I like this one be/c it's simple and the drawing of the woman is something Bukowski did himself.
I wonder how much input the author has on what's going to be on the cover. Does the publisher have the ultimate say?
(And an aside about album covers, check out these bad ones. Makes me wish authors would feature themselves on their own covers in an embarrassing/dated set-up.)
― Vermont Girl (Vermont Girl), Wednesday, 5 May 2004 10:28 (nineteen years ago) link
― Gregory Henry (Gregory Henry), Wednesday, 5 May 2004 10:54 (nineteen years ago) link
― Gregory Henry (Gregory Henry), Wednesday, 5 May 2004 10:57 (nineteen years ago) link
My girlfriend works for the company, so we have lots of these sort of things.
― Mikey G (Mikey G), Wednesday, 5 May 2004 12:03 (nineteen years ago) link
http://www.thebluehammer.com/images/fathers.jpg
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Wednesday, 5 May 2004 12:10 (nineteen years ago) link
Like the cover of Clive Barker's Coldheart Canyon? A terrible book with a terribly fey black and white photo of Clive on the cover. Not as the author photo, but as the cover. Naff.
― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Wednesday, 5 May 2004 12:23 (nineteen years ago) link
― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 5 May 2004 12:36 (nineteen years ago) link
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Wednesday, 5 May 2004 12:40 (nineteen years ago) link
Actually, the title was a mistake. When the book came back from the typesetter, it had on the cover "Massage" as it still does. The title should have read "The Medium is the Message" but the typesetter had made an error. When Marshall McLuhan saw the typo he exclaimed, "Leave it alone! It's great, and right on target!" Now there are four possible readings for the last word of the title, all of them accurate: "Message" and "Mess Age," "Massage" and "Mass Age."”
― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 5 May 2004 12:45 (nineteen years ago) link
http://members.home.nl/wolthuis/sal3.jpg
some of the best covers are those pulp paperback covers from the 50's for serious lit books. They tried really hard to make Camus sexy.
― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 5 May 2004 12:54 (nineteen years ago) link
Goblin Market! Yeah, well I used to be a goth.
― Mikey G (Mikey G), Wednesday, 5 May 2004 12:56 (nineteen years ago) link
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Wednesday, 5 May 2004 13:08 (nineteen years ago) link
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
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b1/ManWhoWentUpInSmoke.JPG/175px-ManWhoWentUpInSmoke.JPG
― jØrdån (omar little), Monday, 26 October 2009 20:51 (fourteen years ago) link
http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/bd/93/6664c060ada0174654788110.L._SL500_AA240_.jpg
― jØrdån (omar little), Monday, 26 October 2009 20:52 (fourteen years ago) link
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
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 26 October 2009 20:58 (fourteen years ago) link
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
― When two tribes go to war, he always gets picked last (James Morrison), Monday, 26 October 2009 22:30 (fourteen years ago) link
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
― When Baron Saturday Comes (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 27 October 2009 13:53 (fourteen years ago) link
Now this is a blurb:http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2555/4054465772_d58c8403a6_o.jpg
― When two tribes go to war, he always gets picked last (James Morrison), Thursday, 29 October 2009 00:23 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― Carl, Tuesday, 8 December 2009 21:33 (fourteen years ago) link
http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/ciu/d2/d5/0c3336c622a0b2ea56a33110.L._SL500_AA240_.jpghttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/37/The_Muller-Fokker_Effect.JPG/200px-The_Muller-Fokker_Effect.JPG
― HUH? not appropriate (snoball), Tuesday, 8 December 2009 21:42 (fourteen years ago) link
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
― Action Orientation (Eazy), Wednesday, 9 December 2009 14:08 (fourteen years ago) link
Love this cover for the Dutch version of The Judas Window
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4142/4855292547_07dfe65708_b.jpg
― Hide the prickforks (GamalielRatsey), Friday, 6 August 2010 13:24 (thirteen years ago) link
from here btw.
― Hide the prickforks (GamalielRatsey), Friday, 6 August 2010 13:27 (thirteen years ago) link
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_UV5NKCuhIRM/TEptakhS3vI/AAAAAAAAAHk/OTG9l5DNolQ/s1600/thousand-autumns-of-jacob-de-zoet.jpg
― Eggs, Peaches, Hot Dogs, Lamb (remy bean), Friday, 6 August 2010 13:28 (thirteen 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)