J. Bosman, “Selling Books by Their Gilded Covers” :
In her article, Bosman points out that e-books are becoming very popular at a high rate, which makes sense to me. In a world where the internet and technology is growing, it would only be on the same wavelength for book readers to start downloading books to read online. Personally, I have never read an e-book and never plan on, because I like the feeling of owning a book and being able to physically grasp it as I sit down somewhere to read it. The idea of staring at a screen to read a book seems very unnatural to me. In her paper, Bosman also goes on to mention that "attractive" book covers can get the attention of readers -- something e-books cannot do, at least on the same level. To this extent, I agree and it makes more sense when you take into account the point about Madeline Miller's The Song of Achilles which has a 3-D effect on its cover. Unfortunately, I now order all my books from Amazon (physical copies), rather than going into brick and mortar stores to purchase them, so this article made me realize that I may be missing out on the "beauty" of a book cover when browsing for books to read.
Book Cover Design Video:
I found Chip Kidd's TED Talk to be very interesting and funny at the same time. Kidd mentions some points/approaches he takes into designing book covers, and hearing all this made me realize how much thought goes into designing book covers. For instance, his example of the "APPLE" vs image of an apple vs image of an apple + "APPLE" proved to be helpful in his explanation as it helped me understand why readers do not want to be treated like "morons" when browsing for new books to read. His message helped me realize that physical books are not necessarily a type of art that is going out of fashion, but an art that is becoming something special. Furthermore, I cannot help but deeply agree with him in that we stare at electronic screens enough already so we should stick to physical, handheld books (non e-books).
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