The elements that go into designing the exterior of a hardcover book — and how many of them are left over from the Old Days.

It’s a constellation of little details, most of which hark back to ye olden days. A dust jacket used to be just that—a wrapper to protect the book in the store; the buyer would throw it out before shelving his or her new acquisition. So the spine die and case stamp would be on display during most of the book’s working life. Now collectors put plastic wrappers over the dust jackets to preserve them from harm. In Jane Austen’s time, the pages of a new book would still be joined together at the edge, where they’d
been folded; the first reader would use a paper knife to cut the folds open. The edges would be uneven, a look mimicked now by an artificial deckle edge.

Today these conventions are invoked to impress the buyer/reader; to complement the inside and outside design; to make a book seem fancier, more covetable. You may not consciously note whether a book has colored endsheets, but the detail probably influences your perception of its value. Will you ever see the spine die or case stamp on 90 percent of your books? Probably not, unless you’re like me and take the jacket off so you can carry the book on the subway without shredding it. (Then you might wish there wasn’t a
spine stamp, so the rest of the passengers couldn’t tell what swill you were reading.)

It is ironic that those under-the-dust-cover elements never show up.  I actually like the look of non-dustcovered books, but I like the jacket artwork, too, so I hate to get rid of the latter to show off the former.