Love it or hate it?

The other night, pre-viral infection, I was in a bookstore and was stopped in my tracks by a book I’ve looked at too many times in too many similar covers:  Wuthering Heights.  It was face out and had a beautiful cover design, full of color, with a Tim Burton-esque rendering of Cathy on the front cover.  I took it down off the shelf to see the wraparound from back to front, a whole landscape of the book done in the same style really, and was really toying with the idea of buying the book just for that cover.  I put it back, though, and then suddenly, five minutes later, found myself stopped once again, this time by another stunning cover on another classic standard, The Scarlet Letter.  Quickly I began to search the shelves to see how many others had been designed this way, and the only other one that I discovered was Pride and Prejudice.  All of them had been designed by fashion designer Ruben Toledo through Penguin Classics.  You can take a look at them by clicking this sentence and visiting a website that has more info on the designs, but really, come back and tell me what you think of them. Am I crazy for loving these new spins on familiar novels?  Or are they refreshing, as my own instincts and sensibilities decree?  I have a feeling they’ll be that sort of thing where people either love ’em or hate ’em.

Sort of like how people are reacting to the movie Paranormal Activity. 🙂

Oh heck, why don’t I make use of that nice polling function wordpress offered a year ago?

And while we’re at it, why not another?  (I’m starting to feel like my friend Chance, who holds regular polls on her livejournal). This one about Paranormal Activity, which I did manage to see.  Uh, I guess if you haven’t seen it, there is a spoiler in the poll, so just a warning.

Now back to recovery.


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6 responses to “Love it or hate it?”

  1. Rick Bowes Avatar
    Rick Bowes

    I thought the demon was rad, the people were stupid and I was sorry the girl survived.

    On the book covers: I believe you were already feverish.

  2. Meagan Avatar

    I’m a fan, I think I like P & P most. I think it’s actually sort of lazy to not continually update book art to old classics. You can say “don’t judge a book by it’s cover,” all you like, but people always will. A dated cover keeps people away unecessarily.

    The only time book covers should stay the same is if the book art has a strong connection beyond mere illustration. The best example I can think of is Lowry’s The Giver.

    Heal well.

  3. Alisa Avatar

    I love sexy new covers on classics –makes me want to fondle them and re-read them at the same time–but these aren’t doing it for me. Too ‘cute’, I think. The best one of the 3 is the back jacket of The Scarlet Letter, IMO.

  4. Terri B. Avatar

    Yeah. I considered buying Wuthering Heights (which I already own) just for the cover too. Geesh! But I managed to escape the bookstore without it. It is still beckoning to me though.

    Hope you’re feeling better.

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