Friday, December 28, 2012

Book Kaleidoscope: My Top Five Best Book Covers



This is the second category of the 2012 Book Kaleidoscopethe rewinding of bookish aspects of books we have read during this 2012. After a little #fangirling in the 1st category: Top Five Book Boy Friends yesterday, now we are switching to artistic aspects of a book: Covers! Here I rank my five most favorite books covers that I had read for 2012…

5. The Great Gatsby



I have posted about this particular The Great Gatsby cover for a classics challenge, and I don’t know why, this post became quite popular with 598 pageviews (when I wrote this post). This is a translated version of The Great Gatsby, and I like it even before I read the book. I like the overall color tone: beige, and the classy nuances. I’ll quote what I’ve written for this cover:

There are three persons, two men and one woman are standing in the middle of a party took place in a mansion. That was my first impression of this cover, and it turned out to match the book theme. The luxury party and the snob expression of those three persons could reflect the moral decadency of the “Jazz Age”. It seems that the woman (Daisy) is torn between the two men. She perhaps will choose the man in the front (Gatsby I presume), but she is somehow still attached to the man behind (Tom I presume), who is staring at her sharply, afraid of losing her.

Aesthetically I love the cover, it can reflect the theme of the book, but I think it still could not reflect the whole story. I could not even guess which one is Gatsby from the two gentlemen in the illustration.


4. Nobody’s Boy



This one is translated version of Nobody’s Boy from one of the biggest publishers in Indonesia. I like the old parchment color for the cover background, the illustration is nice too. Remi was pictured as a tiny and helpless boy, patting the dogs’ heads he loved—and the dogs loved him too. In the background, there was Signor Vitalis with the monkey on his shoulder, illustrated as if they were looking at Remi from a far before they both vanished. The illustration reflected the story very well.


3. Lord of The Flies



Red is my favorite color, so when I saw this new edition of Lord of the Flies in one of The Book Depository’s hourly sales, I just grabbed it without further consideration :) I liked the cover from the beginning, and after I read it, I loved it more. Firstly, the red color represented the fighting spirit of the characters. The illustration of the primitives fit with the story’s theme, and the bright colors (in leaves, animals) represented youthfulness. All in all, the cover tells the whole story of this book, about how youths could become savages, and how they fight against it. And the cover fits well with young adult readers.


2. The Color Purple



Not only because there were purple flowers in the cover that makes The Color Purple’s cover one of my favorites, I loved it because the cover reflected the story and the emotional aspects of the story. I have written about it here, let me just quote it now.

I think this certain cover speaks a lot about the book. First, there is a portrait of a black woman’s bare legs, standing at the porch (leaning on a pillar from rotten woods). The lack of shoes and the body language of the woman already brought the sense of poverty and powerless. The grayish color of the portrait only added a sense of hopelessness (and reflected the non-existence of women in the world) to the scene. However, there are also three purple flowers, as if from the helpless ground the flowers had grown to bring a new brighter and more colorful scene to the world (and to women in particular). The purple flowers represent the new hope of happiness that awaits Celie at the end of her long waiting.


1. Beloved

From the moment I held this book, I have been intrigued by the black woman’s picture. At first I thought the woman was so black that her face was almost disappeared. However at second sight, I began to realize that the half right of her face was completely transparent, as if half of her face dissolved to the red background of the cover (it’s a brilliant idea to choose red as part of the background so that the transparency effect became more distinct). And that was not intended to be just an effect (the transparency), or otherwise her hat and clothes would be transparent as well. It’s not until after I have finished reading Beloved—and it’s a very powerful book too—that I realized how clever the illustrator was in designing the cover. I could not say as much as I like without revealing the whole story, but I think that “Beloved” was exactly as what this cover is reflecting, mysterious, dark and made you think whether everything was real or was it as what you’ve been thinking. Genius design of a cover!

And….that makes Beloved…

Fanda’s Most Favorite Book Cover
of 2012!


*Put your post in the linky at Book Kaleidoscope Master Post*
*We still have one final post of the Top Five Most Favorite Books on December 31st! (see the details in the Master Post)*

18 comments:

  1. Wow. My thoughts about the last 3 covers are the complete opposite of yours; I think the Lord of the Flies cover denotes something really childish/immature; The Color Purple and Beloved are far too obvious for my liking - esp. Beloved.

    I think The Great Gatsby is overrated and I've never read Nobody's Boy, but that cover would not induce me to try it.

    Strange how we judge books by covers - even though most of us won't admit to it.

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    1. You're right about how we judge books by covers. And that's why I like covers that can reflect the book. I think The Color Purple and Beloved well serve that purpose, and that's why I put them to my favorites. Especially Beloved, I feel the same reaction when I was reading the book and when I was observing the cover--dark, mysterious, something strong and solid.

      About Lord of the Flies, yes, it might looks childish, but still I like the nuances of bravery (or perhaps it's because the red color, LOL!)

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  2. Lord of The Fliesnya beda sama punyaku mba, yang punyaku lebih suram versinya, tapi aku suka dua2nya kok =) anyway it's true we judge a book by its cover, but for me that's fine, sometimes we even found unexpected treasures that way =)

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    1. Yep, but sometimes it brings disappointment also when the cover didn't reflect the book!

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  3. Aku suka sama covernya Nobody's Boy... Kereenn >v<

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    1. Setuju, aku suka ilustrasinya yang berupa goresan tipis itu, nyeni banget.

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  4. Setuju dengan pendapatmu tentang Beloved, mbak. Tapi cover favoritku di atas itu adalah Nobody's Boy. Classic banget ya suasanannya. Berencana baca ulang buku itu buat FYEnya bzee tahun depan

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    1. Ilustrasi Nobody's Boy, selain klasik, memang pas banget sama suasana kisahnya ya?

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  5. Edisi klasiknya GPU cakep2 ya, Nobody's Boy itu bagus.
    Sayangnya tahun ini aku ga ada baca klasik GPU, klo ada pasti masuk daftar cover cakep :D

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    1. Yup, terutama karena GPU banyak pake nuansa old parchment buat cover2nya. Wax seal-nya juga bikin makin bernuansa vintage. Suka deh...

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  6. paling suka sama cover Lord of The Flies, kayak suku pedalaman gambarnya :D

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    1. Iya, etnik banget ya, apalagi aku paling suka warna merah.

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  7. Nobody's Boy keren, Mbak. *jadi pengin baca*
    Kalo yang Beloved, aku memang suka cover yang ini. :D

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    1. Oh belum baca Nobody's Boy ya? Lumayan bagus kok.
      Yup, lihat gambar cover Beloved itu aja udah bikin mrinding ya?

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  8. Aq juga suka Nobody's Boy, lagi cari filmnya belum ketemu :(
    Lord of The Flies-nya keren, dari jauh warnanya suka menarik, jadi keingat sama Sepuluh Anak Negro deh :D

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    1. Apanya yg bikin keinget Sepuluh Anak Negro? Gambarnya? Or nuansa jahatnya?

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  9. Setuju pilihan Mbak Fanda keren-keren semua, saya suka nuansa vintagenya Great Gatsby dan baca penjelasan Mbak baru nyadar juga kalau cover Beloved itu ada transparannya, loh!

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    1. Aku awalnya juga gak sadar kalau itu transparan, Mia, kirain cuma permainan warna/gambar. Tapi setelah baca sebagian, baru tahu bahwa transparan itu ada arti khusus yg sesuai dengan kisahnya. Udah baca bukunya?

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What do you think?