Bosman and Kidd - Kyu

I found both the text and video very interesting since, over the past few years, I had many times where I've contemplated whether to buy a physical book or an e-book. For the longest time, I was a big physical book person. Despite everyone recommending e-books to me, I never believed them until I got myself one. Personally, I believe that regardless of how nicely a book is designed, more people are shifting towards e-books unless they just enjoy reading on paper. What I mean by this is that I think people choose physical books not because of the design but just the feel. For example, my parents both read a lot, but I've never seen them choose a book because of its nice cover. They simply choose a book because it looks interesting to them, and once they finish reading it, they move on to the next. The idea of choosing books based on the cover reminds me of the term "tsundoku" (combination of tsundoku and dokusho), which refers to the act of buying books and piling them up without reading them, basically to make yourself feel better for having a bunch of books. I'm not too sure how effective nice book covers are in convincing book lovers to buy them, considering how convenient e-books have become. 

Still, the idea of cover designers being an interpreter and translators for the text was very intriguing. I had never fully put my thought into the idea of deriving the design of the book from the text, or rather, I had never thought that so much thought was put into cover designs. For example, designing the title 'dry' to look wet with the intention of wanting the book to look like it's lying to the reader. Designing the cover of 1Q84 for the readers to see the person straddling two planes of existence. Although I'm skeptical about how effective a good cover design will help with increasing sales of physical books in the future, I certainly wish that this stays around, so people can continue to appreciate books and the art of it.