Judging Books by their Covers
Tuesday, 21st September 2004
I saw this in WHSmiths at Bristol Temple Meads Station this afternoon and nearly fell over. “Why?” you might ask.. because it appears to be an “I’m not a SciFi/Fantasy book, honest” cover for Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett.
I was somewhat upset by this. I would never have started reading the Discworld novels if they had been maskerading as “grown up” books. In the same way that I would never have originally read any of the Harry Potter books maskerading as “grown up”
Actually it appears that a number of the earlier Discworld novels have also been given a bit of a makeover – apparently to commemorate the 21st Anniversary of the Discworld. But I’m still worried.
These new covers do not portray the contents of the books. A number of them could easily be transposed onto school editions of Shakespeare (I can see candidates for Hamlet, Merchant of Venice, The Tempest, Anthony & Cleopatra and Taming of the Shrew just in the ones I’ve linked to… no doubt if Wyrd Sisters gets a makeover it could easily be used for Macbeth)
In this instance I feel this quote from Neil Gaiman is particularly apt
“I think kids, like adults, are very good at looking at a book, eyeing the cover, looking at the jacket copy, reading the first few lines and deciding if it’s a book for them or not. They may, like adults, miss out on a few things they’d really like if only they knew.”
And it’s quite possible the only people who’re going to know in this case are the ones who already own copies.
Jay:
The covers for all US prints of all Terry Pratchett books are as dull and lifeless as this one. They have never had the Josh Kirby illustrations that we all know and love.
All the American Pratchett fans I know (my wife included) think it is a national scandal that US readers get this while we get the cool covers. Unfortunately Josh Kirby passed away in 2001, so books published since have new illustrations; for example, Night Watch is illustrated by Paul Kidby with a parody of Rembrandt’s painting of the same name. That in itself is also an excellent piece of cover art, and not in the same cartoon style as Kirby, yet it was still replaced in the US.
Saturday 25th, September 2004
at 1:09 pm
Elly:
From a quick look amazon.com it looks like the cover artist for a lot of the american versions has been given the single paragraph breakdown of the plot and not actually bothered (or been given the opportunity) to read anything else….I wouldn’t say they were dull and lifeless, but they do appear to be very unsophisticated and rather insulting to the content.
On the subject of Josh Kirby, I was a little worried the other day when looking round a second hand book shop to be able to recognise a Josh Kirby illustration from the thumbnail on the cover… should be an entry on a “you know you’re a geek when…” style questionnairey thing.
When I first discovered there was going to be a Discworld book titled “Nightwatch” I’d just spent a week in Amsterdam and actually seen the original Rembrandt painting of that name (or nickname if we’re being pedantic.) Guessing that the cover illustration might be a parody I spent a good 15minutes trying to find out if I was right…. again a good candidate for “you know you’re a geek when…”
Monday 27th, September 2004
at 9:03 am