Saturday, November 21, 2009

Judging books by their covers & whatever else

I was catching up on one of my favorite blogs-Awful Library Books when in the comments on a book not about clowns but with clowns skiing on the cover I came across a reference to a publishing house that piqued my interest: Tutis Publishing.

If you went ahead & hit the ALB link, you know that Tutis uses public domain art on their digital cover art, in many a random way.  My first visit to the site revealed this gem front & center:

I am not familiar with the translation of Homer that ties into bi-polar disorder, epilepsy, Ménière's disease or whatever-the-hell Van Gogh had, but I highly recommend every high school in the americas get their hands on a copy; bored students everywhere are ready to hear this version of the death of Achilles.  Also, I would imagine there is no more trying to tell the Ajax apart because they are probably the same guy with a split personality.

Just for fun I did a search on Jane Eyre.  & the second item to come up (the first was indeed Jane Eyre) was Persuasion.  You know - by Jane Austen.  Because Charlotte Bronte & Jane Austen are both...? Listed 3rd was another book by Jane Austen; 4th - Persuasion again.  With a different cover.  Did I mention the first cover?  It featured a couple in renaissance dress on a garden bench, the man appearing to plead with the woman.  Why would anyone want to top that?  Even if they did lay their hands on a different translation?  Am I the only one who did not know Jane Austen had to be translated into english? Or that Persuasion was about one of the three musketeers, if he were a ships captain?

There was no place left to go but the self-help section, where I found four books:

The Art of Public Speaking by Dale Carnegie with a microphone on the cover
Quit Your Worrying! by George Wharton James with a pea flower on the cover
Talks on Talking by Grenville Kleiser with foldling chairs in an open-air amphitheatre/lawn type place on the cover & last but not least
How to Succeed by Orison Swett Marden with an eagle tearing apart a snake.  Or is it a two-different-headed dragon?

Success is overrated.

1 comment:

  1. How funny! Thanks. I'll check this out. On a sort of related note, when did almost all book covers, (except oddly enough, trashy fantasy) begin to be altered or collaged photos instead of paintings? It's not a bad thing, but it happened w/o my really noticing until it was done.

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