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A review by lacywolfe
The Clothing of Books by Jhumpa Lahiri
4.0
This is a brilliant meditation on books and their covers that will be a delight for any bibliophile.
Food for thought:
"We take for granted that every book has a cover. Without one it's considered naked, incomplete, in some ways inaccessible. It lacks a door in which to enter the text. It lacks a face."
"The cover confers on a book not one identity but two. It introduces an expressive element distinct from that of the text. There is what the text says, and what the cover says. That is why one can love the cover and hate the book, or vice versa."
"When I purchase a book today, I acquire a range of other things: a picture of the author, biographical information, reviews. All of this complicates matters. It causes confusion. It distracts me. I hate reading the comments on the cover; it is to them that we owe one of the most repugnant words in the English language: blurb. Personally, I think it deplorable to place the words and opinions of others on the book jacket. I want the first words read by the reader of my book to be written by me."
[On publishing as part of a series versus individual books]
"Is the series more important, or the individual books within? I have not yet made up my mind. There series serves the individual text, and also vice versa. On the one hand, the series seems to me a discreet wrapper, less invasive than a wholly unique book cover. On the other, it has a somewhat formal, even pompous, effect."
[On the American editorial series, Modern Library, the Library of America]
"Jackets of this kind are a strong recognition, a sort of prize, almost always conferred posthumously. Nine out of ten time, the author is dead. A contemporary book by a young author would not be worthy. Unlike the European series, where living and dead authors coexist, the American series seems to me almost a mausoleum."
"I remain attached to certain ugly covers of books I would read and return 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."
Food for thought:
"We take for granted that every book has a cover. Without one it's considered naked, incomplete, in some ways inaccessible. It lacks a door in which to enter the text. It lacks a face."
"The cover confers on a book not one identity but two. It introduces an expressive element distinct from that of the text. There is what the text says, and what the cover says. That is why one can love the cover and hate the book, or vice versa."
"When I purchase a book today, I acquire a range of other things: a picture of the author, biographical information, reviews. All of this complicates matters. It causes confusion. It distracts me. I hate reading the comments on the cover; it is to them that we owe one of the most repugnant words in the English language: blurb. Personally, I think it deplorable to place the words and opinions of others on the book jacket. I want the first words read by the reader of my book to be written by me."
[On publishing as part of a series versus individual books]
"Is the series more important, or the individual books within? I have not yet made up my mind. There series serves the individual text, and also vice versa. On the one hand, the series seems to me a discreet wrapper, less invasive than a wholly unique book cover. On the other, it has a somewhat formal, even pompous, effect."
[On the American editorial series, Modern Library, the Library of America]
"Jackets of this kind are a strong recognition, a sort of prize, almost always conferred posthumously. Nine out of ten time, the author is dead. A contemporary book by a young author would not be worthy. Unlike the European series, where living and dead authors coexist, the American series seems to me almost a mausoleum."
"I remain attached to certain ugly covers of books I would read and return 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."