Respect to Book/Book Cover Designers

I was kind of surprised by the fact that the cover designers actually read the book and consider themselves "interpreters and translators." I kind of assumed designers got like a short summary of the plot and worked off of that because sometimes I don't like or understand the covers. The story of the Ottoman-court-painter-murder book being instilled into the experience of taking it out of the shelf surprised me because if I saw that cover I would probably think that it is just ugly and weird, so the talk made me want to appreciate covers more. I didn't really have any special respect for the profession before this Ted Talk.

I was also surprised by how much creativity went into the book jacket (e.g. for 1Q84). I feel like in my experience I remember being disappointed when I read hardcovers as a kid and took off the jacket because there was usually plain nothingness underneath. It made me want to read with the jacket on but of course that is a bit unpleasant. Also like all tankobons and in general Japanese books tend to not do anything with the jacket, I feel like.

I do remember this being one of my favorite book covers as a kid. The character pictured is recognizably the main character, who had been MIA up until this book. So seeing him again is a surprise that makes you want to read the book, and just look at it - he is in a crazy situation, which turns out to be one of the most climactic scenes in the book. So reading it and coming across the scene, and realizing "oh this is what the cover is!" and getting treated to a special visualization of what you are reading is a really fun experience.

Also this massive hardcover Nausicaa manga edition with beautiful cover designs. They made me want to buy them right away. Big beautiful books that look good on the shelf definitely inspire me strongly to purchase a book. I have so many of these sitting on my shelf that I haven't gotten to yet.

Joey