Biblio Reviews

Great book design can be said to achieve two things: they announce and brand themselves. Some become Jurassic Park level iconic, with the book's cover art replicated in their paperback and international editions, and even movie posters--if the book is successful enough to capture Hollywood's attention. They're the type of covers that you can't imagine being anything other than what they are, though I have liked another cover of  Educated  (2018) that I think also captures the essence of the story (not the one with a childhood photograph of Westover on a swing).  Below are a sampling of favorite book cover designs, along with my reflections of a few of them.              I hope that whoever was involved in the design of Shusterman's Arc of the Scythe  book series received an award. Everything about those book covers bring joy: the paper on which they're printed, the graphic but simple nature of the image, the typography, the co...

There's something to be said about book covers: Well done, they elevate the greatness of a book; poorly done, they intensify the disappointment in a not-so-great book. While there is wisdom in the adage, "Don't judge a book by its cover," there's also the reality that first impressions matter. I have no degree and have never taken any courses on design, so I lack the technical language to describe why a design works or does not work for me. Still, I find myself examining and critiquing various aspect of design that converge into a good book cover: color, layout, typeface, artwork, creativity, and originality. My willingness to buy the e-reader vs. the physical or paperback vs. hardcover copy of a book is entirely dependent on the cover. There are some book covers that I appreciate as pure art and find them worthy of being framed and displayed. (e.g., Neil Shusterman's Arc of a Scythe  series).  For this reason, I love when a book's cover entices me, f...