Coralie Bickford-Smith

One of my favorite Web sites, Design*Sponge, did an interview with Coralie Bickford-Smith back in October. Bickford-Smith is a senior cover designer at Penguin Books and has received a number of awards for her design work.

The designs that originally caught my eye were for the new Penguin Classics. One of the reasons I think these covers are so successful is their cloth binding. I just find cloth binding to be far classier than the more recently popular paper jacket.

Bickford-Smith designed each cover using simple patterns that have a conformed look but unique patterns to appropriately fit the story they enclose. In an interview with The Penguin Blog, Bickford-Smith said "I have a real enthusiasm for pattern design so I was obsessed by this project. I wanted to create sumptuous books for people to enjoy, cherish and pass on."

A Good Book Cover as a Cover-Up

Alright, I'll admit it: sometimes you really should not judge a book by its cover. The worst case of this rule-breaker I've ever encountered is the colorful and catchy cover for Elizabeth Gilbert's "Eat, Pray, Love ". I love this cover; its clean and simple and pretty self-explanatory. Based on the cover, this book should be an easy and enjoyable read. 

I guess I should back up a bit and explain what this book is about and why the cover should be perfect. According to the cover, and the author, this "life experience" is about "one woman's search for everything across Italy, India and Indonesia." False. This book is about narcissism. This book was written for people who have entire albums on Facbook full of photos of just themselves, taken by themselves. 

My roommate and I each purchased this book prior to our winter break so we could read it together on our cruise. Before we finished Italy, we wanted to quit, but we hate giving up on a book so we decided to finish Gilbert's journey. And, let me tell you, it was a painful journey. Liz, as she so fondly refers to herself as, its too self-involved in her writing and the reader completely misses out on her abroad experiences. 

Luckily, there was a saving grace: "Drink, Play, F@#k". Andrew Gottlieb wrote this novel as "one man's search for anything across Ireland, Vegas, and Thailand", or, 195 pages mocking Gilbert. Not only is this hysterical, it is beautiful. In the beginning of "Eat, Pray, Love" Gilbert leaves her husband and it is presumed by the "Drink, Play, Fuck" it was written by him.

Although Gottlieb mocks individual passages out of Liz's book, my personal joy came from his cover illustrator, Paul D'Innocenzo choosing to mimic Gilbert's cover:

Reading "Drink, Play, F@#k" after "Eat, Pray, Love" was incredibly rewarding, but that is just my opinion. Apparently Liz Gilbert's book is a best-seller and apparently lots of women identify with her journey but I just couldn't buy into it.

Do not be fooled by this cover.

World Map of Books Published

I really have a thing for book covers. I can't explain it, it just makes my day when I find a well-designed cover.

But I also really have a thing for great maps. In fact, I like them so much I have ten different maps currently posted on my bedroom walls. I like old maps and new maps; maps of places I have visited and maps of places I can't wait to visit. 

The combination of the two just might cause me to die of an overdose on aesthetic pleasures.

Now, I just found an entry on the Creative Review Web site featuring a book I absolutely must own: "The Atlas of the Real World". Sure this entry was published a little bit ago, but this book is still stunning.

One of the maps created for this atlas illustrates the number of new book titles published each year per country.

According to the Creative Review entry... "Each new book published is counted only once on this map, regardless of how many copies it sells... A book is defined as having at least 50 pages; a pamphlet has 5 to 49 pages. Publications with fewer than 5 pages are not shown on this map. Worldwide, about a million new book titles were published in 1999, with the largest numbers published in the United Kingdom, China and Germany. Overall, the map is dominated by Western Europe, which is home to a number of well established publishing houses."

I am always checking out new ways to combine my passions. Does anyone know of other book-related maps?

TankBooks packaging "takes your breath away"

UK based TankBooks released something a few years ago that I think is absolutely brilliant: books in cigarette cartons. The cartons are regular size and sealed in cellophane, with silver foil wrapping, just like the real deal. The release came right after the UK-wide smoking ban and met some controversy, which I'm sure just came from people who don't appreciate great design.

And let's face it, this is just as beautiful as it is smart. I love that the carton for Hemingway's "The Shows of Kilimanjaro" and "The Undefeated" mimics the Lucky Strike packaging. I'm also pleased with the design for Kafka's "The Metamorphosis" and "In the Penal Colony", but I also seem to favor bright shades of blue.

The tin that carries them all makes you believe you need the whole set. In fact, if they weren't so expensive ($73, including shipping) I would have a set on my bedside table already.

But the best part of this Tank release is their size. According to the TankBooks Web site, although these works are miniature in size, they still contain the complete and unabridged stories. I can picture throwing one in my bag to carry around campus and (not) read during class.

Tank really hit a home run with this one. Creative packaging and a compact format are a great way to preserve print and keep the traditional book format competitive with newer technologies like travel-size e-readers. 

I only wish more titles were available. Currently, Tank offers:

• Joseph Conrad — "Heart of Darkness"
• Ernest Hemingway — "The Undefeated" & "the Snows of Kilimanjaro"
• Frank Kafka — "The Metamorphosis" & "The Penal Colony"
• Rudyard Kipling — "The Man Who Would be King", "The Phantom Rickshaw" & "Black Jack"
• Robert Louis Stevenson — "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"
• Leo Tolstoy — "The Death of Ivan Ilych" & "Father Sergius"

For now, TankBooks' "Tales to Take Your Breath Away" will stay in my Web bookmarks and appear on my Christmas List come Dec. 1.

The Signet Classic Shakespeare

I love the Signet Classic Shakespeare collection I have started. Every time I head to Grounds For Thought, I look to see if any more have been brought in. So far I've collected eight. Grounds always has a lot of Shakespeare stocked and deciding on a series to collect was a pretty easy task once I saw these covers illustrated by Milton Glaser.

The Ten Essential Penguin Classics

Without a doubt, Penguin Books creates the most effective and aesthetically pleasing book covers. In fact, sometimes I browse my favorite used bookstore, Grounds For Thought, looking only for that pretty Penguin binding.

Penguin recently released a special mini-site  for what they consider their "Ten Essential Penguin Classics." They even created a small series of videos about each book on the list.

To Be Shelved- a book blog

 

Reading Chuck Palahniuk's Diary this fall.

I am Alaina Buzas and this my book blog.

I originally created this blog as part of the required work for my Online Journalism course at BGSU, where I am a Journalism major, but it has been something I've wanted to do for a while. 

To Be Shelved alludes to the mess that is my home. My roommate and I have run out of space on our bookshelves and have resorted to simply stacking books all around the living room; we live in a space surrounded by books ready to be shelved. 

Unfortunately, these stacks and shelves hinder one aspect I love most about the books I have collected in my personal library—their covers. Yes, I admit it... I judge books by their covers. I have come to admire and appreciate the art of the book cover and the power it holds. To Be Shelved will focus mainly on this fascination.

Please feel free to subscribe to my RSS feed and tell your friends about To Be Shelved. 

Happy reading! 

Alaina