The Clothing of Books

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author, a deeply personal reflection on how books are jacketed—and what book jackets mean to both readers and writers.

How do we judge a book cover? Are book covers like the clothing that we choose to wear; and what do they say about us? And what is it like to have your clothing selected for you? These are the questions at the heart of this thoughtful meditation on the art of the book jacket, from acclaimed, best-selling author Jhumpa Lahiri. Exploring her relationship with covers—both as a writer and as a reader—Lahiri probes the complex relationship between text and image, author and designer, and art and commerce. From her lasting affection for the specific editions of classic works she read in college to the shock of seeing one of her own jackets unfaithfully adorning a different book, Lahiri analyzes what jackets mean to her, what happens when they don’t seem right, and how, sometimes, “the covers become a part of me, and I identify with them.”