I know we’re not allowed to judge books by their covers, but can we at least judge the covers themselves? The US-based Book Design Review thinks so, and does so annually. It’s just announced its favourites of 2007 and a stylish line-up it is too. Taking inspiration from an eclectic range of sources, like maps, textbooks and slogan t-shirts, the selected jackets are a persuasive reminder that, when it comes to books, the art doesn’t just lie between the covers.
The lemonade is homemade, the canapes piled high and the 50,000-volt stun-gun available in four designer colours. Welcome to the Taser party – “having the girls round”, Arizona-style. Modelled on the innocent Tupperware party, it’s a chance to meet, gossip and try out weaponry illegal in seven US states.
Veronica is a novel of symbiosis – beauty and cruelty, glamour and decay, Veronica and Alison. In this tale told in the present day but focused firmly on the 1980s, Alison thinks back over a life of fleeing those who need her, running even as she clings to them.
There are many famous books that never were. Homer wrote a lost epic, Byron’s memoirs were destroyed after his death and Sylvia Plath never lived to complete her second novel. Now to this illustrious list we can (possibly) add Russell Brand’s Booky Wook. At time of writing, his autobiography hadn’t been completed, leading to Brand pulling out of the presitigious Cheltenham Festival. As Hodder and Stoughton draw their collective breath, here’s some titles looking more definite.
