EW’s Most Inexplicable Listicle Ever

This is an aside titled 'EW’s Most Inexplicable Listicle Ever' dated 6/25/08

Is this a joke? Entertainment Weekly attempts to list the 25 “best book covers” since 1983. But not a single one of these covers is memorable (and don’t expect to see for yourself from the article, EW inexplicably didn’t include any images to accompany the text.) Really A Million Little Pieces and The Handmaid’s Tale? High Fidelity? Prep?!?!?!?!? Did they just pick up books at random and input the ISBN numbers? This list is like saying Banana Republic and Old Navy have the most innovative fashion designers on the planet. Ok, Jimmy Corrigan is a good cover (obviously,) but if we’re going to throw in a graphic novelist for cool points, why not Black Hole? Chip Kidd is listed several times, but for the worst examples of his work. ICA had an entire wall of his book covers at their Design Life Now show and not one of those is on this list (He’s designed over 800 covers.) Here are some of his better designs. And regardless of what you think of McSweeny’s titles, they do graphic design right: I almost thought about buying How We Are Hungry just for the cover, even though I knew it would annoy me. Chris Adrian’s The Child’s Hospital is incredible both hardcover and paperback. Shelley Jackson designed her own cover and it’s lovely. I rather like the cover of All The Sad Literary Men too. Here are great book covers that came out just in the past year.

Posted by Joanne on Jun. 25, 2008

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