![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG67UZx5GX06DG7UhsMWhbHNbr-BH1PenpK0pGpH1aT2fuFgJVr03JMLk-JaamCxUElQy8JmTsLiiJLjbSqDdJEzIryTUWw3PZQNtFemXc9AFJauMgaoOjnsrH6wwRprHYPUhiNadO91I/s320/bitz.jpg)
Another gem just arrived in the post: Michael Chabon's first collection of non-fiction, Maps and Legends. It's published by McSweeney's, and they've done their usual beautiful design job on it.
The book has three part-dustjackets or "belly-bands" layered one over the other, each cut to odd shapes and with a hole in the middle to reveal the title. Here's the book with and without its jackets...
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivn8gplYMyEY3T-bBNRsMqgm74jtsBoCjNpmcGhh9FputjOrTkS7zP9vPKFHw-HU7UfIJufVRRbVeR_8mDYKKamJrPjx2BzeOtSaHXyEX5yyJ0OxQj2fVXFbjDqhSZHufgQMUkwm2SqSo/s400/chabon+1.jpg)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPSH3sEIwASHfBD4ZoBaDnb6hA210vaAUvwyeO3zMCni7L6cTny0b4IlmnfEUbpE_oytLiS4eEuZ3UbizE1EnhrvZ3Tzr9P6PA6DMvFF2tW0YaqORqsbXg6GB7OQs65FcM-wV0ss8cLdg/s400/chabon+2.jpg)
..and here are the jackets/bands together and seperately. These four photos were pinched from the excellent design:related website.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQs6NKVwyzoPV3HtLKy8eQFO5LlZAKgUZhclkWh4ma1e6KiYScC4y-F-_chND4jeKWYLY3DxR8BncofJKcIaWTPjfEPS6mFKgM7sYJ3X0g1DfzMLG1CuVnZ8VP02P0sMjLVG1ZiU3baZU/s400/chabon+3.jpg)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE528yPLr5dUfPrWGKW2iBvZ7eQlPGijKcGrRxuDKMshnyTvHy2fKZD_fwLW4EdebTmet9r9dKIneWZT6nlY3l6cX0pw5r4uU8KQ3TazXz86GawsEcYOghjAMHPIYw9KwjLMITgAfO9cY/s400/chabon+4.jpg)
The art is by mini-comics artist and writer Jordan Crane, more of whose work can be found at his Red Ink Like Blood site.
Here are the front and back covers in close-up: click for bigger versions.
UPDATE: Having now read this, I can say that this book is just right for readers like myself. It talks intelligently about the process of writing and reading, about late-Victorian and early 20th-Century adventure and pulp fiction, about the "literary" writer/critic prejudice against science-fiction that conveniently relabels literary science-fiction as "fables" or some other apparently non-embarrassing word, about the creation of cities and the recreation of childhood, about the power of maps and myths, and about golems.
2 comments:
This book/cover design is gorgeous. I'm enjoying your site.
Thanks, Will. I like the title of your blog, by the way--very much enjoyed the NYRB version of A Journey Around My Skull a few months ago. Only my inability to find out anything more about it's cover image has prevented me from commenting on it here.
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