Author Michael Chabon recreates the Science Fiction section of childhood bookstore

[Cactus Chef]

https://boingboing.net/2023/07/31/au...his-youth.html

https://www.threads.net/@michael.cha...t/CvVrj-TLIK7/

I've said it before and I'll say it again: older book covers--especially Sci-Fi/Fantasy ones--are so much cooler to look at than modern covers.

I'd love some way of programmatically constructing something similar from my Calibre library.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Cactus Chef

https://boingboing.net/2023/07/31/au...his-youth.html

https://www.threads.net/@michael.cha...t/CvVrj-TLIK7/

I've said it before and I'll say it again: older book covers--especially Sci-Fi/Fantasy ones--are so much cooler to look at than modern covers.

It's the move away from illustrated covers. There's still a few, but they are few and far between.

The current book cover for The Entity would fit on an '80's horror shelf. I wish all publishers put that level of work in.

I'd love some way of programmatically constructing something similar from my Calibre library.

Couldn't you just turn on Cover Grid? Use the built-in wood background and sort by author and you're off to the races. I've attached a screenshot where I did that. You could also filter by publication date if you've kept your Calibre library meticulously updated with that.

[DNSB]

Anyone else realizing that they have read almost all of the books in the images? Even the ones that even then you thought of as 10 finger exercises?

[Quoth]

Or you can live downstairs and convert upstairs into a retro book-shop, with actual real books.
I think we have 29 bookcases upstairs of various sizes and mbe 8 downstairs. Not enough space to display the covers. One shelf in a built in one has books two deep. I retired most of my programming and engineering books to boxes in the attic.

Due to collecting the PD titles, the virtual bookcase in calibre has about twice as many titles.

[gmw]

Originally Posted by Cactus Chef

[...]
I've said it before and I'll say it again: older book covers--especially Sci-Fi/Fantasy ones--are so much cooler to look at than modern covers.
[...]

Hmm... yes, trad-publishers these days seem to have become incredibly lazy and/or cheap. But removing the rose-tinted glasses for a while, many of the old covers were disasters on one level or another, whatever the genre. I guess some might at least have had some merit as independent artwork, which is more than can be said of many of today's generic covers, but they had just as little to do with the story as the modern ones, I just didn't understand (or care?) what was happening back then.

These days it seems you have to turn to (some) indie publishers to get much effort on covers ... although there are still some exceptions to the rule, just enough to keep me interested.