Monthly Archives: July 2014

Get a Spine

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In a recent gathering of writers, the discussion turned to book cover design and, more specifically, book spine design. Even more specifically, how often book sales are lost because authors and publishers overlook this crucial part of a book.

As important as a book’s cover is, it’s usually the book’s spine that first greets us on the shelves of stores and libraries. It’s one thing if we’re looking for a particular title or author, another if we’re browsing. Truth is we’re browsing even when we’re looking for a particular title or author. This is why book spine design deserves at least as much attention from authors and publishers as they give to cover design.

Since shelved books usually stand vertically, the ideal direction for type on the spine is horizontal to make words appear as we normally view them. But this is problematic if the book is not fat or the words are long. Most books cannot support this design. Instead, letters are usually turned at right angles to the viewer’s eye, running along the vertical spine. Because this is not the normal way we view writing, it has to be even clearer than it would otherwise have to be.

In North America, the normal direction of words on book spines is from top to bottom; in Europe, it’s usually bottom to top. This is because in North America, books are stacked face up, while in Europe, they’re stacked face down, with no front covers visible at all. The result is that readers browsing the shelves in a European bookstore tilt their necks to the left, while those in North America tilt theirs to the right.

With spine design, simple sells. This may be one reason modern books titles are often only one or two words; a design choice as much as a literary one. Capital letters, having no ascenders or descenders, present more cleanly than lower case letters. Bold fonts work better than delicate ones. Colors need to contrast but not compete. The spine must attract attention, convey information and please the eye; a huge job for a relatively small plot of real estate on a book.

Next time you’re browsing bookshelves – in a store, a library or your own home – see which books attract your attention. Then consider the designs of the spines. You’ll notice trends that succeed but also be surprised when a rule-breaking design works.

Like people’s spines, book spines should be accorded the care and respect they deserve because their job is critical to everything that resides within the body.

Quotable

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A room without books is like a body without a soul. — Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 BC-43 BC)

No furniture is so charming as books. – Rev. Sydney Smith (1771-1845)

If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it. —
Toni Morrison (1931-present)

When Good Words Go Bad

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William Shakespeare is considered by most literary historians and critics to be the best writer ever in the English language. The fact that his work has endured for four centuries supports the point. Yet Shakespeare is shunned by many readers once they graduate from school. Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales? Beowulf (author unknown)? Fuggedaboutit! Some of the greatest literature of the English language seems written in a foreign language, with the same effect on readers that garlic breath has on lovers.

Readers don’t like to be stopped midsentence by a word so archaic that a trip to the dictionary becomes necessary. Even trickier is when a word is recognized but misinterpreted and one is left to question the author’s objective. You’ll find an example in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, where the troubled prince tells Ophelia, “Get thee to a nunnery!” Most readers interpret “nunnery” as a convent. In Elizabethan parlance, however, “nunnery” could also mean brothel. Shakespeare seems to leave it to the reader to decide Hamlet’s intention.

In today’s vernacular, we find words taking on opposite meanings from their original definitions. One example is “sick”, used to mean “awesome” (“bad” was the stand-in for “awesome” in the ‘80s, but “bad” is now back to being … bad). “The bomb” can be a disaster or a triumph. “Catfish” is something you would rather eat than have one eat you. Hurling “you bitch” is quite different from yelling “you’re my bitch”, although you probably don’t want to be at the receiving end of either phrase, unless you really are a female canine.

Just as old words change over time, new words are invented every year that may send you to your cyber-dictionary if you haven’t kept up with cultural trends. Have you considered buying a “turducken” with a “bitcoin” lately? Using Twitter to Tweet no longer makes you a twit; now you are a “tweep”. Somehow, “fracking” sounds like an appropriate word for what we are doing to our planet to extract its petroleum resources.

English is an ever-evolving language. That’s its beauty and its challenge, both for authors and for readers. Like interior decorating or clothing fashion, what trends today in language may be outdated or obsolete by next year. Using trendy words to set a period piece is smart. Using trendy words in a timeless piece could end up smarting.

There’s no such thing as bad words; only bad writers (oh, what did she mean by that?).

Vive la Bastille Day in Literature

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July 14th is Bastille Day in France. It’s France’s equivalent of our Independence Day, when France and people of French ancestry around the globe celebrate the storming of the notorious Parisian fortress-prison, which set its revolution in motion in 1789. The events of that day, the events of that time, also inspired some of our most enduring classic literature.

Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables and Baroness Orczy’s Scarlet Pimpernel place characters in the Bastille. Hugo, Voltaire and the Marquis de Sade were but three of the well-known authors who were imprisoned at some time in the Bastille. During one of his several incarcerations, Sade handwrote the manuscript for The 120 Days of Sodom, considered his crowning achievement and the cornerstone of his thought.

The often recited opening lines of A Tale of Two Cities, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” describes the years leading up to the French Revolution. The English romantic poet, Percy Bysshe Shelly, described the French revolution as “the master theme of the epoch”. Another English poet, William Blake, wrote the book-length poem The French Revolution. He felt there was a strong connection between the American and French revolutions, that these revolutions had a universal and historical impact.

One of the most famous and mysterious prisoners of The Bastille came to be known as “the man in the iron mask”. Many theories were spun about the identity of the prisoner who went by different names over his 34 years in the custody of the same jailer. Voltaire theorized he was an illegitimate half-brother of King Louis XIV. Alexander Dumas used this theory in his book The Vicomte de Bragelonne, but made the prisoner an identical twin of Louis XIV. This book has served as the basis of the movie The Man in the Iron Mask.

The Fall of the Bastille is credited as having greatly influenced Gothic literature through representations of prisons and imprisonment. Castles and imprisonment also feature prominently in Lord Byron’s Romantic-era The Prisoner of Chillon, a verse narrative inspired by the story of Francois Bonivard, a sixteenth-century Swiss monk imprisoned at the Chateau de Chillon for political activism. Even a children’s book, The Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett, references the Bastille as a place a child imagines herself to be in as a way to cope with abuses she must endure.

Open that bottle of champagne, enjoy that croissant with a creamy slathering of brie, and sweeten your day with a lovely light crepe. But don’t forget to salute Bastille Day by picking up one of the many books influenced by that day and those times.

Recommended

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Lexicographer Paul Dickson has assembled a fascinating and fun book titled Authorisms: Words Wrought by Writers. He presents a veritable dictionary of words created or popularized by famous people, including many authors. Shakespeare and Sir Walter Scott lead the count of inventive language. More modern contributors include Jane Austen (base ball), Louisa May Alcott (co-ed), Mark Twain (hard-boiled), John le Carrè (mole) and William Gibson (cyberspace). There’s only one word for this book: joy!

Fighting Over Reading?

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In previous blog posts, I’ve promoted an early introduction to reading for children. On June 24th, the American Academy of Pediatrics, Reach Out and Read, and Scholastic Inc., working with Too Small to Fail, issued a joint announcement at the fourth annual Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) America . Their collaborative effort is “to raise awareness among parents about early language development. It’s the first time the AARP will promote early literacy—from an infant’s very first days—as an essential component of primary care visits.” The goal is to “ensure that doctors, parents and caregivers have the information, tools and books they need to promote reading out loud to child every day starting in infancy.”

Obvious benefit to children, right? Slam dunk to launch a lifelong advantageous skill, yes? If you follow the Book●ed blog, you’re applauding this news. But not everyone is.

There’s been a curious backlash by some (a small group, I believe, but vocal) attacking the plan. The assault is based on erroneous assumptions: that the program will “push” reading on children, that it’s enough for adults to simply talk with children, that this is another unnecessary intervention and that reading isn’t necessary. Say what?

Nothing in the program “pushes” anything on a child; apparently, some adults feel reading to a child is pushing something on them they would rather not do (my guess is those adults were never read to as children). Reading to a child is engaging them. I’ve never known a child that didn’t enjoy being read to. Of course, adults should frequently engage in conversation and activity with children; that is how they learn … and they’re instinct is to learn. Learning through exposure to literature is not just taking in information; it develops the vocabulary children need to adequately express themselves. Children emulate the adults in their lives. Those who are read to want to possess the power of reading themselves.

Exposure to reading may also expose a child’s reading challenges, which are more easily overcome with early intervention, saving a lifetime of unnecessary frustration, sadness and shame.

Success in life, however you define it, is not guaranteed by early literacy exposure; but statistics show that readers generally do better than non-readers. And the love of reading can be instilled from infancy by exposing children to the wonder of books.

The backlash against the collaborative reading effort has nothing to do with children. It says plenty about a certain group of adults. But you already know that.

Footnotes

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On July 2nd, after three years in which several thousand volunteers distributed over one and one-half million specially-printed paperbacks across America, the not-for-profit World Book Night organization sadly announced that they are suspending operations. Despite a significant financial and time commitment from publishers, writers, booksellers, librarians, printers, distributors, shippers and volunteer book givers, not enough outside financing was attained to continue the program. In an email message to supporters, World Book Night U.S. Board Chairman Michael Pietsch said, “World Book Night’s first three years have been a profound experience for everyone involved. The altruistic spirit of the givers and of industry supporters have reminded us all of the transformative impact books have on people’s lives, and of the power of a book as a gift.”

In England, where the program originated, it continues successfully. The problem in the U.S. was the cost of production, organization and distribution. American publishers had supported World Book Night by printing special copies of the two dozen giveaway books. Authors waived their royalties. Yet that was not enough to keep World Book Night U.S. in business.