Will Raulin Reading Response 2
The reading discusses the book covers and how they evolve as we make the transition from physical books to digital books. The author suggests that book covers aren’t as important for digital books because they don’t physically need covers in order to survive. Digital books also take different forms from traditional physical books so they can have covers in different forms, if at all. The author talks about how the majority of books in Japan have simple white colors with plain text on them. This was done to create a rational system which works with the reader. In the US we’ve always had enormous amounts of variety of size and color in book covers. This is done to draw the reader in, to say “Hey! I’m interesting, read me.” This is important in our culture more so than others, like that of Japan’s, because we are overwhelmed with so many different senses. We don’t pay attention to things individually but rather have to look at the big picture and pick out what we feel is important. We have interesting covers to give the reader some insight as to what the feeling of the book is. The tone or mood of the book is often reflected by the cover. This will tell the reader before even opening the book whether or not it is something they will be interested in. This is why I feel book covers are important. Book covers give the book its own personality as something unique and individualistic which is something our culture specifically values. This can also explain why Japan uses simple rational book covers. They are generally a collective society, focusing on the whole, so they look at books as collections of knowledge rather than thinking of each book as its own lesson. I like any chance for creativity so for me, book covers are crucial. I haven’t been aware that book covers are “dead” in digital books. I feel like digital books should always include the
cover, they are not necessary to protect the book but still serve the purpose of creating a mood before reading the book. Because the cover is “dead� in digital books the book is transforming into a vehicle of facts for the reader to digest rather than an experiential piece of literature.