Book covers: Go ahead and judge

The industry is counting on it! Let’s give up our intellectual snobbery for a moment and admit it: We all judge books by their covers. Not exclusively, perhaps, but substantially—so substantially that there are entire departments in publishing houses filled with talented designers dedicated to turning stacks of paper into works of art. Voracious readers often roll their eyes at the sight of millennial-cool, color-coded bookshelves [à la The Wing]( not to mention the [GOOP-endorsed philosophy]( that it is totally fine to keep books in your bookshelf that you have not and likely will not read, based on what they look like, and the pleasure they give you as objects. But if words and images within the pages give books their value, covers transform them into something more. That something is the reason we like to display books in our homes, why furniture stores make sure their shelves have books ([or bookalikes]( or why selling books by the foot is a sustainable—[in fact, lucrative](. Let’s start a new chapter. 🐦 [Tweet this!]( 🌐 [View this email on the web]( [Quartz Weekly Obsession] Book covers November 25, 2020 Beautiful on the outside --------------------------------------------------------------- Let’s give up our intellectual snobbery for a moment and admit it: We all judge books by their covers. Not exclusively, perhaps, but substantially—so substantially that there are entire departments in publishing houses filled with talented designers dedicated to turning stacks of paper into works of art. Voracious readers often roll their eyes at the sight of millennial-cool, color-coded bookshelves [à la The Wing]( not to mention the [GOOP-endorsed philosophy]( that it is totally fine to keep books in your bookshelf that you have not and likely will not read, based on what they look like, and the pleasure they give you as objects. But if words and images within the pages give books their value, covers transform them into something more. That something is the reason we like to display books in our homes, why furniture stores make sure their shelves have books ([or bookalikes]( or why selling books by the foot is a sustainable—[in fact, lucrative](. Let’s start a new chapter. 🐦 [Tweet this!]( 🌐 [View this email on the web]( Origin story The world is full of books, and it keeps making more of them. A lot more. As [Stephen Hawking put it]( in his last—yes—book, “If you stacked the new books being published next to each other, at the present rate of production you would have to move at ninety miles an hour just to keep up with the end of the line.” For each of these books there’s a cover, from carefully designed to hastily thrown together, all to catch the reader’s, and hopefully buyer’s, eye. Books have been around for almost 2,000 years. For most of that time, they were hand-bound and covered in wood or leather, with fabric or paper book covers becoming common only towards the end of the 19th century. These new covers used design as decoration, instead of various types of embossed leather, metal, and stones. At the turn of the century, some of the world’s prominent artists designed covers that define styles still seen today. Consider Arthur Miller’s [Death of a Salesman]( designed by Joseph Hirsch in 1949. Or Truman Capote’s [In Cold Blood]( designed by S. Neil Fujita in 1966 and changed from red to burgundy on the author’s request (an old murder isn’t fit for bright red, Capote thought). David Pelham’s 1972 cover for [A Clockwork Orange]( which became far more iconic than the 1962 original. Or E. Michael Mitchell’s remarkable design of [The Catcher in the Rye]( cover, which J.D. Salinger notoriously refused to sign. For your judging pleasure --------------------------------------------------------------- The [Book Cover Archive]( collects some of the most remarkable book cover designs throughout the years. [Book Covers] Quotable “For Christ’s sake don’t give anyone that jacket you’re saving for me. I’ve written it into the book.” —F. Scott Fitzgerald in a letter to his publisher, upon seeing [Francis Cougat’s cover]( for The Great Gatsby, which he had yet to finish Europeana Pop quiz Who wrote the line that eventually became “don’t judge a book by its cover”? Agatha ChristieDaniel DefoeGeorge EliotEdwin Rolfe and Lester Fuller Correct. In the 1860 novel The Mill on the Floss, while discussing Daniel Defoe’s The History of the Devil, a character says, “It's a good binding, you see, and I thought they'd be all good books.” Incorrect. If your inbox doesn’t support this quiz, find the solution at bottom of email. Brief history [2nd century CE:]( The codex, a manuscript written on folded sheets of paper in a shape similar to today’s books, begins replacing the papyrus roll. Covers are introduced to protect the codex’s pages. [~700 CE:]( Date of the oldest preserved Western book cover, of the St Cuthbert Gospel, which is made of wood covered in goatskin. [1800s:]( Dust jackets, made of fabric or thin leather and often printed in gold, begin appearing as disposable covers of so-called gift books, which were often made of precious fabrics. The [earliest known]( is at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, and is a cover of an 1830s edition of Friendship’s Offering. [1820s:]( The advent of mechanical bookbinding makes it cheaper to make and print book covers. [1875:]( Dayton, Ohio-based Payne, Holden and Company starts making dust jackets to apply over schoolbook covers, to protect them. These jackets are sold separately from the book, and featured advertising on the back. [1920s:]( At the beginning of the 20th century, publishers begin to realize dust jackets—which eventually morphed into paperback covers, too—have a lot of potential to help a book stand out. From the 1920s on, covers become small works of design art, [reflecting art trends]( from [Art Deco]( to [Bauhaus]( to [Constructivism](. [1935:]( Penguin’s paperbacks, and their minimalist cover designs, bring “serious books” to the masses. Fun fact! The [original covers]( of Virginia Woolf’s books were designed by her sister, artist and fellow Bloomsbury Group member Vanessa Bell. The two had decided on the arrangement as children. Watch this! How one designer’s covers come to life --------------------------------------------------------------- Lynn Buckley, a cover designer at Penguin Random House talks about how she got into the business, where she gets her inspiration, and how many times it takes to get it right. When in doubt, ask the book’s characters what they would like. Reuters/Ed Harris take me down this 🐰 hole! Sometimes, book cover trends can uncover some ugly biases, such as the prevalence of [that one tree]( that adorns so many dust jackets of books about Africa. Or the covers of books by South Asian women, which “typically and generically depict saris, pan-Indian women’s faces, jewellery, henna-ed hands and feet, bodies and segments of bodies,” [writes Keele University lecturer Lisa Lau](. “These covers clearly signal particular types of books, or genres, rather than reflecting the content of each individual book. The covers also play to the gallery and tap into stereotypes of Indians and Indian cultures. They present a flattened, generic, pan-Indian womanhood, which supposedly stands for Indianness.” The way we 📚 now Book covers are fodder for creative business ideas. One such idea is selling books to quickly fill naked bookshelves—[Books by the Foot]( for instance, sells books for decorative purposes, ranging from [modern hardbacks]( for $19.99 a foot to precious binding, such as the 21-volume leather-bound Young Folks’ Library, retailing for $1,279.95. They have competition, too. [The Book Blunder]( will let you pick a foot of books in the color of your choice starting at $30. Companies such as Booth and Williams curate books to enhance your home and workspaces, with hand-picked selections of [cotton candy-colored books for girls]( (for $255), [turquoise kids books]( (for $139), a [khaki and crimson]( mix of mid-century books, and even [10 to 12 Havana paper-wrapped books for $99](. Some are pushing the concept further, like Thatcher Wine, author of [For the Love of Books: Designing and Curating a Home Library](. Wine’s company [Juniper Books]( sells classics and other books with covers designed so that the spines, combined, compose an image—and they will sell you just [the dust jackets]( if you already own the books. The company goes a step further: Want the spines of your book to compose a specific visual? It can be done. And if you want your e-reader to look more like a book, there are companies like [KleverCase]( who can help you make sure your tech passes for the real thing. 💡 Free business ideas! For the self-conscious: Fake intellectual covers to mask the potentially embarrassing self-help book you’re hoping will change your life on the subway. For the introverted: Fake covers that turn your gripping mystery into what looks like a philosophy tome, so no one sitting next to you on a plane feels the urge to strike up a conversation. For the frustrated: A cover that turns bright red and flashes your address when the person you’ve lent the book to has borrowed it for way too long. For the practical: Thin covers for slices of very long books that make them portable but you can also recombine to form the original spine when you put the slices together on a shelf. [An image showing The Power Broker ripped in half down the middle.]Intimidated by one of the most iconic tomes in nonfiction, Quartz executive editor Kira Bindrim decided to make it more manageable. (Kira Bindrim) Poll What do you do with a dust jacket while you’re reading? [Click here to vote]( Leave it where it is—what else would you do with it?Use the flaps as a bookmark.Take it off—I’m afraid it will get ruined otherwise.It’s 2020, dude. I don’t read paper books. Membership What about the cooking kind of books? --------------------------------------------------------------- In the last nine months, have you done any of the following: 🍜 Tried out an ambitious recipe 🥕 Purchased produce from a local farm or grocer 🎂 Found comfort in old episodes of cooking shows 👵 Called a family member to get a treasured recipe 🧘 Tried to find more sustainable ingredients If any of the changes in food habits are likely to outlast the pandemic, it’s the slow shift toward mindfulness. For those with the time and the income, being at home has encouraged a reckoning with the quality of the ingredients that make up their meals. Our latest field guide is all about [how we eat now](. [Treat your brain to a feast.]( 💬 let's talk! In our last poll about [electric planes]( 36% of you said you can’t handle a flight more than a few hours long, while 35% said you max out at eight. An intrepid 29% said you usually arrive on a different day than when you began. 😬 🤔 [What did you think of today’s email?](mailto:obsession%2Bfeedback@qz.com?cc=&subject=Thoughts%20about%20book%20covers%20&body=) 💡 [What should we obsess over next?](mailto:obsession%2Bideas@qz.com?cc=&subject=Obsess%20over%20this%20next.&body=) 🎲 [Show me a random Obsession]( Today’s email was written by [Annalisa Merelli]( whose favorite book cover is pictured below, edited by [Susan Howson]( and [Liz Webber]( and produced by [Jordan Weinstock](. The gif behind the poll question are snippets of Quartz book enthusiasts’ favorites. [facebook]( The correct answer to the quiz is George Eliot. Enjoying the Quartz Weekly Obsession? [Send this link]( to a friend! Want to advertise in the Quartz Weekly Obsession? Send us an email at ads@qz.com. Not enjoying it? No worries. [Click here]( to unsubscribe. Quartz | 675 Avenue of the Americas, 4th Fl | New York, NY 10011 | United States