Roughly cut pages in "Book of Longing"

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John

Roughly cut pages in "Book of Longing"

Post by John »

I received my American copy of "Book of Longing " from Amazon today. I know that American hardback books sometimes have roughly cut pages,
but this is so badly cut that...well let's say that I could have cut the pages better if I was drunk and blindfolded. The quality of the paper is also poor.
Thus a thing of beauty is turned into a piece of tat. I will definitely be returning it to Amazon, and pray that the U.K. edition if better.
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tomsakic
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Post by tomsakic »

My copy from Amazon should arrive any day, so I will check it. This is unbeliavble and sad. Rob said this morning his copy also arrived from Amazon - he did not comment on quality of print... Rob?
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Rob
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Post by Rob »

It does look like it was cut with a bread knife.

That face on the cover of "Dear Heather", she is everywhere in "Book of Longing"
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Post by Guest »

Also is image on back cover clear or blurred?
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Post by Rob »

The photo is blurred, but I think that it is intentionally so.
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Post by dick »

As a completist on things Cohen, I have both M&S and Harper Collins printings.

Dust jackets are identical except for inside folds -- color and font. And of course sticker price. Photo the same and I am sure the fuzz is intentional.

Agree that Harper's paper cutting is off-putting. A real hack job. M&S paper also is acid free, 100% recycled paper. Harper just acid free. They look and feel pretty much alike, except that the M&S book is a bit thinner --- not sure if that is paper weight, or the bad cutting.

Until making this comparison, I had not really looked at the naked book cover (no jacket). Here is the one place I think Harper did it better. They use a textured white cover with the two signature blocks embedded on the front. M&S is plain black cover. M&S spine shows Leonard Cohen Book of Longing in nice large silver lettering. Harper uses a deep blue ink, smaller font, and reverses the order -- Book of Longing, Leonard Cohen. Title and author are separated by a unified heart, which I like.

Overall M&S more appealing, but I do really like the Harper cover better.

Think I need to get a life ? :D

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Post by tomsakic »

Heh-heh :lol:

As neither of my both copies didn't arrive yet (yes, Dick, you're not the onmly one to have both editions ... plus foreign ones I suppose I will try to buy also) - did you note differences in text? In previous books, New York editions proof readed the text from UK/Canadian to US writing, changing "favourite, colour, centre" etc to US way of writing.
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Post by [Dick] »

Didn't make that comparison Tom -- but would assume that is always customary. Favorite just doen't need that U. :D
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Post by tomsakic »

"drunk and blindfolded" isn't enough. This is disgracefull. I would do it better with a kitchen knife.

I picked up the book in post office this morning on my way to work. I work in publishing. People around me are just trying to undesrtad what happened. This 1) or has the purpose (what's unthinkable, because my pages are 5 mm wider on top than on bottom of pages), or 2) Ecco Publishing is totally unprofessional and amateurish company full of total imbecils.
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Post by YankovicGretzky »

If you are referring to the fact that the pages are not all evenly cut, and when you look at the book from the side when it's closed and the pages looks like this |\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\|, that's no accident.

Actually, the cut is a style called "Bembo".

A lot of Maya Angelou's books are published in that style.

There might be a little information about the style on the front or back inserts, maybe on the copyright page of the book, same page as the ISBN number.

I haven't bought the book yet, but I did see it at Borders, and I noticed that it was published in Bembo.

Correct me if this is not what you are talking about.
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