1. Oh the Glory of It All" by Sean Wilsey, 2. A Fine Frenzy by Noel Woodin, 3. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close: A Novel by Jonathan Safran Foer, 4. The Crime Writer by Gregg Hurwitz, 5. The Giant Golden Book of Biology: An Introduction to the Science of Life by Gerald Ames/Charley Harper, 6. One Minute to Midnight by Michael Dobbs, 7. Sparkle and Spin: A Book about Word by Ann Rand, 8. This Is London by Miroslav Sasek, 9. Ruby by Francesca Lia Block, and 10. The Life Unlucky by Jordan Crane.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is such a beautiful book, I loved from the very first till the very last page. and indeed, the cover is also beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI should read those other books too, they all look so lovely.
i was just reading sasek's venice last night... :)
ReplyDeletemy sister bought the "This is London" and the "This is San Francisco" books for my son (she wanted him to see where his mom once lived and where his auntie lives now) and he adores reading them. I love having them on the shelf, they add a touch of something gorgeous to his room...
ReplyDeletethese days there's no reason for a book not to have a well designed cover! i found this site recently and thought it was cool. http://www.coverboom.com
ReplyDeleteI think that having a lovely cover is the most important thing for a book. (and dvd's and cd's as well) I love reading and going to a bookstore to find a new book is simply overwhelming. There are just too many to even look at. When I go to the book store there is typically not that much time to wander (except for rare occasions when you get trapped in the book store with your own leisurely time to flip through ever book and.... or wait, are those 'never' times?!??)
ReplyDeleteSo I generally head over to a random section and grab out books until I find a cover that I like.
The simple logic of it all is just too appealing.
But moving beyond that I really feel like the whole bookstore system doesn't quite work in general.
There are just so many books available today that for a bookstore to be successful (perhaps only in their eyes) they must take the economical approach: fit as many books as possible in this tiny space.
So then the buyer, who really just wants a good book, can only see the spines.
And the only way to really get a book without spending your entire day searching is to go in with a title in mind. you search it on the computer and find it and then leave.
How unromantic.
A book has to have the best cover to even stand a chance. Unless you are a lucky book featured on Oprah and now everyone wants to read you just because. (But even then, Oprah had to find the book somehow too, right?)
And after all that, maybe the book sucked.
At least it had a chance.