Pop Stars Scribble On Books And Hope You Will Too
Hecklerspray fervently believes that you should be able to judge a book by its cover.
That's why we grabbed a marker pen and went to Borders at the weekend, scrawling "don't read this, it's the work of a chronic imbecile with less artistic ability than a morphine-injected chimp" on the front of that new Pete Doherty 'collection'. Didn't stop any of his fans buying it, but – then again – maybe we were making a leap of faith with the assumption that they could read anyway. They probably just wanted it for the nice pictures or something.
Anyway – it looks like certain people in the pop music world have followed our lead.
Seven musician-types have taken part in a Penguin promotion to design the front covers of their favourite novels. Among others, Beck scribbled out somethin' for French novel Le Grand Meaulnes, Razorlight warbler Johnny Borrell did his bit for The Great Gatsby, while Ryan Adams painted a lovely picture of a castle for Dracula. Meanwhile, Cliff Richard said he was 'more than happy' to provide the cover for William Burroughs' Naked Lunch, and proceeded to depict the depraved horrors of heroin addiction by flinging his own shit at a blood-smeared canvas. Probably.
"What's that?" you scream. "Pop stars designing book covers? Why? For Christ's sake, why?"
Well – because they want you to do the very same thing.
Publisher Penguin is gearing up to release a special line of blank-covered books. Entitled My Penguin, the aim of the brand is to encourage readers to:
…get stuck in and leave your mark. Anyone can draw, scratch or scribble their own cover, and make the outside of the book as personal as their reaction to the insides.
Sounds like a great idea to us. Of course, some people – horrible, cynical types – would suggest that it's an utterly pointless notion, pissing away money which the company could have used to discover and publish exciting new literary talent instead of embarking on some glorified colouring-in contest.
We expect.
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