Posts tagged book cover

We’re currently reading (and posting lovely pictures of ourselves with our copies of) The Great Gatsby for Read Hard. Care to join us?  My copy of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby features a detail of The Evening, a painting by Delphin Enjolras, on its front cover. (I know that because the book says so on the back.) The book is one of the “budget editions” from the Penguin Popular Classics series of “the greatest works of literature.”  When Penguin declared the books in the series as “budget editions,” they weren’t kidding. I bought The Great Gatsby for only P99 (roughly $2). And when Penguin referred to the books in the series as “the greatest works of literature,” they also weren’t kidding. Aside from The Great Gatsby, among the many novels released in the Penguin Popular Classics line are Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, and Fryodor Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment, all of which I have graciously bought (each costs only P99, remember?) but have not yet read. I’m starting with The Great Gatsby.

We’re currently reading (and posting lovely pictures of ourselves with our copies of) The Great Gatsby for Read Hard. Care to join us? 

My copy of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby features a detail of The Evening, a painting by Delphin Enjolras, on its front cover. (I know that because the book says so on the back.) The book is one of the “budget editions” from the Penguin Popular Classics series of “the greatest works of literature.” 

When Penguin declared the books in the series as “budget editions,” they weren’t kidding. I bought The Great Gatsby for only P99 (roughly $2). And when Penguin referred to the books in the series as “the greatest works of literature,” they also weren’t kidding. Aside from The Great Gatsby, among the many novels released in the Penguin Popular Classics line are Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, and Fryodor Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment, all of which I have graciously bought (each costs only P99, remember?) but have not yet read. I’m starting with The Great Gatsby.

readhard

I’m in the middle of reading The Red Pyramid, the hot-off-the-press series starter of Rick Riordan’s follow-up to Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Kane Chronicles. I’m a fan of Riordan’s simple yet insanely fun and suspenseful writing in Percy Jackson, and reading through the first installment of his new series, I must say the guy still has it in spades. After applying his modern and often humorous twists to various Greek myths and legends in Percy Jackson, Riordan now has set his sights on the relatively less familiar tales of Egyptian gods and godesses, taking them for a nice spin as his new protagonists, siblings Carter and Sadie Kane, race against time to defeat Set, the most nefarious of all gods of Ancient Egypt.  Apparently, Riordan is one crazy children’s book author, as he is set to kick off another series in October. This time he shall be returning to the Percy Jackson universe with The Heroes of Olympus, a spin-off series whose first book, The Lost Hero, introduces a new power trio of heroes to match that of Percy, Grover, and Annabeth in the original series. As revealed through a sneak peek of the first two chapters of The Lost Hero, which you can read here after entering the recently disclosed password, newhero, and whose cover art has also been unveiled just a few hours ago, the eponymous lost hero turns out to be none other than Percy himself. Annabeth, now explicitly named as his girlfriend, has embarked on a quest with a new character named Butch to locate Percy. She is told, presumably by the Oracle of Delphi, that a certain one-shoed person holds the answer to their search-and-rescue operation. Enter Jason (Get it? Jason the one-shoed hero from the legend of the Argonauts?), a teenager who we first meet waking up in a bus full of juvenile delinquents on a field trip, including his girlfriend, Piper, and his best friend, Leo (Charmed, much?). Headed by the pint-sized Coach Hedge, they arrive at the Grand Canyon, whereupon dark clouds suddenly appear, storm spirits wreak havoc, a satyr abandons his disguise, and Jason, Piper, and Leo discover the truth: they are, in fact, demigods.  It’s an exciting cold open for what is sure to be another exciting fantasy-adventure series from one of the masters of classic cliffhangers, if you ask me.

I’m in the middle of reading The Red Pyramid, the hot-off-the-press series starter of Rick Riordan’s follow-up to Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Kane Chronicles. I’m a fan of Riordan’s simple yet insanely fun and suspenseful writing in Percy Jackson, and reading through the first installment of his new series, I must say the guy still has it in spades. After applying his modern and often humorous twists to various Greek myths and legends in Percy Jackson, Riordan now has set his sights on the relatively less familiar tales of Egyptian gods and godesses, taking them for a nice spin as his new protagonists, siblings Carter and Sadie Kane, race against time to defeat Set, the most nefarious of all gods of Ancient Egypt. 

Apparently, Riordan is one crazy children’s book author, as he is set to kick off another series in October. This time he shall be returning to the Percy Jackson universe with The Heroes of Olympus, a spin-off series whose first book, The Lost Hero, introduces a new power trio of heroes to match that of Percy, Grover, and Annabeth in the original series.

As revealed through a sneak peek of the first two chapters of The Lost Hero, which you can read here after entering the recently disclosed password, newhero, and whose cover art has also been unveiled just a few hours ago, the eponymous lost hero turns out to be none other than Percy himself. Annabeth, now explicitly named as his girlfriend, has embarked on a quest with a new character named Butch to locate Percy. She is told, presumably by the Oracle of Delphi, that a certain one-shoed person holds the answer to their search-and-rescue operation. Enter Jason (Get it? Jason the one-shoed hero from the legend of the Argonauts?), a teenager who we first meet waking up in a bus full of juvenile delinquents on a field trip, including his girlfriend, Piper, and his best friend, Leo (Charmed, much?). Headed by the pint-sized Coach Hedge, they arrive at the Grand Canyon, whereupon dark clouds suddenly appear, storm spirits wreak havoc, a satyr abandons his disguise, and Jason, Piper, and Leo discover the truth: they are, in fact, demigods. 

It’s an exciting cold open for what is sure to be another exciting fantasy-adventure series from one of the masters of classic cliffhangers, if you ask me.

Miguel Syjuco’s Ilustrado is all the rage lately. So are giveaways! After buying The Dark Knight Returns, I thought I’d stay in the store for a little while longer last night and browse the non-graphic novel shelves. As a habitué of the store, I had practically memorized what books are in a particular aisle and can quickly spot the new arrivals therein—save for the shelves in the large-format section, which is home to books whose size and price more often than not keep me at bay. But for some reason I found myself taking a look at the books in said section last night and was surprised to see a copy of the Picador edition of Ilustrado (pictured right). The brilliant cover by Jon Gray, who also designed the cover of the smaller, cheaper, and more common Farrar, Straus and Giroux edition (left), a copy of which I had purchased several weeks back, caught me off guard. As much a collector of book covers as a collector of books, I bought it right there and then. Now, I have two copies of the novel, and I’m giving one of them (the smaller and cheaper one) away. Similar to the tiny set of rules I specified for my first book giveaway half a year ago, all you have to do to win is to like, reblog, or reply to this post. Also, lest I risk ponying up a ridiculous amount of money for international shipping, you need to be a resident of the Republic of the Philippines to qualify. The winner will be determined via random draw on May 30, 2010. So what are you waiting for? Hit that heart button or buzz in with your thoughts and be one step closer to being enlightened. But wait! There’s more! If you want to earn an additionally entry for the draw, just photo reply to this post with your favorite book cover design. I expect to see more works by Jon Gray and maybe a little bit of Milan Bozic, Peter Mendelsuhn, David Pearson, and Chip Kidd, but I bet I’ll be delighted at your choices all the same. Ilustrado, by the way, is Syjuco’s debut novel. He won the Man Asian Literary Prize and the Palanca Award in 2008 for the manuscript of Ilustrado. Syjuco was born in the Philippines and currently lives in Montreal. He is therefore ineligible to join this giveaway.

Miguel Syjuco’s Ilustrado is all the rage lately. So are giveaways!

After buying The Dark Knight Returns, I thought I’d stay in the store for a little while longer last night and browse the non-graphic novel shelves. As a habitué of the store, I had practically memorized what books are in a particular aisle and can quickly spot the new arrivals therein—save for the shelves in the large-format section, which is home to books whose size and price more often than not keep me at bay. But for some reason I found myself taking a look at the books in said section last night and was surprised to see a copy of the Picador edition of Ilustrado (pictured right). The brilliant cover by Jon Gray, who also designed the cover of the smaller, cheaper, and more common Farrar, Straus and Giroux edition (left), a copy of which I had purchased several weeks back, caught me off guard. As much a collector of book covers as a collector of books, I bought it right there and then.

Now, I have two copies of the novel, and I’m giving one of them (the smaller and cheaper one) away. Similar to the tiny set of rules I specified for my first book giveaway half a year ago, all you have to do to win is to like, reblog, or reply to this post. Also, lest I risk ponying up a ridiculous amount of money for international shipping, you need to be a resident of the Republic of the Philippines to qualify. The winner will be determined via random draw on May 30, 2010.

So what are you waiting for? Hit that heart button or buzz in with your thoughts and be one step closer to being enlightened.

But wait! There’s more! If you want to earn an additionally entry for the draw, just photo reply to this post with your favorite book cover design. I expect to see more works by Jon Gray and maybe a little bit of Milan Bozic, Peter Mendelsuhn, David Pearson, and Chip Kidd, but I bet I’ll be delighted at your choices all the same.

Ilustrado, by the way, is Syjuco’s debut novel. He won the Man Asian Literary Prize and the Palanca Award in 2008 for the manuscript of Ilustrado. Syjuco was born in the Philippines and currently lives in Montreal. He is therefore ineligible to join this giveaway.

I was about to head to Eastwood last night to see what I could score at Fully Booked, where books were, yet again, at 20% off, when Don rang me up and asked me to join him and Jansen for some pizza at the Shang. I was a bit reluctant at first to postpone my book-buying binge, but pizza with a couple of feral but very good friends was just impossible to pass up (that the pizza was going to be free made it so).  About thirty minutes later I was at a table with the two, in front of several slices of California-style pizza. The pizza was good, but the concomitant chat was better. In between talking about our jobs and Lost, we of course talked about Tumblr, that place where we got to know one another and the inspiration to the faux logo shirt I was wearing last night.  After discussing our plans (or the complete lack thereof) for our collaborative Tumblr film blog and flinching at the mention of a certain tumblelog filled with blind items (an exercise in poor taste), we eventually arrived at the subject of Zet’s just founded Read Hard! Tumblr book club. I said I’d submit a photo of my ugly face beside my copy of Everything is Illuminated, Read Hard’s first selection, and here it is. Everything is blurred, but that cover actually reads: Everything Is Illuminated Jonathan Safran Foer a novel While I’m a huge fan of gray318’s iconic book cover design, I got this limited Olive Reader edition instead not only because it’s the only copy of the novel I found when I went looking for it around the metro last year but also because its cover design was done by another favorite artist of mine, Milan Bozic. Also, it’s a tribute to Safran Foer’s nascent genius that his novel was included in this limited series of paperbacks, in the company of such great works as Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49, Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being, and Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar.  Lest I forget, I’ll still be participating in the Ilustrado online book club that I mentioned previously. I imagine it’ll be interesting to read both novels alongside each other, what with the parallels that can be drawn between the two, stylistically and thematically. For starters, the narrators in both novels were named after their respective authors. Also, the cover for the locally distibuted editon of Ilustrado was designed by none other than gray318. Then there’s the use of various literary devices in both novels. And… I think I better stop right here before I run out of thoughts to contribute to my online book clubs, both of them. And I think I still owe Fully Booked a visit.

I was about to head to Eastwood last night to see what I could score at Fully Booked, where books were, yet again, at 20% off, when Don rang me up and asked me to join him and Jansen for some pizza at the Shang. I was a bit reluctant at first to postpone my book-buying binge, but pizza with a couple of feral but very good friends was just impossible to pass up (that the pizza was going to be free made it so). 

About thirty minutes later I was at a table with the two, in front of several slices of California-style pizza. The pizza was good, but the concomitant chat was better. In between talking about our jobs and Lost, we of course talked about Tumblr, that place where we got to know one another and the inspiration to the faux logo shirt I was wearing last night. 

After discussing our plans (or the complete lack thereof) for our collaborative Tumblr film blog and flinching at the mention of a certain tumblelog filled with blind items (an exercise in poor taste), we eventually arrived at the subject of Zet’s just founded Read Hard! Tumblr book club. I said I’d submit a photo of my ugly face beside my copy of Everything is Illuminated, Read Hard’s first selection, and here it is.

Everything is blurred, but that cover actually reads:

Everything Is Illuminated
Jonathan Safran Foer
a novel

While I’m a huge fan of gray318’s iconic book cover design, I got this limited Olive Reader edition instead not only because it’s the only copy of the novel I found when I went looking for it around the metro last year but also because its cover design was done by another favorite artist of mine, Milan Bozic. Also, it’s a tribute to Safran Foer’s nascent genius that his novel was included in this limited series of paperbacks, in the company of such great works as Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49, Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being, and Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar. 

Lest I forget, I’ll still be participating in the Ilustrado online book club that I mentioned previously. I imagine it’ll be interesting to read both novels alongside each other, what with the parallels that can be drawn between the two, stylistically and thematically. For starters, the narrators in both novels were named after their respective authors. Also, the cover for the locally distibuted editon of Ilustrado was designed by none other than gray318. Then there’s the use of various literary devices in both novels. And… I think I better stop right here before I run out of thoughts to contribute to my online book clubs, both of them.

And I think I still owe Fully Booked a visit.

readhard