Favorite book design blog, The Casual Optimist, tipped me off to these Nabokov re-designs this week. They look like actual specimen boxes, don't they? Have to hold one to sort out how this type of dimension is achieved. It fascinates me. Check out the slide show of all cover designs at Design Observer. Here's another:
And another:
Art director John Gall says of the project:
"Nabokov was a passionate butterfly collector, a theme that has cropped up on some of his past covers. My idea was also a play on this concept. Each cover consists of a photograph of a specimen box, the kind used by collectors like Nabokov to display insects. Each box would be filled with paper, ephemera, and insect pins, selected to somehow evoke the book’s content. And to make it more interesting… I thought it would be fun to ask a group of talented designers to help create the boxes."
Believe that the release date is any time now (smart given the release of the new Nabokov novel) but have inquired with the publisher for a little clarity on that. Seemingly available from the usual supect online purveyors but these images correspond with much older publication dates. Confusing. Please weigh in if you know more?
Another conversation starter from Simon at Savidge Reads this week when he posted about Wetlands by Charlotte Roche:
It is a book that made me think about what constitutes a graphic, open and supposedly feminist coming of age story (though if this is what girls are going through around the world heaven help us) or a book designed to sell on how shocking and explicit it is.
Where do you weigh in on this? What is your comfort level for erotica in a read?
Finally, Julie Andrews is coming to my school this week to read with the kids. Beyond excited. Will let you know how it goes.
And those are my random thoughts for the week. Am currently reading all over the place. Dipping into short stories by Lydia Davis and James Lasdun. Still enjoying Beg, Borrow and Steal. And pondering what to write about oh-so-wonderful new John Irving. What are you reading in the Sunday Salon today?
