Favourite book covers

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/ca/FireTime(1stEd).jpg/200px-FireTime(1stEd).jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b1/ManWhoWentUpInSmoke.JPG/175px-ManWhoWentUpInSmoke.JPG

http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/bd/93/6664c060ada0174654788110.L._SL500_AA240_.jpg

Really noticing the Panther editions of Genet and Moravia bks lately:

http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/ciu/62/df/04ec36c622a0cb59ad9eb110.L._SL500_AA240_.jpg

Not sure I'd call it a favourite, but this cover for William Trevor's now disowned first novel is certainly eye-catching.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2481/3840588509_c3ec0e3647.jpg

Always liked this cover and that corresponding ones of the other two books from back when I was a nipper, I guess because they were innocent and menacing at the same time, in an abstract kind of way.
http://www.corrupt.org/drupal/files/images/the_city_of_gold_and_lead.jpg

Now this is a blurb:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2555/4054465772_d58c8403a6_o.jpg

http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1219399875m/277017.jpg
'Nose-diving the City', wish I could afford the original, which is in some museum in Italy.

http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/ciu/d2/d5/0c3336c622a0b2ea56a33110.L._SL500_AA240_.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/37/The_Muller-Fokker_Effect.JPG/200px-The_Muller-Fokker_Effect.JPG

http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/ae/af/b2b8810ae7a0c880643c9110.L._SL500_AA240_.jpg

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/415f2jZj5ML._SL500_AA240_.jpg

http://media.us.macmillan.com/jackets/500H/9780374520908.jpg

http://www.papamedia.com/imgbooks/large/0878300791.jpg

Love this cover for the Dutch version of The Judas Window

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4142/4855292547_07dfe65708_b.jpg

from here btw.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_UV5NKCuhIRM/TEptakhS3vI/AAAAAAAAAHk/OTG9l5DNolQ/s1600/thousand-autumns-of-jacob-de-zoet.jpg

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b74/righteouskate/recognitions.jpg
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b74/righteouskate/thatmanbryce.jpg

One of our meeting rooms (I work in a library) has posters of some "iconic" Penguin covers, mostly 50s and 60s - not sure if I'd recognise many of them as the definitive cover personally, and I don't think any of the ones I've read came in the same cover, but the posters are pretty great, I like that meeting room.

(posters are from these guys, according to the note I wrote in a previous meeting. I must've been concentrating really hard, as I jotted down that URL and "brodie/huxley/catcher/brighton rock/WOTW", compared to 6 words on the actual meeting)

http://img1.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n30/n154152.jpg

I think of this as totally iconic:
http://www.philipkdick.com/covers/dadoesbr.jpg

and was surprised to learn it wasn't the original US cover, which I guess disqualifies it from real icon status. That is the UK first edition, though.

I am tempted to get this poster of Fontana covers
http://8.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kvt2kapqni1qz7nxjo1_500.jpg

not sure if I'd recognise many of them as the definitive cover personally

Me too, but wow, that Shakespeare one is deeply evocative of school for me xps

Notice that Pound doesn't get one of the more swastikarish ones, but Trotsky does xp

that one of the fish telling secrets made me lol irl for some reason.

xp: that gaddis book cover freaked me the eff out when I saw it and I couldn't stop looking at it for days after it was in my possession. Now it's so familiar I think I'll go through a little mourning period when it leaves my bed side table.

Also lol Nietzsche xp

I wish I had that edition of The Recognitions. I have the black Penguin Classics one which I like less.

Notice that Pound doesn't get one of the more swastikarish ones, but Trotsky does xp

Comrade Vyshinsky has exposed the traitor Trotsky's villainous ties with the Hitlerite power in open court! Long live Stalin! Long live Yezhov Beria!

Marcuse, Laing, Reich, Fanon, Gramsci... very much of its time.

Love that Gaddis. I saw it just after I finished reading my library's copy (they have the pink one) so I didn't bother but I really should have.

Covers of Lanark

i really dislike book covers with inset pictures, especially ones where the aspect ratio of the picture is opposite from the book (sideways rather than tall). i wish the paperback 'against the day' were designed like the hardcover.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61ETZX3MAHL.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CVaa1wLU4AAwZSw.jpg

him sad

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/P/B017Y39XB2.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg
him not

I had to collect more of that company's output: the best (of many, many awful covers); http://causticcovercritic.blogspot.com.au/2015/12/monkeys-throwing-faeces.html

First one is more like The Bros Karamazov, amirite?

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41oJvLdChAL._SX311_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

classic tale of life in the trenches

haha oh man i'm enjoying your blog, James

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_hvV0JHPYX_I/SoUAgIJnbgI/AAAAAAAAF9w/3pduBgcpkA8/s400/wizard+oz.jpg

:) thanks

Love that blog as well, just lolled at Thomas Hardy series.

They are quite astonishing

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/47/AmericanPsychoBook.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/33/TheThreeStigmataOfPalmerEldritch(1stEd).jpg

There are some interesting soviet book covers here http://www.openculture.com/2016/01/download-650-soviet-book-covers-many-sporting-wonderful-avant-garde-designs-1917-1942.html

Actually, maybe this link is better http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2016/01/07/russian-book-jackets-from-the-1930s/

Wow--thanks for the link, some beautiful things there

Yeah, some cool stuff. Maybe too much to look through...

oh, this saved me having to start a new thread, thanks Jerry

can't decide whether this is good or bad
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Meylr9rEL._SY346_.jpg

(penguin edition of The Honourable Schoolboy in case that disappears)

Wish le Carre had called a book 'A Gripping Plot of Devilish Complexity'

Just on a functional level, it's bad not good

it’s terrible

it's one of a set and they hark back to graphic designs of some earlier versions, which pleases me.

https://www.penguin.co.uk/series/smiley/the-smiley-collection.html

(one of these things is not like the others... in fact there's a whole nother series with those pale blue covers, identical apart from the book name)

(penguin website run by penguins judging by the speed of it)