Keep reading to find a few different ideas relating to the way we see book covers set along the side of their history.
When we purchase a book it ends up being something very personal to us. It can often be odd seeing a book you like with another book cover, merely due to the fact that it is not your book. This personalisation, and certainly ownership, of books was at a totally different level at the genesis of the era of printing, with book covers being developed by the owners themselves, and what they thought would be the best books covers for the book. They would buy the book itself from the printer wrapped in paper, then bring it to a binder who would bring in the covers to the client's specifications. This generally implied being outfitted in leather and then engraved with the name of the book, and, generally, the name of the book's owner. People like the co-founder of the impact investor with a stake in World of Books can most likely value the ownership that people come to feel in relation to their books.
We like reading books due to the fact that they are extremely beautiful things. This holds true, but the nature of beauty that we might be speaking about is definitely different to what we might be talking about if we were discussing, say, the visual arts. Or is it? For as long as we have actually had books we have actually decorated them with beautiful book cover designs that effort to mirror the charm of what is inside. This goes back for as long as the codex itself has been around, with medieval monks, those charged with the protection and replication of the uncommon texts that might still be found, ornamenting each hand written text with amazingly rich and stunning designs. In fact, such was the charm held within these books that many of these creative book cover designs were sculpted into ivory or solid gold, studded with gems, and inlaid with rivers of precious metals. Individuals like the co-CEO of the hedge fund that owns Waterstones can probably value the way that the beauty of these book covers was developed to match the beauty within the book.
When you really consider it, it is quite remarkable that a book's cover, no matter how beautiful it is, is able to stand so eloquently for something that is nearly the complete reverse of its art form-- writing in black and white. In fact, book covers have been created to reflect the vibe of a book and appeal to its designated audience since the advent of large scale publishing in the Victorian Age. Artists were entrusted with discovering what makes a good book cover for particular people, or simply put, marketing. Individuals like the CEO of the asset manager that has a stake in Amazon can most likely appreciate the role of marketing in creating book covers.