To catch your eye

How many books are there in the world? According to Google, there are almost 130 million! A writer/blogger reveals that approximately 3 million books were published in 2011 and it has been estimated that 15 million ISBN numbers will be issued in 2012. With such astounding numbers, how can a book stand out on the shelves of a bookshop? Of course, the writer and writing must be top-notch in the first place. The next factor, I think, is the design of the book cover. The design has to be outstanding enough to catch your eye.

The book cover above has been listed as one of 90 beautiful book cover designs by 1st Web Designer, a design blog. If you want a treasure trove of book cover designs in one place, check out the Book Cover Archive, which features the enchanting one below:

Designing the covers of a series of books must be a challenge in itself, as the designer has to create a unified look for the series while maintaining each book's identity, such as the following example:

The Folio Society is renowned for the beauty of its publications. I have a number of their book sets and this is one that I particularly like in terms of the cover designs:

In an article on books at guardian.co.uk, Kathryn Hughes reports that Julian Barnes, in his Man Booker Prize 2011 acceptance speech, did the unexpected by thanking his book designer amongst others. Hughes points out that "judging a book (partly) by its cover has become a legitimate thing to do". There is greater attention now on how a book looks.

Yusuf Islam's Arabic alphabet

Another book for children but just as great for adults, like Fatimah's Kampung. This book, A for Allah, is written by Yusuf Islam, who many of us know as Cat Stevens. Another labour of love, it took 20 years to produce and was first published in 1999. It began as a song of the same name to "teach my daughter (his first child born in 1980) that - above all else - 'Alif' (of the Arabic alphabet) is for Allah, and that everything else that we love and appreciate in this earthly life originates from His Divine Will and grace."

The song grew into a book, the design of which, writes Yusuf in his introduction, "has its own interesting tale. Just after I embraced Islam, I bumped into a fellow musician who had also become Muslim a year or so before me, Ian Whiteman... (who) was working as a designer at that time... (and) could also write Arabic calligraphy and displayed a distinctive flair with the pen... Much of the beauty in the design is due to his masterful style and talent." The book's striking cover is an early indication of this.

The book introduces the reader to the Arabic alphabet, choosing Islamic concepts to convey the various letters. Each page (and there are a total of 64 pages) is richly illustrated with meaningful images and exquisite calligraphy. You need to just look at the following pages to appreciate this.

I bought my copy at Kinokuniya in 2005 for RM50.85. If it's out of stock there, you can buy it online from Mountain of Light, the book's publisher, or through Amazon. 

Fatimah's Kampung

This book, Fatimah's Kampung by Iain Buchanan, is a children's book that will fascinate adults. It certainly is one of my favourite books - well written and richly illustrated by the author, and with an important message.

A geography lecturer, who "had no experience of writing for children... and no art training of any kind', Buchanan succeeded in producing "a picture book for children about the life and death of a landscape." All the illustrations were done by hand, he says, "everything on a scale many times greater than the final scale... to do justice to the subject, and to capture details, textures, perspectives which would otherwise be lost."

The book is obviously a labour of love, on which Buchanan persevered over eight years. Writes Buchanan in his preface, "It was a full-time job, which meant I wasn't earning - and so Maznoor (his Malaysian wife) went out to work to help pay the bills... For two retired academics, both well into their fifties, new worlds had been opened."

Words cannot describe the beauty of the book so I'll let these pages say it for me:

Every page, like the above, is a work of art. The book was published in 2008 by the Consumers Association of Penang. When I first heard about it, I quickly went to a nearby MPH bookstore and managed to get hold of the only copy on the shelf. I don't know whether it's still in print. It's a pity if it isn't.

The Cairo Trilogy

After I finish reading a novel, I have two choices - to keep or to give it away. The one that gets a place on my shelf is a book that I would want to read again. It is exceptionally well written; a thought-provoking and emotion-evoking story that has the mark of the consummate wordsmith. It is a pleasure to hold such a book in my hands, reading the lines, sometimes re-reading them in appreciation of the craftsmanship.

Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz (1911-2006) wrote the type of book that I would proudly have on my shelf, and I have three that together are known as 'The Cairo Trilogy', a saga of a Muslim family in Cairo during Egypt's occupation by the British at the end of World War I. The first in the trilogy is Palace Walk.

The first line, "She woke at midnight", short and succinct, leads you into the life of the al-Jawad family who lives on a street in Cairo called Palace Walk. The story carries you through the rooms and corridors of the family's home, along the alleys and into the goings-on in the neighbourhood. The rich descriptions and insightful observations draw you into the saga, and it is as if you're right there in the midst of it all. 

The second in the trilogy, Palace of Desire, continues the story about seven years after the culmination of events in the first book. Members of the al-Jawad family are at different stages of their lives during which they are faced with difficult questions reflecting the revolutionary spirit of that time. 

The family's saga concludes in the final book, Sugar Street. The children of the al-Jawad family are all grown up and are themselves parents. World War II is brewing and the world around them is changing. In fact, change is the recurring theme, not only in regard to society but also beliefs and values. 

The richness of the prose reminds me of Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy, also a family saga that is full of details as well as drama. Naguib Mahfouz certainly deserved the 1988 Nobel Prize for Literature. Regarded as "one of the first contemporary writers of Arabic literature,... he published over 50 novels, over 350 short stories, dozens of movie scripts and five plays over a 70-year career" (Wikipedia).