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annabookbel's review against another edition
3.0
Beautiful writing, but the structure of this essay didn't totally gel for me - the beginning comparing book covers to school uniforms was a bit laboured, the ending about the books translation (from Italian) was irrelevant to the theme of covers. Enjoyable though. More on my blog here: https://annabookbel.net/review-assortment-jhumpa-lahiri-ian-mackenzie-somerset-maugham
attytheresa's review
5.0
This is the English translation of a transcription of a speech given by Jhumpa Lahiri at a conference in Italy, one that talks about book covers or jackets, from both an author's and a reader's perspective. Essentially jackets are today designed to sell the book not reflect what is contained between the covers, or so she opines, and rarely is the author truly pleased. This is especially so in US. But she concluded as a reader that "[she] remain[s] attached even to certain ugly covers if books [she read and returned] in high school without ever owning them. In the end, the beauty of the cover has nothing to do with it. Like every true love, that of the reader is blind."
stargirlsgf's review
4.0
if there's someone who could make book covers an interesting thing to talk about, it's jhumpa lahiri. i enjoyed reading it very much and it definitely made an impact on me.
shinypurplepants's review
1.0
This would have worked much better if any of the discussed book covers were actually shown. Unfortunately I found myself bored by the author's unrelated laments about not fitting in. I picked this up to better understand the relationship between author and cover. This was not my experience. Finished it anyway because it was short.
bristoni74's review
3.0
Whilst I enjoyed what was essentially an essay on the author's views of art and book jackets and how authors have little to no input into that process (the book becomes a commercial commodity) and book covers change when released in different countries, etc. I would liked some in depth analysis. Ironically I read this on an e-reader but still love the printed book and understand the marketing aspects of book covers, as I too have bought books and only picked up books in book stores because I loved their covers. I wanted to know more about the psychology of that, but I guess that's a different book!
sinanadolny's review
2.0
sure it was an essay, but did it have to be that boring. i couldn’t wait to finish it. and for a book talking over and over about the importance of a good cover, the cover isn’t even that nice.