Judging books by their covers,
November 2003.

Before I began this series, I wasn’t sure whether I should cover books for which I had little nice to say. I knew I would be criticizing the work of other designers, and I’m not enthusiastic about hurting people’s feelings.

The alternate choice would have been to only pick covers I like and highlight them, celebrating what I consider high-quality work and trying to spread the good word about design.

If you’ve been reading this series, you know which route I decided on. I’m still not excited about ripping into the work of other designers. And frankly, I’m really not interested in being the Dale Peck of graphic design; even if he, like me, is after something bigger than simply the book at hand, his level of vituperation leaves me feeling like I need a long shower with a particularly rough loofah.

But sometimes certain book covers just get my dander up: either they’re for books by authors who are full of themselves, or they’re for books put out by publishers who have a clear lack of respect for their customers, or some other reason that puts me in a fit of pique that particular moment.

Whatever it is about a cover that irks me, I only comment on it if I can say something more than “ew, gross” about it: I want to say something interesting and/or informative about it, or, at the very least, something entertaining.

To balance things out, I also heap praise on covers I love, which was one of the main reasons I started this series in the first place. It’s difficult to be snarky when you’re gushing about something, so I must admit those reviews are a bit less entertaining. I do try to liven them up somewhat, but really, mostly I just want to get out of the way and let the cover speak for itself.

So there’s usually a variety of reactions I get to express each month. Sometimes there are more things to make fun of than things to adore, sometimes vice versa, but there’s always been a mixture, at least in the three rounds I’ve done so far.

This month, however, there’s almost nothing to ridicule. Don’t get me wrong — there are plenty of terrible covers out there, but none of them meets my minimum standards for commentary; they’re just dull, run-of-the-mill covers, and I can’t say even one funny thing about them.

So all you’re getting this month are good-looking covers, or at least ones about which I can say appreciative things. Fortunately, plenty of those have been published recently. Enjoy.