{"id":35,"date":"2010-07-15T16:29:26","date_gmt":"2010-07-15T20:29:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rampantbicycle.com\/blog\/?p=35"},"modified":"2010-07-15T16:29:26","modified_gmt":"2010-07-15T20:29:26","slug":"judging-a-fake-by-its-cover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rampantbicycle.com\/blog\/2010\/07\/judging-a-fake-by-its-cover\/","title":{"rendered":"Judging a fake by its cover"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, MY week’s been crazy busy.\u00c2\u00a0 How about yours?<\/p>\n

I can’t tell you what part of the busy-ness is in reference to except that it involves reviewing and will eventually be online somewhere else, I hope.\u00c2\u00a0 But even aside from that, I’ve had an ill relative to tend, and of course about a million job applications to fill out, it seems.<\/p>\n

Still.\u00c2\u00a0 That is no fun to talk about.\u00c2\u00a0 Let me share something actually interesting instead.<\/p>\n

This article about an exhibit on fakes and forgeries in art<\/a> is fascinating (can’t remember where I picked it up, unfortunately; apologies to misplaced link person!)\u00c2\u00a0 I am particularly intrigued by the author’s comments on why we think fakes and forgeries are cool: they appeal to some deep-seated inner something or other in us all that suggests that when you get right down to it, art is a scam.<\/p>\n

Of course, this had me contemplating other recent forgery furors, such as all that business about Obama’s birth certificate…I wonder if the same principle applies?\u00c2\u00a0 Perhaps some of those people who believed he wasn’t really American-born clung so tenuously to that belief for the same reason…it spoke to some inner instinct that told them the entire political system was nonsense, a scam, a fraud.<\/p>\n

(I shall refrain from offering my own opinions on said political system, however.)<\/p>\n

On another hand, Naomi found this very interesting little survey about book covers and their impact on book purchases.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ll wait while you go have a look<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Intriguing, no?\u00c2\u00a0 Looks like a lot of people do judge books by their covers, proverbs aside.<\/p>\n

Then again…Is there really anything wrong with that?\u00c2\u00a0 These days, when there are so many books to choose from…how do you make sure yours gets noticed?\u00c2\u00a0 You put a striking cover on it, that’s how.<\/p>\n

More importantly, though, I am finding that I agree with the comments that a good cover should really try to capture visually the essence of the book.\u00c2\u00a0 No wonder the survey-takers felt that cliches were offputting; they don’t really tell you much, do they, about what kind of story you’re in for?<\/p>\n

I have to admit I’m as much of a sucker for a well-designed cover as anyone, though I’ll put the book back if whatever’s inside doesn’t sound interesting.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ll have to try the reverse some time – go pick up covers I find really UNattractive and see if what’s inside will motivate me to buy the book anyway…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, MY week’s been crazy busy.\u00c2\u00a0 How about yours? I can’t tell you what part of the busy-ness is in reference to except that it involves reviewing and will eventually be online somewhere else, I hope.\u00c2\u00a0 But even aside from that, I’ve had an ill relative to tend, and of course about a million job … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Judging a fake by its cover”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[24,13],"class_list":["post-35","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-slice-of-life","tag-books","tag-trawling-the-internet"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rampantbicycle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rampantbicycle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rampantbicycle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rampantbicycle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rampantbicycle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rampantbicycle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rampantbicycle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rampantbicycle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rampantbicycle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}