Not a book cover exactly, but this has fascinated me since I was a child.
― Michael White (Hereward), Wednesday, 5 May 2004 13:17 (nineteen years ago) link
― Jocelyn (Jocelyn), Wednesday, 5 May 2004 13:23 (nineteen years ago) link
― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 5 May 2004 13:27 (nineteen years ago) link
http://www.strangesisters.com/
great collection of lesbian pulp fiction paperback covers
― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 5 May 2004 13:34 (nineteen years ago) link
― Jocelyn (Jocelyn), Wednesday, 5 May 2004 13:34 (nineteen years ago) link
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0812567102.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Wednesday, 5 May 2004 13:41 (nineteen years ago) link
― Jocelyn (Jocelyn), Wednesday, 5 May 2004 13:42 (nineteen years ago) link
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Wednesday, 5 May 2004 13:51 (nineteen years ago) link
Makes me wonder if Wuthering Height is the canonized book to have the highest percentage of really terrible covers.
― Øystein H-O (Øystein H-O), Wednesday, 5 May 2004 14:22 (nineteen years ago) link
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/2264019182.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
― Mikey G (Mikey G), Wednesday, 5 May 2004 14:26 (nineteen years ago) link
http://www.fantascienza.com/catalogo/Cover/Y1574.jpg
The book itself I couldn't get through.
― Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 5 May 2004 15:32 (nineteen years ago) link
In part, because they keep messing with book covers. For me, there's only one true cover of this book:
http://www3.cerritos.edu/fquaas/graphics/catcher.gif
...and it's iconic -- at least for me. But that's just the edition that was around when I was growing up; I've talked to other people who thought other editions were the iconic edition and mine was some johnny-come-lately.
(Another book that I'm not at all fond of. Maybe I'll need to find some that I actually like.)
― Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 5 May 2004 15:35 (nineteen years ago) link
― Gregory Henry (Gregory Henry), Wednesday, 5 May 2004 16:56 (nineteen years ago) link
― Fred, Wednesday, 5 May 2004 17:24 (nineteen years ago) link
― tokyo rosemary (rosemary), Wednesday, 5 May 2004 21:12 (nineteen years ago) link
― tokyo rosemary (rosemary), Wednesday, 5 May 2004 21:14 (nineteen years ago) link
― slow learner (slow learner), Thursday, 6 May 2004 00:01 (nineteen years ago) link
http://www.granarybooks.com/books/clay/cover.jpg
The book's cover is not bad but inside it has replicas of all sorts of fantistic "lo fi" book covers.
― Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 6 May 2004 05:48 (nineteen years ago) link
― Archel (Archel), Thursday, 6 May 2004 08:57 (nineteen years ago) link
http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B00008NUX2.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Thursday, 6 May 2004 13:24 (nineteen years ago) link
As an aside and being a sucker for free advertising, I should point out (as the girlfriend who works for Mitchell Beazley) we do also have some other splendid titles of a similar ilk - Magazine Covers, Front Cover, Album covers and Hip Hop Cover Art (with the rather splendid if slightly incomprehensible quote from Eminem "This book is like a walk down hip hop memory lane. Brings back memories of myself coming up." If anyone can explain quite what that means, we'd be grateful ...)
― Cathryn (Cathryn), Thursday, 6 May 2004 14:38 (nineteen years ago) link
― mookieproof (mookieproof), Thursday, 6 May 2004 20:04 (nineteen years ago) link
http://peacecorpsonline.org/messages/jpeg/mating.jpg
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/1573222135.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Saturday, 8 May 2004 07:58 (nineteen years ago) link
As far as covers go, I've bought books for that reason only, especially in England. I have a paperback of Virginia Woolf's short stories that comes to mind--a vase of flowers on a table in an empty hallway--got to dig that out and read some of those stories again. Much more accessible than her novels.
― Carol Robinson (carrobin), Friday, 14 May 2004 21:33 (nineteen years ago) link
http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/0375507507.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
― mookieproof (mookieproof), Sunday, 30 May 2004 20:24 (nineteen years ago) link
― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 15:01 (nineteen years ago) link
http://www.goreyography.com/west/paper/paper01.htm
― Mr. Jaggers, Wednesday, 8 September 2004 15:50 (nineteen years ago) link
― Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 16:00 (nineteen years ago) link
― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 16:59 (nineteen years ago) link
― Fred (Fred), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 18:50 (nineteen years ago) link
or these:http://posters.barnesandnoble.com/collection.asp?userid=eu15Ex0ATv&PID=61004
or these:http://posters.barnesandnoble.com/collection.asp?userid=eu15Ex0ATv&PID=61009
― Michael Furey, Wednesday, 8 September 2004 19:44 (nineteen years ago) link
― Collardio Gelatinous (collardio), Thursday, 9 September 2004 22:26 (nineteen years ago) link
― Collardio Gelatinous (collardio), Thursday, 9 September 2004 22:28 (nineteen years ago) link
Sorry, trial and error here.
― Collardio Gelatinous (collardio), Thursday, 9 September 2004 22:31 (nineteen years ago) link
― derrick (derrick), Friday, 10 September 2004 06:18 (nineteen years ago) link
― Casuistry (Chris P), Friday, 10 September 2004 07:03 (nineteen years ago) link
― Øystein H-O (Øystein H-O), Friday, 10 September 2004 07:52 (nineteen years ago) link
They still won't give me a job though, the fuckers.
Funny, that Ariel cover that nobody likes is a good seller in our shop. I can usually price that cover a euro or even two higher than other copies of the same book and have it sell quite comfortably. I think it has art student appeal.
― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Friday, 10 September 2004 13:05 (nineteen years ago) link
― Casuistry (Chris P), Friday, 10 September 2004 14:57 (nineteen years ago) link
― Fred (Fred), Friday, 10 September 2004 17:56 (nineteen years ago) link
― erik, Sunday, 12 September 2004 21:26 (nineteen years ago) link
― mookieproof (mookieproof), Monday, 13 September 2004 15:25 (nineteen years ago) link
― Archel (Archel), Thursday, 16 September 2004 07:45 (nineteen years ago) link
― Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 16 September 2004 15:44 (nineteen years ago) link
― Archel (Archel), Thursday, 16 September 2004 15:48 (nineteen years ago) link
― Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 16 September 2004 15:58 (nineteen years ago) link
― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Thursday, 16 September 2004 17:50 (nineteen years ago) link
― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Friday, 15 October 2004 19:45 (nineteen years ago) link
― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 20 October 2004 21:32 (nineteen years ago) link
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b74/righteouskate/recognitions.jpghttp://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b74/righteouskate/thatmanbryce.jpg
― peacocks, Friday, 6 August 2010 14:40 (thirteen years ago) link
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)
― rah rah rah wd smash the oiks (a passing spacecadet), Friday, 6 August 2010 15:14 (thirteen years ago) link
http://img1.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n30/n154152.jpg
― Janet Privacy Control (corey), Friday, 6 August 2010 15:20 (thirteen years ago) link
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.
― rah rah rah wd smash the oiks (a passing spacecadet), Friday, 6 August 2010 15:20 (thirteen years ago) link
I am tempted to get this poster of Fontana covershttp://8.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kvt2kapqni1qz7nxjo1_500.jpg
― Stevie T, Friday, 6 August 2010 15:21 (thirteen years ago) link
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
― Chaim Poutine (NickB), Friday, 6 August 2010 15:21 (thirteen years ago) link
Notice that Pound doesn't get one of the more swastikarish ones, but Trotsky does xp
― Chaim Poutine (NickB), Friday, 6 August 2010 15:23 (thirteen years ago) link
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.
― peacocks, Friday, 6 August 2010 15:23 (thirteen years ago) link
Also lol Nietzsche xp
― Chaim Poutine (NickB), Friday, 6 August 2010 15:24 (thirteen years ago) link
I wish I had that edition of The Recognitions. I have the black Penguin Classics one which I like less.
― franny glass, Friday, 6 August 2010 15:42 (thirteen years ago) link
Comrade Vyshinsky has exposed the traitor Trotsky's villainous ties with the Hitlerite power in open court! Long live Stalin! Long live Yezhov Beria!
― alimosina, Friday, 6 August 2010 16:40 (thirteen years ago) link
Marcuse, Laing, Reich, Fanon, Gramsci... very much of its time.
― alimosina, Friday, 6 August 2010 16:45 (thirteen years ago) link
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.
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 6 August 2010 20:38 (thirteen years ago) link
Covers of Lanark
― alimosina, Friday, 6 August 2010 21:34 (thirteen years ago) link
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.
― j., Saturday, 7 August 2010 02:20 (thirteen years ago) link
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61ETZX3MAHL.jpg
― Humean froth (Sanpaku), Thursday, 10 December 2015 07:44 (eight years ago) link
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CVaa1wLU4AAwZSw.jpg
him sad
― mookieproof, Thursday, 10 December 2015 19:13 (eight years ago) link
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/P/B017Y39XB2.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpghim not
― as verbose and purple as a Peter Ustinov made of plums (James Morrison), Thursday, 10 December 2015 22:32 (eight years ago) link
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
― as verbose and purple as a Peter Ustinov made of plums (James Morrison), Thursday, 10 December 2015 23:00 (eight years ago) link
First one is more like The Bros Karamazov, amirite?
― Fetty Wap Is Strong In Here (cryptosicko), Friday, 11 December 2015 00:16 (eight years ago) link
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41oJvLdChAL._SX311_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg
classic tale of life in the trenches
― mookieproof, Friday, 11 December 2015 00:33 (eight years ago) link
haha oh man i'm enjoying your blog, James
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_hvV0JHPYX_I/SoUAgIJnbgI/AAAAAAAAF9w/3pduBgcpkA8/s400/wizard+oz.jpg
― lute bro (brimstead), Friday, 11 December 2015 01:35 (eight years ago) link
:) thanks
― as verbose and purple as a Peter Ustinov made of plums (James Morrison), Friday, 11 December 2015 22:43 (eight years ago) link
Love that blog as well, just lolled at Thomas Hardy series.
― Thank you very much, you've got a Lucky Wilbury (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 12 December 2015 00:02 (eight years ago) link
They are quite astonishing
― as verbose and purple as a Peter Ustinov made of plums (James Morrison), Saturday, 12 December 2015 02:16 (eight years ago) link
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/47/AmericanPsychoBook.jpg
― flappy bird, Friday, 18 December 2015 23:03 (eight years ago) link
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
― inside, skeletons are always inside, that's obvious. (dowd), Saturday, 16 January 2016 03:28 (eight years ago) link
Actually, maybe this link is better http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2016/01/07/russian-book-jackets-from-the-1930s/
― inside, skeletons are always inside, that's obvious. (dowd), Saturday, 16 January 2016 03:29 (eight years ago) link
Wow--thanks for the link, some beautiful things there
― James Morrison, Saturday, 16 January 2016 06:43 (eight years ago) link
Yeah, some cool stuff. Maybe too much to look through...
― inside, skeletons are always inside, that's obvious. (dowd), Sunday, 17 January 2016 15:25 (eight years ago) link
oh, this saved me having to start a new thread, thanks Jerry
can't decide whether this is good or badhttps://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Meylr9rEL._SY346_.jpg
― koogs, Tuesday, 19 January 2021 11:47 (three years ago) link
(penguin edition of The Honourable Schoolboy in case that disappears)
― koogs, Tuesday, 19 January 2021 11:54 (three years ago) link
Wish le Carre had called a book 'A Gripping Plot of Devilish Complexity'
Just on a functional level, it's bad not good
― J.G Ballard otm (Bananaman Begins), Tuesday, 19 January 2021 12:41 (three years ago) link
it’s terrible
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 19 January 2021 14:26 (three years ago) link
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)
― koogs, Tuesday, 19 January 2021 22:23 (three years ago) link
(penguin website run by penguins judging by the speed of it)