Week 2: And now for something completely different...

"Don't judge a book by its cover."

Balderdash. The sentiment has been repeated time and again since I was a child, and I refuse to accept it. Some of my favourite books have been selected on this flimsy basis, and I will continue to use it. I'm too stubborn to change anyway. 

After all, that's how I came to own two copies of an interesting book (the later copy an accidental purchase that has yet to be returned). The Explorers Guild by Jon Baird and Kevin Costner, and illustrated by Rick Ross, has proved to be a worthwhile impulse buy. The retro-esque cover highlighted with faux-gold and made to look like an old adventure book enclosed a book which would prove to be interesting. 

I've never really read graphic novels having always preferred straight text over illustration. Reading this book was an experience of its own. The pages shift from graphic novel, to text, to text-graphic novel hybrid pages, even going so far as to change the style of illustration between panels. Even the pages were dyed in such a way as to change the experience: darker edges fading to a lighter centre, making the pages to appear aged. 

The unusual layout and structure of the book was a personal struggle. To me, it changed the whole experience of reading. I like to imagine what the characters look like, how they talk, how they dress - the beauty of type books! Admittedly, it took me a while to get into the book because of the shifting presentation of the story. Even the way which the book was written was remarkable. It read like a long-winded story from an elderly man, regaling you with stories of years gone by. Almost as if the book was reading itself to you, rather than the reader immersing themselves in their world.

The entire experience of reading this book made me...uncomfortable. Perhaps that's not a bad thing. 

The reader's experience of a book is something that can be considered through out this course: how does the experiences and interpretations of a work change based on its form? Does a digital work have less impact because it doesn't offer the same tactile experience as the physical book? Is something taken away from the reader by including images, perhaps limiting individual imagination? Is it better for the author's intention to be clearly understood rather than allow the reader to interpret the work through their own lenses? 

Stay tuned. 

 

Baird, Jon and Kevin Costner. The Explorers Guild - Volume One: A Passage to Shambhala. Illustrated by Rick Ross. New York: Atria Books, 2015. Print.