Confession: I judge books by their covers. I understand that I am sanding across the grain of all wise folks who can put their thoughts in a single Tweet or readable on a bumper sticker. But I simply do judge books by their covers. It is not that they have to be perfect–and I still love the look of a clothbound volume with black or silver lettering. However, when a book is beautifully designed, I find the whole reading experience is more rich.
I talked about this in a recent review of Amy Baik Lee’s This Homeward Ache: How Our Yearning for the Life to Come Spurs on Our Life Today. It is just a beautifully designed book, from the lovely cover that captures the sense of the reading experience to the typeset and subtle details. On its own, it was a good book–a great book, I felt–but the good design enhanced its loveliness for me.
At the recent George MacDonald bicentennial conference in Wheaton, IL, I was handed a collection of essays, Unsaying the Commonplace: George MacDonald and the Critique of Victorian Convention, edited by Daniel Gabelman and Amanda B Vernon (who both turned out to be brilliant and generous of spirit). The book cover is gorgeous–at least to my eye.
I also love that it matches a previous volume in this GeoMac Victorian series: Informing the Inklings: George MacDonald and the Victorian Roots of Modern Fantasy, edited by Michael Partridge and Kirstin Jeffrey Johnson (also wonderful people). Besides trying to introduce this series to readers, I want to note that these are books by Winged Lion Press–a small publishing firm publishing books about the Inklings and other mythopoeic writers simply because it is a beautiful thing to do. Small press runs and very little cash, and still these beautiful designs (and I like the design of some other George MacDonald works, like the Phantastes annotated edition and essay sets on Phantastes and The Back of the North Wind).
Of course, there could be hundreds of beautiful book covers. My visually impaired memory doesn’t allow me to keep them all in my head, but it doesn’t stop me from loving them. Here are some nonfiction book covers I like in my Kindle collection:
So I am a sucker for a cool design. I am satisfied with none of the covers for The Screwtape Letters, but I love some of the newish Tolkien 1st Age and 2nd Age materials (often illustrated by Alan Lee), and the non-Middle-earth materials.
I have an “Author’s Questionnaire” in front of me for an upcoming book, and I am not in the dock: will I be able to guide my design team towards good book cover design? Honestly, I don’t know if they are doing a twopence book cover design or are really going to dig in and do well. Still, it has made me thoughtful.
So I would love to know from you all what your favourite nonfiction book cover designs might be. I’ve talked about terrible book covers (see here and especially here), but now it’s time to share things we love. Add them in the comments below with a link to the book cover, if you can.
While most of the suggestions this far are fiction or have multiple editions, here are some of the noted pieces:
A Pilgrim in Narnia 
Covers are hugely important to me. And I’m offended when a fine book is marred by an ugly cover.
Strangely, even thought I buy about 85% of my new books in digital format, the covers still retain a major role in my perception of a volume.
Like you, with the examples provided above, I’m pretty eclectic in the styles I appreciate. So, it’s not that people like us are prejudiced in what we prefer. I think our tastes are broad… and merely lean toward things that indicated the illustrators are actually familiar with the contents of what they are adorning.
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My favourite way to read Kindle books is on my flat, non-lit b/w screen. It does mute the colours. However, I buy my books on a coloured screen, so the effect is still there.
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My vote: The cover of LeGuin’s collection Four Ways to Forgiveness. Gold with her name dark, title in white, and the four protagonists standing separate and wind-blown on the marsh grasses.
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Hi Lola, it seems that fiction covers are our draw! I love a lot of the new Le Guin book designs in the last decade or so. I’ve added the gold version in a little slide show at the bottom of the post, with some others.
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I am sure you are right, Brenton, about that first impression, however superficial, when we see the front of a book.
I remember coveting (and then being given as a Christmas present) a paperback edition of Guy Gibson’s “Enemy Coast Ahead” (his account of RAF Bomber Command in World War II, including his leading role on the famous Dam Buster mission) precisely because of the vivid blue of the evening sky behind him: looming, and suggestive of the dangerous night ahead over enemy territory).
I see you saying you haven’t liked any cover of Lewis’s “Screwtape Letters”.
I was captivated, as a youngster (around 1963: my first glimpse of Lewis’s writing), with my parents’ Fontana paperback cover.
Screwtape, as the archetypal demon, smug and arrogant, and, perhaps, slyly peeping through almost-closed eyelids: here is a web-site with that image (I still find it demonically fascinating):
https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/514652074/the-screwtape-letters-by-cs-lewis?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=screwtape+letters&ref=sr_gallery-1-9&pro=1&sts=1&content_source=9250da85fe4da21a57eb90f44a338194618b299e%253A514652074&organic_search_click=1
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Hi, you are right about that David Jones calligraphy. Lovely. I’ve added a version and a couple of the WWII books in a little slide show at the bottom of the post, with some others.
As for that Fontana Screwtape, I agree that it is close. I have a copy of the red version used for Screwtape Proposes a Toast and other Essays on my shelf, which I have loaned from fa friend. It is greasy but not smarmy, and a kind of evil that the others miss.
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As for my favourite non-fiction book-covers, I find myself immediately thinking of the English poet and artist, David Jones. His books, fiction and non-fiction, often have jackets hand-designed by him, for his publisher, Faber. David Jones trained as a calligrapher and engraver with Eric Gill, and used hand-lettered inscription as his preferred design technique. Not a pictorial image, but profoundly bookish, and distinctively personal, through his letter-choice and calligraphic layout.
The cover for “The Anathemata” is not for a non-fiction book. It is a profound poetic reflection in the church service of Holy Communion, blended with a deep history of the Mediterranean, and a voyage to England, and the Last Supper.
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When in Scotland, I stopped by a bookstore, and bought one book (No Great Mischief by Canadian Alistair MacLeod) and one CD (Sons of Somerled by Steve MacDonald), solely on the basis of their covers. The thing was that I knew they were going to be great by the covers and I was correct. But for me the cover has always been more significant for the LP. My theory is that you can tell the quality of a Beach Boy LP by its cover. I knew Sunflower, Surf’s Up and Holland were going to be great before I ever heard them or read a review (they are), and that Carl and the Passions was going to be a mixed bag (it is). A friend of mine, while waiting for me one day, was fingering through my albums and pulled out a copy of Andy Pratt’s Resolution (which showed Andy playing piano on the stage). I asked him if he liked it (he loved it) and why he had chosen it: “I knew by the cover it would be good.”
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I think you were playing Steve McDonald in the car the other day, right? I like my desktop Spotify app because it allows me to have a cover photo open while playing.
As for No Great Mischief, there are a dozen or more editions! I have added a couple them in a little slide show at the bottom of the post, with some others.
I have to test the Beck Beach Boys Album Cover Theory.
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I love the covers of two recent non-fiction books about Agatha Christie’s work, A is for Arsenic and Murder Isn’t Easy (which have such similar cover designs that it must be intentional, though they are by different authors). I also really like the cover of Katherine Rundell’s Super-Infinite, as well as the font choice & florescent orange on the spine. Plus, the Granta Books edition of Clandestine in Chile (with a picture of Pinochet with a biro moustache scribbled on it! I feel it perfectly captures the atmosphere of the book). A mixture of design styles, but all very memorable!
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Hi! That series does look pretty cool–it captures the feeling of that detection fiction golden age. I have added them in a little slide show at the bottom of the post, with some others. I also added 2 editions of Katherine Rundell’s Super-Infinite, but I presume the infinity symbol with pics/writing is the design you love. I don’t know if it is political, but I could not post Pinochet for some reason!
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I can get engrossed in a book cover. On my shelves, I turn my favorite covers facing out — like in a bookstore — so that I can gaze at them. I have also preferred the British cover over the American cover to such an extent that I ordered the British version from Blackwell’s in Oxford and had it shipped to me. (By the way, even with shipping costs, it was still a dollar or two less than buying the same book in the US. Must have been a favorable exchange rate at the time.)
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I totally understand, Allyson. When I have a choice of editions at roughly the same price, it is the cover that wins me over.
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Best cover I’ve seen lately is the new translation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses by Stephanie McCarter. The tapestry on the cover is by an artist who unravels old tapestries and re-weaves them into more modern shapes. Which is perfect for someone translating Ovid.
https://bookshop.org/p/books/metamorphoses-penguin-classics-deluxe-edition-ovid/20367769
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A brilliant cover from a translation I don’t know but seems well regarded. My last read was with David Raeburn as translator. Unfortunately, that Ovid Penguin cover is in a format I am not allowed to post, apparently.
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My fiction list is long indeed! For nonfiction, three books come to mind right now: Owls of the Eastern Ice, The Book of Eels, and Fox and I. Incidentally, not only are they excellent covers, I also enthusiastically recommend the books!
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374228484/owlsoftheeasternice
https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-book-of-eels-patrik-svensson?variant=32239021948962
https://www.spiegelandgrau.com/foxandi
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You are absolutely correct. Each of those three covers is gorgeous and inviting.
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Brenton, if i wanted to email you, what is your email address?
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Hello, I am at: junkola[at]gmail[dot]com
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