookbooks lie on the coffee table and we drool over Tuscan landscapes and rustic bread ovens. Before ordering in a pizza.”

 ~Caroline Davies & Nicola Slawson, "Cookbooks' key ingredient now design not recipes, says food writer"

Common wisdom is never to judge a book by its cover, but that's a lot of what we are going to do in this blog post! Do you ever judge a cookbook by its cover? The art director for the New York Times Book Review, Matt Dorfman, says:

When considering the book as a whole, I prefer that the interiors contain answers and the covers ask questions. To the extent that my favorite reading experiences empower me to confront uncomfortable truths and honest answers about people, societies and the greater universe, the covers that lure me into the pages often do so by posing questions that I don’t want to ignore.

However, he is not referencing cookbook covers particularly when he makes this statement. The Globe and Mail's Nathalie Atkinson is more on point for our purposes: "I appreciate good book design but don’t judge reads by their covers, generally – except with recipe books, because how they look is how they cook. And nothing captures the attitude and tone more than the cover."

Besides the covers themselves, there are other design trends at play inside cookbooks. Here's a few we've noted from some of the cookbooks we've found on the library shelves:


1) They eschew dust jackets for hardcovers, but many are bound with fabric, or something that resembles cloth (we could not find a source that confirmed that it was a fabric binding). The metallic lettering on the cover is also very popular.

2) Attractive lettering (sometimes in combination with sketches) is key.

From Fika: The Art of the Swedish Coffee Break, The Picnic: Recipes and Inspiration from Basket to Blanket, and What Katie Ate: Recipes and Other Bits and Pieces

3) They're casual. The chef might be at work, and the pictures are rustic. How do you feel about The Paleo Chef's bare feet on the cover of his book (below)?

From The Paleo Chef: Quick, Flavorful Paleo Meals for Eating Well, Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice Cream, and Smoke: New Firewood Cooking

4) The pictures are also vivid and vibrant, with some publishers opting to publish using "4-color [photography], with the photography-to-recipe ratio increased as well," sometimes a 1:1 recipe to photo ratio.

From Olives, Lemons & Za'atar: The Best Middle Eastern Home Cooking, Smoke, and Bought, Borrowed & Stolen: Recipes  & Knives From a Travelling Chef

5) The recipes contain unusual ingredients, or reclaim techniques your grandmother might have used regularly but are less widespread these days. Pickling is very popular.

From Smoke and What Katie Ate

6) They often spell out the directions with pictures.

From What Katie Ate and The Real Food Cookbook: Traditional Dishes for Modern Cooks

7) They share stories and inspiration.

From The Real Food Cookbook and The Homemade Kitchen: Recipes for Cooking With Pleasure

The blog Lottie + Doof finds some cookbook trends gimmicky:

The one place where the book falls short, is in its design. Though it is technically well-executed, it all feels pretty generic. The book looks too much like the type of food blogs that have become ubiquitous in recent years—weathered wood, rusty old spoons, and an over-abundance of crumbs. I think this style started off as a nod toward the authentic—cooking is messy and imperfect! Which was an understandable response to the high-gloss fakery of the food styling that preceded it. But through its over-use it has come to signify the inauthentic, it simply looks like trends—and tired trends, at that.  

Do you enjoy some of these new trends in cookbook design? Have you noticed any trends you particularly like or dislike? Are you more likely to admire a gorgeous cookbook than actually use it? Let us know in the comments!


Links

What Makes for a Brilliant Book Cover? A Master Explains [Wired]

The Original Poofy Cookbook Cover (And Why It's M.I.A.) [Food52]

Cookbook Covers on Pinterest

35 Beautiful Recipe Book Designs [Jayce-O-Yesta]