Pretty pretty book covers

I couldn't help myself. I've been admiring this for months and it's available for pre-order, so I went ahead and bought it. Does it matter that it will be my 4th copy of the book? No, not at all!


It's so pretty! I like that they're embossing and adding other texture to the cover to better mimic the original embroidery.

While purchasing, I also saw this new cover for a classic:



Now, in my mind, Quentin Blake should be Dahl's only illustrator, but, but, but... this is very cool.

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OW! My Eyes!

Check out the latest Twilight inspired book covers and oh! the promo copy!:

Wuthering Heights

I cannot live without my life!
I cannot live without my soul!

When Catherine and Heathcliff's childhood friendship grows into something so much more, what ensues is one of the greatest love stories of all time. Even as fate conspires against them and passion consumes them, nothing can keep Catherine and Heathcliff apart. Not even death . . . for their forbidden love is unlike any other. Emily Bronte's masterpiece remains as compelling and thrilling as ever. Beautifully presented for a modern teen audience, this is the must-have edition of a timeless classic.

Pride and Prejudice

"Darcy had never been so bewitched by any woman as he was by her."

With all the forces of the world conspiring to keep Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet apart, how will fate manage to bring them together? It certainly won't be easy if they're fighting it every step of the way. But theirs is a love that was meant to be, despite all the odds against them. One of the most captivating love stories of all time, Jane Austen's enduring masterpiece is beloved by generation after generation. Beautifully presented for a modern teen audience, this is the must-have edition of a timeless classic.

Romeo and Juliet

These violent delights have violent ends
And in their triumph die, like fire and powder,
Which, as they kiss, consume.

When Romeo first lays eyes on the bewitching Juliet, it's love at first sight. But though their love runs true and deep, it is also completely forbidden. With family and fate determined to keep them apart, will Romeo and Juliet find a way to be together? William Shakespeare's masterpiece is one of the most enduring stories of star-crossed love of all time. Beautifully presented for a modern teen audience with both the original play and a prose retelling of the beloved story, this is the must-have edition of a timeless classic.

Harper Teen is obviously trying to get some play out of these common domain titles to get them into the hands of new readers. If this publishing market, why not try to package content you didn't have to pay for in order to piggy back off something Twilight-huge? And, it's not like these are trashy items. These are HUGE literary classics. This is GOOD LITERATURE. It just doesn't look like it.

Harper Teen is making things secretly educational. And it's not just the covers. Look at the quotations they're pulling from the text and look at how they describe the books. They're obviously going after a very target audience. And they're doing it pretty well. I hope it works for them (and, ultimately, for the reader. These are awesome books.)

I've done the same. My cousin and I were talking about boys (she was 16 at the time) and the conversation was couched in comparing certain boys to Robbie the Sex God or Dave the Laugh (from Confessions of Georgia Nicolson) and Edward and Jacob and possibly some Harry Potter characters. I then gave her sage advice: Never, ever, date a Heathcliff and be wary of the Rochesters. Stay away from Wickham. You can never go wrong with a Bingley and should seek them out. Darcys are ok, but you need to approach with caution.

While it's advice I fully stand behind, it was my way of trying to get her to read something a little more complex than her usual fare. As far as I know, it didn't work, but maybe Harper Teen's new campaign will.

But, oh, it kinda hurts my eyes.

What do you think?

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Weekly Geeks!

I also try to be a weekly geek (I mean, I do geek out daily in my own special way) but I never seem to get around to it.

BUT! HA! Better late than never, right? This week we're talking book covers. I'm going to talk about consistency within a series. I'm a big fan of consistency. I like the books on my shelf to match and am not happy when a series changes look half way through. I mean, read my rants here and here about the Confessions of Georgia Nicolson series.

And Georgia's where I'm going to start, because I wasn't originally a fan of the new covers. When I started reading, the covers all looked like this:



But, when Then He Ate My Boy Entrancers went to paperback, they changed cover designs. Now the first 4 books (pictured above) look like this:



Now, it's been a few years, and the new covers are starting to grow on me. I like that they incorporate Angus (the cat) on every cover, because he is a big part of every book. I especially like the new cover for Dancing in My Nuddy-Pants, because the romantic shadow on the wall is that of two cats. It's subtle and funny once you read the book (although the old cover, check out the man in the moon--it's two kissing cats!) I miss the old covers, but I do think the new ones will appeal to more teens today. I still, however, insist that those nunga nungas would not knock anyone out.

Despite my fuddy-duddy DON'T CHANGE THE BOOK COVER ways, sometimes it's necessary. I've been reading the Alice books by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (expect a big review this weekend or next week.)

Now, Naylor started writing the Alice books in the mid-80s and the series is ongoing. The old covers needed to go. However, they then changed the covers again and the newest ones are fine, but the older ones are still good. Here's the progression for Alice in Rapture, Sort Of.



And! Some of the newer titles/those featuring an older Alice, have totally different covers! (I'm judging entire remakes based on the "Alice" logo, which is consistent across books, but changes when they redesign the overall package)

Now, these two versions of Including Alice are pretty similar, to the point where I think both pictures were taken in the same photoshoot--the model is wearing the same top! But, I think they're both paperbacks...:



There's a bigger difference between these two paperback versions of Alice in April



And a really big difference between these two paperback versions of


The big thing I can see with the newer editions of the Alice books is that each cover seems to look like it's for an older audience than the older cover. I'm wondering why this is. Alice has always been a very controversial series (Alice thinks about sex a lot. Not that she wants to have a lot of it, but just that's she's naturally very curious about this thing that no one talks about.) So, are the publishers trying to push it into older hands by making the covers look older?

Or is it because kids like to read "up"--reading about characters older than they are and books that look older. So are the publishers aging up the covers so that the kids who are Alice's age (she ages a year every 3 books) won't think they're too babyish based on the cover?

Also, some of the covers needed to change. The illustrated version of Alice in Rapture, Sort of needed to go. But the middle one is the right age for Alice. The newer one of the heart in the beach, while technically age ambiguous, makes it feel like it's for a much older reader. The newer version of Simply Alice looks more like how old Alice should be. She's 15 and a sophomore in high school in that book--the older one just looks too young. On the other hand, the newer Alice in April might be too old, as the older one (where you can see her face) looks about the right age.

What are your thoughts?

Milk Out Your Nose Funny

So... Tuesday night I ended up going out and didn't read Startled by His Furry Shorts until yesterday...

Georgia's back in full force in a longer-than-usual installment of hillariousity. MacUseless rehersals are in full swing as opening night approaches, first-formers are being tortured by Wet Lindsay and Astonishinly Dim Monica AND Mark the Gob, Libby continues her "sex bum" dance, Masimo has one week to tell Georgia whether or not he'll exclusively see her, Dave the Laugh is having a laugh? snogging Georgia and then leaving the party with Emma!, then there's Robbie, the original Sex God, plus Radio Jas, Rosie and Sven's wedding, the return of the bison horns, Elvis's obsession with fire safety, Slim, Miss Stamp, Herr Kramer, and Wet Lindsay's scary hair extensions...

I love these series this one was even funnier than usual-- one of the best so far... as usual per late, Rennison leaves us hanging off a cliff, so I must already start counting down the days until next year!

Also, a note on the new cover design...

When I opened up the Amazon box Tuesday night, I showed Dan the new covers and he said exactly what I was thinking:

"There is no way you could knock yourself out with those Nunga-Nungas!

Yes, I'm Anal. Shut Up.

Ok... so... I think we've had this conversation before, where I need all my books to "match" on my shelf. This is the reason that I'm retroactively buying the early Harry Potters, I want all mine to be hardcover.

This is why I waited so long to get Something Rotten, I needed all my Thursday Next's to be paperback.

This is also an issue with the secret love of my life, Georgia Nicolson Every spring, a new book comes out AND at the same time the new comes out, they release the old one in paperback. So I'm a bit behind. But I broke down and checked Then He Ate My Boy Entrancers from the library, fully intending on buying it when it came out in paperback, which happens on April 25. Except... except...

Look at the previous Georgia Books.

Look at the hardcover Boy Entrancers.

Look at the paperback!!!

And look at the new one!!!

What's a girl to do?!