At least half of my reading nowadays is e-books, usually downloaded from NetGalley and Edelweiss and read on my Kindle. All the same, I still love the feel and smell of paper books, and it’s a special treat when the books are things of beauty in their own right. A few books I’ve reviewed recently have been absolutely stunning physical objects. Here are some photographs and a rundown of their key attributes:
The Water Book by Alok Jha – Just look at that gorgeous, shiny cover! I was less taken with the contents of the book itself, but never mind. (My review is forthcoming at Nudge.)
Charlotte Brontë: A Life by Claire Harman – Embossed embroidery effect on the cover, handwriting and sketches (including the only known C. Brontë self-portrait, only recently identified) on the endpapers, and built-in ribbon bookmark. (My review will go up at For Books’ Sake on Wednesday.)
A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James – The dustjacket of this Booker Prize winner is lovely enough, but take it off and you still hold a striking object, in appropriately Rastafarian colors. (Full review in December issue of Third Way magazine.)
Ruins by Peter Kuper – Embossed title on the cover, with the monarch in matte; entomological drawings on the endpapers; alternating monochrome and full-color sequences; plus a built-in ribbon bookmark. (To be reviewed here in the near future.)
To survive in this modern age, physical books have to be more than just words on a page, because e-books do that much more efficiently. They simply have to be beautiful.
What are some of the most eye-catching books you’ve encountered recently?
Bookish Beck = Rebecca Foster. American transplant to England. Freelance proofreader and book reviewer.
Bookish Beck 
I’m always surprised at how many people seem to go into a book shop and choose a book because of the ‘artwork’.
I read The Watchmaker of Filigree Street recently and I have to say the cover was the best part of the book which was pretty poor.
My favourite though is Telling Tales: A History of Literary Hoaxes by Melissa Katsoulis – cover is really cleverly done and the book is good too!
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Oh yeah, I’ve read that book! I can see why you like the Penguin/Cuckoo cover.
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I love this post – The Water Book is gorgeous!
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Thanks, Naomi! I might not judge a book by its cover, but a beautiful cover certainly does help.
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I’m absolutely OK with books being ‘just words on a page’, because I can’t get on with e-books at all. I can see their use on holidays and so forth, but can’t wait to get back to ‘real’ books. Mind you, a handsome type face and eye-catching cover works wonders too: though I hope I’d never choose a book simply on the strength of its cover.
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I’ve been surprised by how much I’ve come to love my e-readers (I started with a Nook two years ago and now also have a Kindle on permanent loan for reviewing purposes). I never thought I’d take to them. Perhaps a subject for another post…
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I still dislike reading books on a screen – it spoils my enjoyment of all the tactile and visual stimuli that even a battered old paperback provides. I’m also a sucker for a lovely cover and have bought many books by being lured by their covers hoping that the contents will be equal (beautiful endpapers reinforce that). Shallow, moi?
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[…] of its environmental theme, but I found so much more to love. I previewed it in my last post, “Books as Objects of Beauty,” because it’s a simply gorgeous physical book – what with the embossed title on the cover […]
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I was kind of forced into digital books through my reviewing work for American companies: the only way I could work for them was if I would review PDF and ePUB files. But I’ve really taken to reading e-books over the last two years, more than I ever would have expected. That’s not to say I don’t still love the smell and feel of real books, and the experience of browsing shelves in bookshops.
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[…] to ‘books as objects‘ which I wouldn’t want to buy or keep permanently, but just look through for […]
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