With a bit of an amazon credit I treated myself and bought Chip Kidd's new book on jacket design. It had that whole guilty pleasure idea written all over it, but really it's a very fascinating look at the publishing/book design relationship. Although it might not win me any fans to admit this, I have, on many many occasions, picked up a book solely because of its cover. I do not purchase because of this, but I do pick it up and give it a long look, which is really half the battle. The covers pique my interest and then once the book has me, I make my decision from there. So many wonderful books never even get that far though - they never rise above the mess on the shelves and get that long, thoughtful look from a reader.
The first thing I noticed about Kuhaku was the unique design - it practically screamed at me from the shelf. Of course I was in an independent bookstore where this small press title was on the new books display (crazy idea in B&N or Borders), but I looked over everything around it and settled on the color, the size, the shape of this one gorgeous book. And then I read what it was about, glanced through a page or two of the introduction, and the rest is history. Design is partly what I enjoy so much about Chin Music Press - that they are willing to put thought into the whole package and make the book a larger, more artistic experience. Don't get me wrong - the words still matter more than anything, but it is nice to look at a book cover and see something beautiful, something unique. It's nice to see something more.
So, Chip Kidd's book is highly recommended. Every month at Bookslut we run a very interesting feature on judging a book by its cover and I enjoy reading it. We might all want to insist that we are above such shallow lures, but really we aren't - at least for a moment or two. Chip's book is wonderful to read and look at and it shows the care that some designers put into making those covers so tempting. At least now when I pick up a gorgeous book and then decide against it after giving it a closer look, I will still be able to appreciate that someone did a good job putting it together. It might not always be the author, but at least someone was thinking of the reader.
