Comments on: Maybe We Shouldn’t Change our Book Covers

By: Patrick Craig

Patrick Craig — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 18:41:30 +0000

I’d buy that damned book, and not only that, I’d shake Mr. Smilerton’s hand…

Kinda weird – this Smilerton guy looks like a strange cross between TBN’s Paul Crouch and Jerry Orbach (”Bob” rest his soul). BTW, did anyone know that Orbach had a role in Disney’s Beauty and The Beast?

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 16:27:07 +0000

I agree.

But this says something else to me:

The last thing I need when buying [a] book for a good intellectual romp is for the checkout clerk to think I’m buying some sort of lame self-help book because I am self-conscious about my penis size.

If his self-esteem relies on other people, he does need self-help.

By: Roy

Roy — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 03:26:25 +0000

Actually, Hitchens’ book cover is excellently designed and very appealing.

By: Chris Hallquist

Chris Hallquist — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 01:30:58 +0000

Yeah… and remember, there are books with memorable covers that aren’t of the book’s author. The author-on-the-cover thing works for some genres, but not all by any stretch of the imagination.

On the other hand, atheists have used it when appropriate: see Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s Infidel.

Oh, but that photo is still funny, and shows why personal photos are so very often a bad idea.

By: MTran

MTran — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 20:58:58 +0000

I’m in total agreement. For me, the only time that a person should appear on a book cover is when the book is a biography or a historical study of some sort that is well represented by the person.