Do Judge a Book by it's Cover

       There isn't much news to report here at Milkweed. I managed to mess up one of my only projects. Which was just folding pamphlets. But at least it wasn't an editing job! There seems to be a flu of sorts spreading through the office so everyone is putting up their own set of defenses.
       Larry Watson, the author of the book that I'm currently reading came to Milkweed to sign his new book American Boy. It has a really beautiful cover of an old car from the forties with a sepia toned, vintage look. Unfortunately I'm the kind of person who judges a book by it's cover- and I mean that literally not figuratively. I think it's a tendency left over from childhood, being drawn to the most colorful eye-catching books. This technique has served me surprisingly well. I figure if you read a book you're going to have to look at it all the time so, you might as well like what you see.
       You can really tell a lot about the contents of a book based on it's appearance. For example, if the author's name on the cover is larger than the title, you know that it's probably not a piece of distinguished literature. Whether it has an illustration or a photograph can sometimes demonstrate whether or not it's historical. The best covers are subtle. Like one edition of Nabokov's Lolita that I saw. It shows just a girl's gangly legs from the knee down, wearing knee highs and saddle shoes. This evoked innocence, youth and subdued sexuality all at the same time. A bad cover is one that's either too explicit or too vague. You wouldn't want a depiction of a scene from a book because it's not a movie poster at the same time you don't want a single piece of bread. It has to be telling, but not give too much away at the same time.
        It's really a shame when a cover misrepresents the quality of it's text. It should be a vehicle for the writing, something to help the story leap off of the page. The cover is just as important, if not more important than the first line of the text itself. It's the face one's book shows to the world. It's the first thing the reader sees, and for me it's absolutely crucial.