The Friday Face-Off: Current Read #33

                         

 Welcome to The Friday Face-Off, a weekly meme at Books by Proxy. Join us every Friday as we pit cover against cover, and publisher against publisher, to find the best artwork in our literary universe.  You can find a list of upcoming topics at Lynn's Books.

This week's topic is:

Current Read #33

I haven't done a Friday Face-Off in a while, so I thought it might be a great time to jump back in, and this week I've picked a book I've been very excited about: The City and Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami! This book was finally released in English this week and I have been eagerly anticipating this book for years. I was extremely fortunate to receive an ARC of this one so I've been slowly working my way through it for a while and I'm having the best time being immersed back into Murakami's writing. Because this book was released in Japan in 2023 and has already been translated and released in other languages as well, there are already plenty of editions out there, so let's have a look at some of them!

2024 US | 2023 Japan | 2024 Dutch

2024 Chinese | 2024 UK | 2024 Persian

2023 Korean | 2024 Bengali | 2024 Spanish

2024 German | 2024 Finnish | 2024 Italian

My favorite(s):

These are all such cool covers! I am particularly drawn to the US, Japan, and Chinese editions this time around. The Chinese edition is actually really grabbing me, I'm really liking the style of it. The Korean edition is also really striking. Which cover(s) do you like the most!?

The Friday Face-Off: Current Read #32

                        

 Welcome to The Friday Face-Off, a weekly meme at Books by Proxy. Join us every Friday as we pit cover against cover, and publisher against publisher, to find the best artwork in our literary universe.  You can find a list of upcoming topics at Lynn's Books.

This week's topic is:

Current Read #32

October is the month where I try to fit as many horror books into my reading as I can (although I tend to read horror any time of year, so I'm not sure how different things are, haha), and this week one of the books I've been reading is The Eyes are the Best Part by Monika Kim! This book is super eyeball-themed, as you will tell by all of these covers, so if you don't like eyes, then you may want to skip this week's FFO. If not, let's take a look at the three different cover variations for this one!

2024 US Hardcover

2024 UK Hardcover

2024 Exclusive Evernight Hardcover

My favorite(s):

Honestly, these are all pretty great for the topic of eyeballs, haha. I'm currently reading the Evernight exclusive edition and I love that it looks like the artist was given the direction of "eyeballs... eyeballs everywhere" and they really took that to heart (you can see the full illustrations on the edges, endpapers, and naked hardcover here if you're curious). But I also think both the original US and UK editions fit the story perfectly and you can't go wrong with either of them. Which edition (if any) do you like best? Maybe it's a weird one to have a favorite on, haha, but let me know if you have a preference for any of these!

The Friday Face-Off: Current Read #31

                       

 Welcome to The Friday Face-Off, a weekly meme at Books by Proxy. Join us every Friday as we pit cover against cover, and publisher against publisher, to find the best artwork in our literary universe.  You can find a list of upcoming topics at Lynn's Books.

This week's topic is:

Current Read #31

I haven't done a Friday Face-Off in a while and I'm reading something that I correctly anticipated may have a nice variety of editions out there, so I figured it'd be a great time to revisit this weekly blog meme. This week, one of the books I'm reading is Stephen King's On Writing (and even though this book isn't horror, it feels like a good pick for Friday the 13th). I've heard for years how insightful this book has been for writers, so I decided to finally give it a go–and guess what? Everyone was right! I've been really enjoying this and appreciate all of King's thoughts and advice. I'll admit that I was a little uncertain at first because the first portion of this book feels more like a memoir before getting into discussing the craft itself, but then it all came together. But I digress–let's take a look at some of the different covers that exist for this book!

2000 US Paperback | 2000 US Hardcover | 2008 Polish

2007 Romanian | 2004 Spanish | 2011 German 

2017 Ukrainian | 2019 Arabic | 2023 Lithuanian

2018 Serbian | 2022 Romanian | 2019 Thai

2016 Romanian | 2017 Persian | 2020 Turkish

My favorite(s):

There were so many edition of this book so I couldn't include them all, but I tried to give a nice variety. I also felt compelled to include the three Romanian editions I saw because they were all unique and really stood out to me. My impression is that Romanians really love Stephen King since they have so many editions. The Turkish cover is a little funny to me because it looks like some sort of political poster or USA-style poster of Stephen King's face. The Spanish one does crack me up a bit because King's got a very fashion model pose going on, and I think the Thai edition is really fun and simple as well. My favorite is probably the 2000 US paperback because it's the edition I'm currently reading and I like the simplicity of it (and I love dogs, so...), but I like a lot of these. Which edition(s) do you like the best?

The Friday Face-Off: Current Read #30

                      

 Welcome to The Friday Face-Off, a weekly meme at Books by Proxy. Join us every Friday as we pit cover against cover, and publisher against publisher, to find the best artwork in our literary universe.  You can find a list of upcoming topics at Lynn's Books.

This week's topic is:

Current Read #30

It's been a minute since I've gotten a Friday Face-Off up, so I'm happy to be back with another one. I've just finished reading a delightful novel called Dallergut Dream Department Store by Lee Mi-ye, translated by Sandy Joosun Lee and figured it would make for a great choice for this week's Friday Face-Off because the covers for this book are so imaginative and fun. Let's take a look at them!

2023 UK Paperback | 2020 Korean | 2024 Polish

2024 US Hardcover | 2023 Italian | 2024 French

2021 Chinese | 2024 Arabic | 2021 Thai

2021 Indonesian | 2023 Italian | 2022 Vietnamese 

2021 Russian | 2024 Portuguese | 2021 Korean

2022 Turkish | 2023 Russian | 2021 Chinese

My favorite(s):

I honestly don't think I could pick a favorite for this one because so many are so wonderful. My copy is the 2023 UK paperback edition and I thought it was such a delight, but then I saw all these other editions and I think they're all a delight. I love how colorful they all are and how much they all seem to really capture the spirit of the book and a dreamlike quality. Which one(s) do you like the best?