         
|
 |
|
Judging books by their covers,
Everybody and their mother does book reviews these days, it seems. I mean, you have the New York Times Book Review, the New York Review of Books, the Los Angeles Times Book Review, countless reviews in daily newspapers across the country, monthly book supplements in hundreds of local weekly papers, and while I’m at it, I might as well also mention Amazon’s #1 reviewer, Harriet Klausner. But where can you find a regular source of reviews that focus primarily on what really matters — the cover? Beginning this month, I’ve decided to take matters into my own hands and fill this abominable void. The reason I became interested in book covers, aside from the potential that one someday may bear my name, is that about ten years ago I started noticing a resurgence of extremely attractive covers. The gaudiness of the eighties had more or less been shaken off, and we were once again graced by elegant dust jackets that made the hours browsing in places like Cody’s or Powell’s that much more enjoyable. In this monthly feature, debuting with this edition, I will take a look at notable recent releases. Some are notable because of the hype surrounding them, and we’ll see whether the covers live up to the hype of the book. Others are notable because of their timeliness of publication, such as the Gettysburg books released this month. Still others are notable simply because the covers are so impressive that they deserve praise far and wide. Enough said, I think. On to the reviews.
|
|
