tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20433842.post3186100867999276301..comments2024-03-07T12:57:35.296-05:00Comments on Varieties of Unreligious Experience: How to judge a bookConrad H. Rothhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01916542057749474124noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20433842.post-71044019652222136392008-08-15T16:33:00.000-04:002008-08-15T16:33:00.000-04:00If the covers I speak of were indeed by Matisse, I...If the covers I speak of were indeed by Matisse, I could tolerate a certain discrepancy in subject matter. <I>Sed quod licet Iovi non licet bovi.</I>John Cowanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11452247999156925669noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20433842.post-51095500188063184102008-08-06T23:45:00.000-04:002008-08-06T23:45:00.000-04:00There are so many covers that I love, but two in p...There are so many covers that I love, but two in particular stand out. The first is the 1930 Random House edition of Moby-Dick with Rockwell Kent's macho-moderne, but still beautiful, illustrations. I believe he actually designed the entire book & not just the 270 illustrations.(Which might explain the absence of Melville's name on the cover…) I was too lazy to google the cover but it's easy to find if one wants to look. The other is Chipp Kidd's design for the first American hard-bound edition of "The Wind-up Bird Chronicles" by Haruki Murakami.<BR/><BR/>http://www.designrelated.com/inspiration/view/JRGabbert/entry/1587<BR/><BR/>(The best it that if one flips the novel like a flip book, the page numbers move around the perimeter of the text…)<BR/>I suppose the appeal here for me is that both books are a complete package that encompasses the entire book-as-object. Here one can judge the book (visually at least) by the cover.M.W. Noldenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09196301119957236731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20433842.post-37244762371790446352008-07-30T15:06:00.000-04:002008-07-30T15:06:00.000-04:00Very impressive, thanks!Very impressive, thanks!Conrad H. Rothhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01916542057749474124noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20433842.post-62764249873964186412008-07-30T11:38:00.000-04:002008-07-30T11:38:00.000-04:00Damisella Trivulzia, from Bergomensis, De Claris M...<A HREF="http://books.google.com/books?id=V6EEAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA2-PA77&lpg=RA2-PA77&dq=damisella+trivulzia" REL="nofollow">Damisella Trivulzia</A>, from <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giacomo_Filippo_Foresti" REL="nofollow">Bergomensis</A>, <I>De Claris Mulieribus</I>, Ferrara 1497. No online full-book scans, but the Japanese site in the Wikipedia's footnotes has a (different) leaf. Couple more illustrations <A HREF="http://books.google.com/books?id=bIMEAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA156&lpg=PA156&dq=%22de+claris+mulieribus%22#PPA157,M1" REL="nofollow">here</A>.MMcMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18050858208942064042noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20433842.post-57314631823490984412008-07-30T06:29:00.000-04:002008-07-30T06:29:00.000-04:00John: "who have not read a line (and in some cases...John: "who have not read a line (and in some cases, it is said, are forbidden by contract to read a line) of the work they purport to illustrate"<BR/><BR/>I don't see the problem with that. It didn't stop Matisse doing <EM>Ulysses</EM>. As for your father, FW doesn't exist in any pretty editions to my knowledge. The plainness of the hard covers actually suits the book, though.<BR/><BR/>French book-covers are OK, but perhaps a little too plain for my tastes: they can be monotonous. The same goes for Loebs: I <EM>don't</EM> like the walls of green (I would say more apple than lime) and red; plus, Loebs are too small--and I've never seen one with 'onion-skin pages'. I prefer the I Tatti Renaissance volumes; though ideally I prefer each book to have its individual character.Conrad H. Rothhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01916542057749474124noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20433842.post-80538657925135357792008-07-29T22:31:00.000-04:002008-07-29T22:31:00.000-04:00I agree with RJ. There are few things more satisf...I agree with RJ. There are few things more satisfying than a Loeb Classic. The curious size, the onion skin pages, the surprising heft. I'm talking here of individual copies. When grouped? When shelved together? What could be more beautiful, more satisfying!<BR/><BR/>Only I'd use 'raspberry red' instead of 'ketchup' to describe the Latin versions.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20433842.post-13911679970574988692008-07-29T11:14:00.000-04:002008-07-29T11:14:00.000-04:00There is nothing as encouraging as the sight of th...There is nothing as encouraging as the sight of the spines of one's own Loeb Classics, lined up in tomato and lime.R J Keefehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06925072280945666069noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20433842.post-75312420825913673872008-07-29T09:08:00.000-04:002008-07-29T09:08:00.000-04:00I myself am fond of Russian covers from the '60s a...I myself am fond of Russian covers from the '60s and '70s.<BR/><BR/>But I am shocked and saddened to find that you have no appreciation for <I>Exercices de style</I>, one of the great books of the last century. I fear you will have no share in paradise.Languagehathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13285708503881129380noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20433842.post-87718722404027939672008-07-29T06:47:00.000-04:002008-07-29T06:47:00.000-04:00I share with Mr Afinogenov a liking for the classi...I share with Mr Afinogenov a liking for the classic simplicity of French editions - like the Gallimard ones, or the attractive and readable <A HREF="http://www.leseditionsdeminuit.eu/f/index.php" REL="nofollow">Minuit</A> editions; or else the ones in the Belles Lettres humanism series (<A HREF="http://www.lesbelleslettres.com/livre/?GCOI=22510100919440" REL="nofollow">this, for example</A>). Even the <A HREF="http://www.amazon.fr/Moyen-parvenir-1-Transcription/dp/2745311964/ref=sr_1_65?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1217327765&sr=1-65" REL="nofollow">Champion</A> editions have quite tasteful covers, although in my experience they are poorly edited and have low production values.Raminagrobishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12008850757226541475noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20433842.post-1959637643044912142008-07-28T17:44:00.000-04:002008-07-28T17:44:00.000-04:00I have been from my youth a reader of fantasy and ...I have been from my youth a reader of fantasy and science fiction, and as such I despise covers, which are the products of overworked pseudo-artists who have not read a line (and in some cases, it is said, are forbidden by contract to read a line) of the work they purport to illustrate.<BR/><BR/><I>Just as one shudders to drink wine from a paper cup,</I><BR/><BR/>I do not drink ... wine.<BR/><BR/><I>or eat a fine steak with plastic cutlery,</I><BR/><BR/>I eat my fine steaks (my butcher and I call them <I>club steaks</I>, but I don't know what expression is used in your neck of the woods for them, Conrad) most commonly by picking the same up with a fork (metal, for practical rather than aesthetic reasons) and biting a compendious piece off, whereafter I proceed with the usual routine of of successive (and successful) mastication, deglutition, and digestion. (I am, indeed, and I do not blush to admit it, a habitual and even public masticator.)<BR/><BR/><I>so one is ashamed to have one's Joyce or Shandy in an ugly classics edition,</I><BR/><BR/><I>One</I> may be, but others are not. My father, <I>homo unius libri</I> and that one the <I>Wake</I>, had two copies in plain hard covers, the better to do his work with.<BR/><BR/><I>let alone on the screen</I><BR/><BR/>On the screen, perhaps not. Printed from the screen, indeed; and all honor to the complaisance of successive employers who have overlooked the resulting consumption of paper and toner.<BR/><BR/><I>None of us here has a problem with the taste for fine volumes.</I><BR/><BR/>Not as such. But as a friend of my wife's was wont to say, "I give you books, and I give you books -- and all you do is eat the covers." If you wish to eat the whole volume, far be it from me to stop you.<BR/><BR/>Finally (in my end is my beginning): "Not even the most diligently destructive barbarian can extirpate<BR/>the written word from a culture wherein the<BR/><I>minimum</I> edition of most books<BR/>is fifteen hundred copies. There are just too many books." --L. Sprague de Camp, <I>Lest Darkness Fall</I>.John Cowanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11452247999156925669noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20433842.post-20617960743902342672008-07-28T16:50:00.000-04:002008-07-28T16:50:00.000-04:00I adore the classic-style Gallimard editions. And,...I adore the classic-style <A HREF="http://lopezbooks.com/images/kl/024508.jpg" REL="nofollow">Gallimard editions</A>. And, though I'm ashamed to admit it, I love the artsy <A HREF="http://www.37signals.com/svn/images/candide.jpg" REL="nofollow">new Penguin covers</A>.<BR/><BR/>I've also accumulated far too many ugly '60s mass-market paperbacks with crumbling, coffee-stained covers. But did Jacques Ellul or Erving Goffman or Paul Goodman even deserve a modern, shinier imprint? Will these be their last "garments"?Greg Afinogenovhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13529073439919307693noreply@blogger.com