When Book Design Gets Weird

Most books, not all, but most, follow conventions of book design that have been in place for literally hundreds of years. With very few exceptions, it wasn’t until the 1960s when authors began to play around with story structure that there were any books that also played with the structure of the book itself. And it was later still that graphic design started adding another layer to the storytelling in popular literature. The colors, the typography, the page layouts all came to be used in service of the story. In House of Leaves, when the story starts getting really weird, so does the page layout. In The Illuminae Files, the pages look like reports, transcriptions, and electronic messages and include diagrams and drawings. These books, and the others like them, ask something extra of the reader, but give back an experience that may delight some and infuriate others. However readers feel about this type of weird book design, these books push the boundaries of book design into new and exciting territory.

FURTHER READING

Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
theMystery.doc by Matthew McIntosh
The Black Locomotive by Rian Hughes
Only Revolutions by Mark Z. Danielewski
Hopscotch by Julio Cortazar
Bats of the Republic by Zachary Thomas
The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall
City of Saints and Madmen by Jeff Vandermeer
Parabola by Lily Hoang
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
The People of Paper by Salvador Plascencia
Maxwell’s Demon by Steven Hall

REFERENCES

Aarseth, E. (1997). Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Abrams, J.J. & Dorst, D. (2013). S. New York: Mulholland Books.

CloudCuckooCountry. (2022, November 15). Ergodic Literature: The Weirdest Book Genre [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/tKX90LbnYd4?si=GYwECYZ4FdOzF9SO

Coe, J. (2011, October 28). Composition No. 1 by Marc Saporta - review. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/oct/28/composition-no-1-saporta-review

Danielewski, M. Z. (2000). House of Leaves. New York: Pantheon Books.

Digital Humanities Initiative. (2019, March 14). Mark Z. Danielewski at SDSU Library, Standard Video [Video} YouTube. https://youtu.be/wwCp8Y6k_BI?si=s7zFZZOpPDuIXBrm

Forbidden Planet TV. (2021, July 29). Rian Hughes Stokes up the Black Locomotive [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/emge3qLMatM?si=WNWzNZgXrHwNA-mz

Hill. L. (2013, October 27). A Long Time Ago, in A Universe More Analog. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/28/books/j-j-abrams-and-doug-dorst-collaborate-on-a-book-s.html

Hughes, R. (2020). XX. New York: The Overlook Press.

Kaufman, A. & Kristof, J. (2015). Illuminae. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Kaufman, A. & Kristof, J. (2016). Gemina. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Kaufman, A. & Kristof, J. (2018). Obsidio. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Little Book Owl. (2015, December 15). Q&A w/ Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristof [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/jZ3_ulIEEe4?si=c6mXnEdBKTLaf5Ju

Roth, G. [VMSpod]. (2023, July 12). Virtual Memories #546 - Rian Hughes [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=js0DYgMzKwQ

Roth, G. [VMSpod]. (2020, November 24). Virtual Memories #409 - Rian Hughes [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/Iw_kuUqxyjM?si=8J9cEIZa2P5ToJHq

Star Sessions. (2014, May 18). J.J. Abrams & Doug Dorst Delve into S: A Multi-Layered Book Experience [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/Adpb9Dn0PoM?si=lHXLynpj5Oj7fq07

Tales of the Ravenous Reader. (2018, April 11). Interview w/ Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristof | The Illuminae Files [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/gJl4eDRDM04?si=qetFYjnb9KIx6kOh

Talks at Google. (2016, August 11). The Familiar|Mark Z. Danielewski|Talks at Google [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/mw0bGiVDTMI?si=mn19emWU4ttp_CWh

Tyer, B. (2014, February 20). Untangling S., Doug Dorst’s Novel Within a Novel. Texas Observer. https://www.texasobserver.org/untangling-s-doug-dorsts-novel-within-novel/

Zambra, A. (2014). Multiple C...