July 30th, 2010 / 9:30 pm
Web Hype
So tired of fucking birds on book covers
Jimmy Chen
July 30th, 2010 / 9:30 pm
Web Hype
July 30th, 2010 / 9:30 pm
Web Hype
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- d—
I guess “but it’s funny!” stops working for me at some point. Of course, the patronizing “critiques” of hip hop are the other side of the same coin, especially all the family values/role of the father conservative shit. - David Backer—
The one premise I can offer to justify my “whining” is this: In Jones’s book, and a lot of writing I’ve been reading online, there is a lack of engagement with extant-real systems of human organization: economies, households, cultures, societies,... - Matthew Simmons—
See? Now I love you. - Richard - Zine-Scene—
I thought Shelley was really nice when I saw here. She stayed around after the reading and talked with a bunch of people and seemed really laid back… It might have been because she was hosted by the University of Alabama faculty, who are really laid back too. - mimi—
Or maybe someone slipped some MSG into my dipping sauce. - mimi—
Yeah, the Fashion Severe connection is weird; is this borderline ‘exploitation’? Korine is BFFs with Chloe’ Sevigny, is he not? Did you ever see Zoolander? Remember the ‘Derelict’ (pronounced ‘de-re-LEEKT”) collection? - mimi—
I do see individuals (it’s almost always a lone person, not a ‘kid’, and ‘homeless-looking’ , sorry, this is terrible, I feel bad) drinking from a cough syrup bottle on a street corner and acting crazy. I think there are mental health issues. I don’t... - jesusangelgarcia—
Yes II.
- d—
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these birds are great! thank u for sharing your birds with me! also, don’t forget ben fountain, the birdinest photo in recent memories!! http://lfp-blog.com/wp-content/uploads/9780061478222-709777.jpg
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photo? birdinest photo? I meant “cover”.
what’s happening/wrong to/with me???? my computer ate a tablet of site-sauce, maybe?!! it’s ruining my eyes%%%%%%%
[...read more @ Harper Perennial's web-site....]
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July 30th, 2010 / 11:00 pmmimi—
you fit right in
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Mark Baumer’s been on this for awhile now.
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Mark Baumer wrote something about this: http://thebaumer.com/post/238681150/dude-your-book-has-a-bird-on-it
“Dude, your book has a bird on it”
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This is like your last post.
Only different.
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Jimmy—I now have some sort of distressing image of you rather wearily fucking assorted birds on assorted book covers.
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July 30th, 2010 / 11:37 pmmimi—
Don’t their little claws slide around a lot on the glossy ones?
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sick of birds and sick of SHOES on covers… every other fucking cover is a pair of shoes, usually shown in a pair or worn from the ankles down. this kind of laziness irks the life-long bookseller…
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Bird with a white box over its eyes in a shoe on a book cover for the win.
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I like birds
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August 1st, 2010 / 10:59 amJack Pendarvis—
me too
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i always liked that wind up bird chronicle cover though…
maybe i just liked the story… meh
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August 2nd, 2010 / 8:32 pmKevin—
and to be fair, it does have bird in the title. unlike most of these.
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When we get jet-packs the first thing I’m doing is projectile-shitting on a bird’s face. The bird will probably sound like George Costanza and say, “WE HAD A DEAL!”
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Birdie numb numb. Tweet, tweet.
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I dunno. There are a lot of books that exist. You could do the same thing with horses, dogs, cars, houses, roads, fields, trees…
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July 31st, 2010 / 12:03 pmJimmy Chen—
i see your statistical spin, though i think birds are more symbolically manipulative than trees or roads, which are so cliche they’re not even really seen. as for horses and dogs, in my search, i found dramatically way more birds.
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So tired of those same birds shitting on my bookmarks.
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I hate book covers with women’s legs on them too:
http://mickeyhess.blogspot.com/2010/04/book-covers-featuring-womens-legs.html
Does anyone know of a book cover featuring a bird sitting on a woman’s legs?
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July 31st, 2010 / 5:59 pmd patch—
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_A9hWJ_UiyIY/S8R1RQ-mUJI/AAAAAAAAAHw/DEROScr2cnY/s1600/swimming.jpg
“LOOK INSIDE!”
oh no
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clowngirl is technically a toy on a saturated field of color cover, not a bird on a cover
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Nah, not laziness, exactly; more of a money-saving measure. Dan Chaon’s book designer, for example, was limited to photos in the public domain. For some reason, these include a lot of shoe pics, which is why you’ve been seeing them so often.
That’s how Chaon explained it anyways, when he visited my school.
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Also: holy shit! Jack Pendarvis!
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Was that DFW book left off this list on purpose or not on purpose?
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August 2nd, 2010 / 5:55 pmRyan Call—
the one with the lobster on it?
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August 2nd, 2010 / 9:42 pmJimmy Chen—
i think you’re referring to penquin’s ‘broom of the system,’ which was left out because it was not on the design website from which i culled all the images in this post, and thus, not in my mind
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I don’t like birds, but I like Lee Rourke’s book:
http://www.socialdiseasebooks.com/page8.htm
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[...] Chen at HTML Giant has been tracking trends in the book cover industry: covers with birds on them; covers that hide people behind white boxes; and meta-covers that feature books and pages. . . . [...]
They forgot Birds of America I love that book. And the title. And everything about it. There’s a bird in every story.
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[...] Jimmy Chen of HTML Giant is so tired of fucking birds on book covers. [...]
the new franzen has a big-ass bird on it
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Someone linked to this on Twitter. Don’t know why I clicked it, given my morbid fear of birds.
Gonna have to drink SO much rum tonight to block out the nightmares.
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