Fortune’s Philip Elmer-DeWitt contacted Walter Isaacson and got some more details on Steve Jobs’ biography that is due on November 21st. The above cover is described by Isaacson:
“The cover,” writes Isaacson in private e-mail, “is the Albert Watson portrait taken for Fortune in 2009. The back is a Norman Seeff portrait of him in the lotus position holding the original Macintosh, which ran in Rolling Stone in January 1984. The title font is Helvetica. It will look as you see it, with no words on the back cover.”
And to think the book was originally going to be called iSteve: The Book of Jobs *shudders*
This brilliant cover concept (by the talented young British designer Olly Moss for Jaron Lanier’s new book, You Are Not A Gadget) - hit pretty close to home for me.
I’ve resisted eBook readers for a while now - finally I took the plunged and got myself a Nook. The experience so far has been a delight. It came in a beautiful Apple-esq box. The device itself has an elegant design. Texts are pleasant to read, easy on the eyes, lets you focus on just the words and battery lasts for days. Though turning pages (refreshing the e-ink) could be faster - which I’m sure will get fixed as the ebook reader tech advances. For now it has quickly become an object of my affection. I rewarded it with a protecting case made of classic moleskin (complete with that iconic black elastic belt.) A lovely marriage of form and function: the old and the new; feels great in hand.
…and yet I catch myself musing over what’s amiss: the feel of a real book in my hand. Sometimes while reading, I’d be fantasizing about the shape, size and that tactile touch of a physical book - my mind would wonder - what did this book used to look like? There will be a day soon enough when our grand kids might be wondering the same.
Except they’d be taking field trips to the museum to find out.
