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News & ArtsMonday, November 24, 2008
Books Utilitarian, but Sexy!
Posted by Paul Constant on Mon, Nov 24, 2008 at 3:19 PM
This (horribly coded) blog has some reimagined classic sci-fi book jackets. These aren't actually going to be published—they're from all kinds of different publishers, and so the unified trade dress idea wouldn't really take off—but they're pretty gorgeous. Here are a few:
It'd be nice to have a collection of sci-fi books you weren't ashamed to be seen reading on the bus, wouldn't it?
2
Yeah, I really give a shit what people on the bus think of my reading selection. I crave their approval.
Maybe one day I will get a gold star from somebody really hip and cool!
Maybe one day I will get a gold star from somebody really hip and cool!
4
@2: Seriously. Although I often wonder why the people reading those Twilight books aren't embarrassed. I mean, really? Twilight? Seriously?
5
Shouldn't they Pynchon stick out some three inches above its mates? Granted it's next to the Murakami which is hefty in it's own right, but compared to Through the Looking Glass and Brave New World...
They sort of remind me of cheap French paperbacks.
They sort of remind me of cheap French paperbacks.
6
some science fiction is getting pretty old, couldn't Penguin Classics pick some of these up in 70 years or so. Woo public domain books
11
Buy used hardbacks and remove the dust jacket.
I am not crazy about these covers or am too stupid to understand them.
You can also check to see if The Library of America publishes some of the books you like. They just released two volumes of Philip K. Dick.
The covers for Penguin Classics, Vintage, and Random House are usually nice.
I am not crazy about these covers or am too stupid to understand them.
You can also check to see if The Library of America publishes some of the books you like. They just released two volumes of Philip K. Dick.
The covers for Penguin Classics, Vintage, and Random House are usually nice.
12
You certainly can't judge a book by those covers... the graphics seem totally unrelated to the contents. It looks like a brainstorming session for the home screen of an iPhone. What's Dune supposed to be, a battalion of sandworms?
Seeing graphics like these gathered together gives me a sense of how we'll caricature the iconography of the 00's, a decade from now.
Seeing graphics like these gathered together gives me a sense of how we'll caricature the iconography of the 00's, a decade from now.
13
Why would anyone be embarrassed to read most of those books? Bradbury, Orwell, Carroll, Vonnegut, Wells, Shelley. The horror.
16
Just about the only thing I'd be ashamed to be seen reading on a bus is porn.
Reading anything, including porn, is far preferable to screaming at the top of your lungs into your cell phone, or urinating on yourself.
Reading anything, including porn, is far preferable to screaming at the top of your lungs into your cell phone, or urinating on yourself.
17
Paul, you need to put some armor on for the bus. If somebody gives you the stink-eye for reading Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time Book IX: Nothing Actually Happens for 300 Pages, you stare back at them and say, "What is your problem? It's my own time I'm wasting with this giant tome."
18
BOOOOORING!!!!!
Give me the old-time covers like the following over those yawners any day:
http://www.philipkdick.com/covers/stigma…
http://www.philipkdick.com/covers/palmer…
http://www.philipkdick.com/covers/timesl…
Give me the old-time covers like the following over those yawners any day:
http://www.philipkdick.com/covers/stigma…
http://www.philipkdick.com/covers/palmer…
http://www.philipkdick.com/covers/timesl…
19
There's an incredible number of SF books I avoided for years because their covers were of cheesy space battles that were totally unrelated to the plot.
20
you're ashamed of covers like these?
http://people.uncw.edu/smithms/D-series/…
http://people.uncw.edu/smithms/D-series/…
http://people.uncw.edu/smithms/D-series/…
http://people.uncw.edu/smithms/D-series/…
i'm ashamed of you.
http://people.uncw.edu/smithms/D-series/…
http://people.uncw.edu/smithms/D-series/…
http://people.uncw.edu/smithms/D-series/…
http://people.uncw.edu/smithms/D-series/…
i'm ashamed of you.
22
Those covers make absolutely no sense to me. Except for Snow Crash, they have no relation to the book at all.
Can someone explain the point of these?
Can someone explain the point of these?
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