In a market that's now very commercially competitive, book designs do more than just catch our eye in a bookstore (physical or virtual). They tell us about the style, subject and genre of a story but also increasingly they can even point to who the publishers is - yes Penguin i'm talking about you.
Ebooks outsold Hardback in 2011 and to combat this we can now see a whole range of beautifully designed and produced books that just make you want to hold them, stroke them, put them on your bookshelf and admire them. As books should be.
My other Top Five:
Ebooks outsold Hardback in 2011 and to combat this we can now see a whole range of beautifully designed and produced books that just make you want to hold them, stroke them, put them on your bookshelf and admire them. As books should be.
November Covers
As Christmas fast approachess we have some beautiful and intriguing covers to tempt the money from our pockets. This month my eyes can't help but be drawn to Laini Taylor's Days Of Blood and Starlight [Hodder & Stoughton, HB]. Although looking back at Aprils top choice of The Wind Through The Keyhole I'm wondering if I just have a thing for covers featuring fire.
In amongst my Top 5 is Pratchett's The Compleat Ankh-Morpork; a guide to the city and its establishments. For any Discworld fan this book is an absolute must. It is beautifully made and designed with maps of the entire city that you can spend hours of your Christmas day pouring over. Perfect present material. Others making the grade are:
Top 5:
Hallucinations by Oliver Sacks [Picador, HB]
The Haunted Book by Jeremy Dyson [Canongate, HB]
The Compleat Ankh-Morpork by Terry Pratchett [Doubleday, HB]
Flight Behaviour by Barbara Kingsolver [Faber & Faber, HB]
Cruel Britannia by Ian Cobain [Portobello Books, HB]
October Covers
This month I was really taken with Thomas Keneally's The Daughters Of Mars
cover [Sceptre, HB]. The beautiful red poppies really make this come to
life and even if I wasn't partial to some well written historical
fiction by a Booker Prize winner, my hands would have still lifted this
from a bookstore and taken it home.
My other Top Five:
Red Notice by Andy McNab [Bantam Press, HB]
On The Map by Simon Garfield [Profile Books, HB]
Red Country by Joe Abercrombie [Gollancz, HB]
Back To Blood by Tom Wolfe [Jonathan Cape, HB]
The Twelve by Justin Cronin [Orion, HB]
September Covers
Without question my favourite cover this month is Grimm Tales: For young and Old by Philip Pullman [Penguin, HB] due to the beautiful Red Riding Hood and The Wolf paper sculptures. In my opinion you can't really beat a paper sculpted book cover but here are a few that tried:
The Sacrifice by Charlie Higson [Puffin, HB]
Merivel: A Man of His Time by Rose Tremain [Chato & Windus, HB]
Unknown Pleasures: Inside Joy Division by Peter Hook [Andrews McMeel, HB]
1356 by Bernard Cornwell [HarperCollins, HB]
Live and Let Die by Ian Fleming [Vintage Classics, PB]
August Covers
There are some great books with covers to match this month, the latest installment from Tess Gerritsen jumped into my hands as soon as I saw it and the wonderful Umbrella has been longlisted for the Booker Prize. The adult version of The Rise of Nine gives a striking new image to the Lorien Legacies, as the series tries to round up those stray, empty handed, Hunger Games readers.
Grabbing my eye the most this month was Toby's Room by Pat Barker [Hamish Hamilton, HB]
My other Top five are:
Last to Die by Tess Gerritsen [Bantam Press, HB]
Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire [Simon & Schuster, PB]
The Rise of Nine by Pittacus Lore [Penguin, HB]
Bones are Forever by Kathy Reichs [William Heinemann, HB]
Umbrella by Will Self [Bloomsbury, HB]
April Covers
This month has literally been showered with great covers [yeah, it has been raining a lot. Can we stop tweeting about it now?]. So it was a tough choice, but i think the wonderful concept of Free Will was scorched from my mind by the flames of Mr King. I mean come on just look at it...
How could you miss The Wind Through The Keyhole [Hodder & Stoughton, HB] by Stephen King on a shelf? You just couldn't.
Some other stand out covers are:
- Free Will by Sam Harris [The Free Press, PB]
- Sacrilege by S.J. Parris [HarperCollins, HB]
- Fifty Shades Darker by E L James [Arrow, PB]
- Stonemouth by Iain Banks [Little, Brown, HB]
-The Key by Simon Toyne [HarperCollins, HB]
March Covers
The stand out star for me is this striking cover for The Boy Who Fell to Earth by Kathy Lette. This beautiful hardback by Bantam Press incorporates characters and themes of the story into the type of the title, which is a great design feature.
Some of my other choice covers are:
- Revenge of the Tide by Elizabeth Haynes [Myriad Editions, PB]
- Good as Dead by Mark Billingham [Sphere, PB]
- Infamous by Sherrilyn Kenyon [Atom, PB]
- Wonder by R J Palacio [Bodley Head, HB]
- Itch by Simon Mayo [Doubleday Childrens, HB]
