The Clothing of Books

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I constantly, compulsively judge books by their covers. Imagine my delight, then, when I learned about Jhumpa Lahiri's The Clothing of Books. In it she writes winsomely and relatably about her own habits of book-judging.

Even more poignantly, she reflects on her experience as an author who has been given little control over the cover art her own books receive. "Like a translation, a cover can be faithful to the book, or it can be misleading," Lahiri writes. "In theory, like a translation, it should be in the service of the book, but this dynamic isn't always the case."