these are some of my favourite book cover designs

with most book covers, the cover designs are completely "divorced" from the actual narratives. it is like the book is trying to say "i am really cool, just look at how cool i am", but when you read the book you feel as though you have been tricked, because the book cover was just a sham, just an advertisement to lure you in. it is as though the publishing house thinks that the front cover is a billboard, so it hires a marketing team to find out what will lure the most people in. like a mcdonalds ad.

but then, rarely, with some books, the cover seems to be an attempt by the designer to actual enhance the story, by making the cover an actual part of the book.
with those sort of books, books with interesting covers, i sometimes read a paragraph of the book, and then turn to the front cover of the book and look at the front cover and think "hmmm" and smile or frown or something.

(the photograph looks really good and grainy, and feels grainy, it is also funny because it is as though you are opening the woman's head open whenever you read the book. it is also melodramatic, i think sarcastically... the woman also seems to be smiling a bit).


(i would read this book and think "mcsweeneys, mcsweeneys" over and over [because the artist is the same artist as from "the believer"], which would affect my reaction to the book in a good way, because i would have a preconception that the stories would be well-meaning and slightly "politically liberal").


(i just like this. it is bright yellow and just nice. miranda july knows that people who read her stuff don't want pictures on the covers, because they want purity. miranda july knows that it would be condescending to put a picture or elaborate design on her cover because it would alienate the reader a little or something).


(the cover is abstract, which is good. it makes it so that you can not have any preconceptions before you start reading. it would have been easy for the publisher to put a depressing or amusing picture on the cover, or a picture of two people, or something, to imply that the book is sort of depressing and amusing and about relationships. but that would feel "wrong". it would be like watching a tv show with a laugh track, because it would pressure the reader into approaching the stories with certain preconceptions - i.e. "the front cover is amusing, so the stories must be amusing". the front cover is abstract, you can read it in a lot of different ways, just like the stories, or something. you can see different things at different times. i like the cover).


(i just like this. it is like pop art or something. whatever, i like it).


(the front cover seems to remind me of chelsey minnis' poems, i can't really explain it. maybe the repetition and the funny layout. i like it).