Books I've Looked At, Failed to Read

As the decade wraps up, top ten lists are appearing everywhere you look. I expect I will probably point your attention toward a few as December wears on. Over at the Book Cover Archive they have put together their own list of the ten best covers of the oughts. Spoiler alert: lots of Chip Kidd and John Gall, not that they don't deserve it.

I would have been very happy to see the Seth designed Complete Peanuts make the cut, but I am well aware of the ghetto comic books reside in. It is an easy choice, but I was still a little surprised to see Chris Ware's Jimmy Corrigan, The Smartest Kid on Earth appear on the list. I feel Jordan Crane's gorgeous cover for Michael Chabon's Maps and Legends could have been on there too. My favourite of the list is the reprint of Walter Benjamin's The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, designed by David Pearson. The gray318 design of The Murder and the Evan Gaffney designed One Perfect Day are also stand outs. I like the "funny" covers, apparently. The gray318 covers for Jonathan Safran Foer get honorable mention, but I would have liked to have seen them make the top cut, too.

You can view the full list over at the Archive's blog. And stop over at the Book Cover Archive proper if you don't mind a portion of your day falling into a pit of cover design lust. Additional covers after the jump.