Judging a Book by It's Cover?

Everyone knows the old adage about not picking books based on their packaging, but do you heed this advice? I will openly admit to being drawn to the siren’s call of a beautiful book cover (although I still maintain that only the content of the book determines if I actually read it or not) and will actually cross a room to further admire said works of art.

A quick detour into my local Waterstone’s yesterday then, left me in a state of general feverishness tinged with despair. Long term readers of this blog will know that since the beginning of this year, I have forsworn buying books until I have actually read all those I currently own in a vain attempt to cure both my book addiction and alleviate some of the stress from my groaning bookshelves. This decision has meant that any visit I have made to a bookstore this year has been a bizarre source of personal torture and yesterday was no exception to that rule. As I looked wide eyed at all the lovely, lovely new books, I noticed a strange trend in the stacks of paperbacks and walls lined with glistening hardbacks. Everywhere I turned there were sets of previously unrelated books, reprinted in attractive, unifying styles.

Whilst it has been common practice for publishers to reissue old classics with modern covers and designs, it seems that in recent years, the trend of reprinting in order to create new, highly desirable collections has blossomed. Take for instance these gorgeous, graffiti cover designs for the Penguin Ink collection. It’s not often that you’d see Will Self’s The Book of Dave and Zoe Heller’s Notes On a Scandal categorised together, but thanks to these new designs, they’ll be forever linked. Penguin’s website mentions that the designs were made by some of the world’s leading tattoo artists, but is curiously silent on why such a disparate collection of British books deserves to be redesigned in this particular way. 

Meanwhile, as the lead picture to this post shows, Vintage have been celebrating twenty one years in the business and have reissued 21 of their top selling titles in block colour to celebrate the fact. Altogether, they make a lovely rainbow effect. Here, the collection has a defined purpose: to make people aware of the depth and range of their signings over the last two decades. Likewise, one can argue that the Penguin cloth bound classics fulfil the same purpose, providing relatively affordable copies of the classic £1 and £2 titles in a more enduring binding. But these are all positive points for the consumer, what about the other side of the coin?

Wuthering Heights re-interpreted for the Twilight generation

Creating a new collection from old material can be a very canny move for publishers. Not only does it open up the book to potential new audiences with aesthetically pleasing covers, it can also highlight different aspects of the books better than any marketing campaign ever could. Just think, would Wuthering Heights have started creeping back into store bestseller lists if it wasn’t for the cunning publisher who noted the reference in the hugely popular Twilight Saga and had it and other classic novels republished to resemble Meyer’s series? Ok, so a little part of me died inside on learning that giving it a black cover with a soppy lily was the only way to market a classic to the Emo generation but hey, if it gets teenagers to read literature, it can only be a good thing.

Whilst most of us big kids would like to feel we’re too sophisticated for a cheap trick like that to fool us, there are some exceptions to the rule. From my own experiences as a bookseller, I often saw covers to tie in with film adaptations sell much better than the normal covers: even when displayed side by side.

Then there are the collections which I mentioned earlier, all of which are designed to appeal in bulk. Some book series have even been known to combine together so that their spines spell out a message or make a picture when placed in the right order. Most of us have had the need to collect the ‘full set’ ingrained into us by hard nosed marketing campaigns for years: one day its football cards, the next it’s the Faber and Faber Twentieth Century Greats collection.* Seeing how lovely all the books in a particular collection look as they’re displayed together in the bookshop would fill even the most casual book buyer with longing through this kind of conditioning alone. Everyone likes feeling that they haven’t missed out, that the collection is complete. Logically, its complete nonsense, but nevertheless, I for one am aware of falling prey to the consumerist trap of wanting them all, just because they exist. I’d like to think that there is some deep, psychological reasoning behind this (like the tendency to overeat because the caveman part of our DNA says ‘See food: eat it’ because it hasn’t yet learned to accept the existence of 24 hour supermarkets) but it’s probably just further evidence of my book addiction.

The cynical view might be to think that repackaging bestsellers is an attempt to wring more profit out of publishing back catalogues in times of economic hardship. Whilst you can certainly make that argument, I think that a stronger secondary motive behind the trend is at work, one which will only help ensure the survival of the printed book. As sales of electronic books rise, it has become apparent that the major differences between a printed book and a digital copy is the added visual and tactile power of it's binding. A book, for example, can colour co-ordinate with the décor, but a Kindle (or any other type of e-reader) could never add value to a room in the same kind of way.

Beautiful book covers may in time prove to be the saviour of the printed word. For now, they stand as the first thing which draws a potential reader to another world and, if done well, can represent in a single page design the content and spirit of the hundreds of pages of writing it adorns. A beautiful book cover is not always indicative of a beautiful book, but all beautiful book covers remind us of why we covet them so much: the simple, unalloyed joy of reading.

                                                                                                         

* Or something to that effect.

Hay Festival 2011

For ten days in early summer each year, the Hay Festival takes over a small, book obsessed town in the Brecon Beacons. I finally made the pilgrimage to the ‘Woodstock for the mind’ last Sunday, the final day of the 2011 Festival.*

Fairly typically for a day out in Wales at this time of year, (I can say this. I am Welsh and have lived in Wales most of my life, so rain rarely surprises me) the rain made sporadic appearances throughout the day, usually just after everyone had dried off. Anyone who’s been to the festival in recent years knows this isn’t too much of a problem though. Since 2005, the festival has commandeered a rather large field where a series of linked marquees keep festival goers shielded from the harshness of the Welsh weather. Connected by green, carpeted walkways, once inside the festival, you needn’t leave (though you would be missing out on the many excellent bookstores in the town). Everything you could want is onsite: an abundance of coffee bars; food; bars; onsite bookstores; various entertainments and the poshest portaloos in the British Isles (Complete with faux wood panneling and watercolour pictures, I'll have you know!).

Enjoying a brief, dry spell

The rain didn’t seem to put off the crowds, who had travelled to hear the likes of Simon Sebag Montefiore in the Oxfam tent and Howard Jacobson on his Booker Prize winning novel The Finkler Question. I wasn’t fortunate enough to have a ticket to any of the events, so I wandered about soaking up the general atmosphere. 

At times it was a bit quiet, but in between events, the green pathways swarmed with book lovers young and old, marching along to the next event. Considering the subject matter and that reading is a pretty sedate pastime, the atmosphere was pretty lively with lots of families with young children in tow, enjoying all the child friendly stalls in the main festival as well as the specific children’s Hayfever part of the festival.  

One of the highlights of Hay is the possibility of brushing elbows with some of the most noteworthy writers of the day. If any of them were still to be found on the last day of the festival, they were all hiding in the VIP tent or busy holding intellectual talks because I didn't see any of them. The only brief brush with celebrity spotting I had came very early in the day in the form of a book signing with the presenter from Dragon’s Den. No glimpse of Stephen Fry, no JK Rowling hiding behind a pair of dark glasses…. Oh well, you win some, you loose some I suppose.

 

Some of my Hay 'swag'

I’ve come away with a pile of goodies including several free canvas bags, a dvd of The Book Show, free e-books and even some free flowers (courtesy of the nice lady who had some leftover from her stall). I have to admit that I did succumb to the lure of the Oxfam bookshop after finding some gems, but in keeping with my reading resolution, those few books I couldn’t leave languishing on the shelf have been locked away, out of my possession until I’ve completed my task and have finished reading all the books on my shelf. Ok so, I’ve cheated a little, but not buying any books for over six months is quite an achievement for me! Perhaps most importantly though, I managed to get my hands on a much coveted Penguin mug after years of  mug envy from the lucky owners I knew. 

Free Flowers!

After mooching around the festival for a few hours, we wandered into the town of Hay on Wye in between rain showers and got lost in lots of nice little bookshops. Some of them were quite labyrinthine in nature: I lost my sister in one to the great amusement of the girl behind the counter, who watched me flitting back up and down the various levels in search of my errant family member with a barely suppressed, good natured grin. Due to the frankly overwhelming number of bookshops on offer, I didn’t have as much time to browse as I would have liked: all the more reason to go back next year!

There’s so much going on in the festival, it probably would have made more sense to stay in the area for a few days. Hopefully I’ll get to see some of the talks next time as well. 

* Bill Clinton

The Demise of the British Bookshop?

Next time you’re in your local high street, take a quick look around. The odds are that you’ll have to look a lot harder than you did three years ago to find an all purpose bookshop. Since the recession began to bite, the number of high profile book chains which once dominated our local high streets has dwindled to a mere handful. 

With reports stating that March 2011 was the worst in six years for book sales compounded by the news that high-street giant Waterstones has been put on the market, perhaps its time we remind ourselves how we ended up in this state.

Twenty years ago, nationwide, high street book chains were the norm. The great British public had their pick of Waterstones, Ottakar’s, Blackwell’s, Dillons and stationers WH Smith as well as independent and second hand bookshops to purchase their books from. A bit of re-shuffling amongst the main players (Dillons and Ottakar’s were bought by the HMV group, and amalgamated into the Waterstones chain, which the group also owns, in 1995 and 2006 respectively) and the introduction of Borders in 1998 and then its subsequent loss in 2009, has changed the face of book selling within the British high street. At present, Waterstones and Blackwel’ls are the only nationwide bookshops left trading, with the threat currently facing Waterstones being heralded by some as a portent to the fate of paper book. The influx of predictable and unpredictable challenges which British booksellers have had to face during the last fifteen years has both revolutionised and wounded the industry and the consequences of those actions are being made clearer everyday.

Beginning with the collapse of the Book Net Agreement in the mid nineties, larger book selling chains began to enter into the murky terrain of price wars with supermarket chains. Now that any retailer could negotiate exclusive price cuts with publishers, a succession of increasingly complex discounts became available as various outlets tried to entice the canny shopper into their stores. Great news for the customer and even better for the supermarkets, but not so good for the humble bookshop. In short, although supermarkets make a loss on cut price books (just like traditional bookstores) the profit they make on other lines (groceries, petrol etc) absorbs that loss; a luxury not afforded to booksellers who are forced to reduce their main profit in an attempt to compete.

Throw into the mix the rise of e- books and online bookstores without the additional overheads which store rent, staff levels and various other bills contribute and it’s a recipe for disaster for the humble bricks and mortar bookstore.  

Through all this doom and gloom, there have been some positive signs of retailers adapting to survive. Big hitter Blackwell’s has so far bucked the trend of its contemporaries by cornering the academic market. Many of its sixty branches can be found on or near University campuses and their early branching into academic publishing cemented their reputation for academic excellence. Instead of trying to appeal to the public on masse, they focused their efforts on a specific target market and have prospered because of it.

Up and down the country, success stories are found in the form of independent bookshops which target their stock to their local audience. Certain niche interest bookshops have weathered the storms of recession better than book selling behemoths due to their loyal customer basis who appreciate their specialist knowledge. In my local city, a Military History bookstore has survived a variety of thriving second hand bookstores and outlived a Dillons, a second branch of Waterstones and a very busy branch of Borders, all of which were within a five minute stroll. Always busy, on the occasions I’ve visited, I have always seen members of staff talking enthusiastically with customers about the books on offer. The books on offer may not have the cheapest price point available, but the customers don’t seem to mind judging by their continued presence.

Another success story is the rise of the second hand bookshop. Down side streets or arcades just off the main shopping streets, these treasure troves not only offer a breadth of titles but also at mark down prices. The explosion of Oxfam Bookstores is a case in point. Whilst some say Oxfam has muscled in on the territories of traditional second hand bookshops, stealing their business with a well known name and an unfair advantage in selling donated, rather than purchased stock, the fact remains that Oxfam is popular because there is an increasing demand for cheap, available books along with a browsing experience.

No matter how many people stand up and declare their devotion to the common bookshop and for the experience of browsing and finding new, previously unknown, authors, there are no just as many people who will proudly admit their allegiance to Amazon and to e-books. Yet the availability of e-books still lags far behind its printed cousin, with no real consensus over pricing being reached so far. In addition, although buying books online has become more and more popular thanks to unbeatable price points and the convenience of door to door delivery, most people agree that online book shopping is only useful when looking for a specific book. Until online retailers figure out a way to transfer the browsing experience of a shop to the web, the majority of book buyers who aren’t sure which book they want to purchase will continue to visit bookstores, if only to choose a title to later buy online. 

Right now the future of British book selling is far from secure. It remains to be seen exactly how the industry will face its problems in the future. Will it choose to continue to directly compete with online bookstores and digital readers or will it move back into specialisation and focus on delivering quality browsing and customer services which online retailers just cannot offer?

For now, most of the book selling world’s eyes are firmly fixed on the plight of Waterstones. With rumours circulating of a possible co-ownership deal between former owner Tim Waterstone and the Russian owner of LiveJournal , Alexandar Mamut, there is significant hope for the future of the chain. Even if this rumoured deal proceeds smoothly, Waterstones will still have to cope with the myriad of problems which the book industry currently faces: a sobering thought for all book lovers as well as Waterstones’ staff.

Book selling in the UK has already changed dramatically in the last twenty years and you can safely bet that it will change even more in the foreseeable future. Is this the beginning of the end for the British bookshop? Let’s hope not.

Photographs by Hannah Lewis

Reading Resolution: Update

Some of the neglected books I'll be reading this year

A quarter of the way into 2011 and I’m pleased to say I’ve kept my resolution not to buy any new books until I’ve read all of the books I currently own. It hasn’t been easy. Temptation reared its head recently when I was handed a Smith’s gift card and told to spend it (it went on magazines in the end) and then there was the moment when I saw a beautiful hard copy of Angela Carter's‘Wayward Girls and Wicked Women’ when a mischievous little voice in my head said, “Buy it! No one will know...” .  Still, I’ve resisted so far and have been making my way through my bookshelves.

So far, it’s been pretty painless: I’ve had my pick of unopened books with a greater potential to delight than those I’ve previously started and cast aside for various reasons.  I’ll have to change that soon enough though and delve into one of those rejected books to prevent a big block of tedium once I’ve run out of crisp, new ones to read.

My progress has been slower than I’d like. I used to get a lot of reading done on my daily train commute but since that has been reduced this year, I’ve noticed just how much that extra hour and a bit contributed to my reading time. Still, I haven’t been doing too badly this year.

I’ve already made my way through Susan Cooper’s The Dark Is Rising Sequence (five books in all) Angela Carter’s Book of Fairy Tales, Stephen Fry’s latest autobiography The Fry Chronicles, Love in the Time of Cholera and The Great Gatsby. I’ve started to sink my teeth into Ovid’s Metamorphoses which I’ve wanted to read for ages but only just managed to get a copy of.

Love in the Time of Cholera was a bit like walking through treacle in places. It has a very slow pace which captures the lingering passage of days that one of the main characters, Florentino Ariza, attempts to fill as he waits a lifetime for the opportunity to re-declare his adoration to the love of his life, Fermina Daza. It took me a good few weeks to slog through the slower parts of the novel (wonderfully rich and detailed as they were) which has put me slightly behind on my resolution. 

I adored the Angela Carter book and the long awaited sequal to Fry's Moab is My Washpot. The eponoymous volume of  The Dark Is Rising Sequence was a childhood favourite, first encountered in school. I'm quite surprised I never got around to reading the other four books at the time, but even reading as an adult, they was still plenty to enjoy about this fanatsy.

I’ve got a fair few books to get through yet, (hopefully a little bit quicker than my progress so far- there are so many books I want to buy) so the experiment continues.

Sherlock Holmes and the Surprising Sequel

The announcement that writer Anthony Horowitz has been granted permission to write a brand new Sherlock Holmes novel has been met with mixed reviews.  Sir Arthur Conan’s Doyle’s character has been reinvented on numerous occasions over the years, from 21^st century forensic sleuth in the latest BBC adaptation to the Deerstalker wearing trendsetter Basil Rathbone, Holmes is the man with a thousand faces. Horowitz however seems keen not to put his own stamp on the iconic literary character, but rather in the style of writing itself.   

An official statement on the author’s website states 

'…my aim is to produce a first rate mystery for a modern audience while remaining absolutely true to the spirit of the original'.  

Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes in the 2010 BBC adaptation.

Best known for his work on the popular television series Foyle's War and for his Alex Rider children's series,  the title of Horowitz’s Holmes novel is being kept under wraps by publisher Orion and is expected to be released in September this year.

Sherlock is not alone in receiving this kind of revisionist treatment as sequels of this kind become more and more popular. The James Bond franchise has continued to grow without original author Ian Fleming, thanks to Sebastian Faulks' 2008 novel, Devil May Care and looks set to continue to expand this year when crime writer, Jeffrey Deaver, releases Carte Blanche in May. In a world where readers have countless opportunities to revisit their favourite characters and plots, presented to them in various formats, sequels are inevitable. With television, film and even the Internet cashing in on the popularity of well written stories and characters, why shouldn’t the book world benefit to? Does this practice stifle or encourage creativity?

It’s no secret that a popular series is desirable in all formats for everyone involved. The enormous popularity of the Harry Potter books and their subsequent film franchise has been deemed as the Holy Grail of success in both print and celluloid.  An astonishing array of films aimed at children have been adapted from successful book series in recent years, with varying success. Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Saga and  C.S.Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia have each successfully spawned three film adaptations whilst Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance Cycle,  Cornelia Funke’s Inkheart Trilogy and the Spiderwick Chronicles each add one film credit to their portfolio. Adapting already successful and well received books into film is not only a financially sound move for studios in times of spiralling costs (practically guaranteeing a profit) but also taps into the incurable vein of human curiosity which children in particular seem to posses in high concentrations. As long as somebody asks ‘and then what happened’ they will be inclined to search for answers, from sanctified sources like official films, or from their own imaginations.

The growth of the mainly Internet based phenomenon ‘Fan Fiction’ is a case in point. Capitalising on the natural inclination of the inquisitive to know what happens to the characters and world we have come to love as we reach the final page of a novel, Fan Fiction websites allow the average reader web-space to share their version of an incident or a scene that they would have liked their favourite characters to come up against. Set in a world with parameters that have been created by the original authors, some daydreams have stretched further, with novel sized stories appearing online in homage to the author and idea that they love.

As the age old practise of authors other than the originals writing sequels becomes more accepted, it is also being embraced at an increasing rate by the publishing world. Numerous sequels and spin offs to our most beloved novels and authors seem to flood the market at the moment.  Pride and Prejudice (already no stranger to this publishing trend) has had a recent resurgence thanks to Quirk Classics and their Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (not to mention Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters and Android Karenina).  In a similar fashion, Gregory Maguire built on the parameters set up by L. Frank Baum in the Wonderful Wizard of Oz  to tell unique stories about peripheral characters and their interaction with each other before and after the arrival of Dorothy Gale. He is the author of the highly acclaimed and wildly popular Wicked,which has since been re-imagined itself as a Broadway musical.  Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea, is a novel which not only opens Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre for further understanding, but stands so strongly as an individual book that it is now studied for its own merits. In short, without the freedom to revise and revisit an author’s world, we would have missed out on some brilliant and inspiring books.

It’s far too early to tell how Horowitz’ Holmes will stand up to the test of time or if it will live up to the expectation and the high standards of the Baker Street fans. Undoubtedly it will be scrutinised with ferocity by the legions of fans keen to safeguard the reputation of a much loved character. Like all sequels and spin offs, it will be the quality of writing and plot which will ultimately determine the success of the book after the initial publicity furore dies down. For now, we wait as the mystery unfolds.

Reading Resolution

I've finally cracked and made a decision that all bibliophiles must make at some point in their lives. I have decided that I will not buy or borrow any new books for pleasure until I have read every book that I currently own.

I do not take this decision lightly, I'm positively dreading certain books lurking at the back of my bookshelves, tomes which I have previously attempted to read but simply couldn't finish.  The fact remains however that I own too many books for my limited floor space. The bookshelf overflowed ages ago despite being stacked two deep with books crammed horizontally in the small areas of extra space on top of these and now the stack of titles next to the bed is getting precariously large. So in an attempt to prevent death by book avalanche and in a nod to the current austerity drive, I will be purveying the wares I already own with a critical eye.

A secondary motivation behind this decision is my genuine sadness and horror over the predicted future of the printed word. It seems to have been accepted by the world at large that computerised technology will revolutionise the act of reading, making the current printing, binding and even methods of book selection obsolete within the near future. I’ve found myself confronting this spectre directly thanks to my sister receiving a Kindle for Christmas. To make myself perfectly clear on this subject: you will have to pry my books from my cold, dead hands before I accept that I have to read via a screen.  Reading to me is about the entire experience: the weight and smell of a volume and the pure physicality of page turning is as much a part of the pleasure as the words I’m reading. On a more practical note, I am hideously short-sighted and find reading in a traditional medium less straining and tiring than any form of computerised reading, even the special non back- lit kinds.

Following this train of thought, I realised I haven’t been affording my books the value they deserve and have decided that it is a crime against the arts to leave them unread, gathering dust, especially when you consider that many people in the world simply do not have easy access to the wide variety of books that we in the Western World do. So, for the time being, I shall not be parting with any money nor borrowing any books until I have worked my way through those that I already own and I’ll be keeping you informed on my progress.

Is anyone out there thinking of doing a similar thing? Do you have a read everything before buying more policy already? Let me know, leave a comment below.