Based on the reading, it makes sense that books with extra details in their design are becoming more popular in the publishing space. Practically, an ebook is cheaper and a more efficient way to read, so now physical books are becoming almost like a collector's item that people want to admire. It's almost like we've come full circle with book design, it started with extremely detailed, expensive, handmade books. Then transitioned to cheap, minimalist paperbacks in mass production, and now it seems that fancier copies are becoming popular again. Of course book design also serves for how the book is perceived, advertised, and appeals to audiences. I myself am highly influenced in my choice in reading by the style of book cover. It's not even so much whether I like the specific cover or not, as this point, book covers have become so identifiable by genre, to help readers recognize what type of book they're getting into. For example, dark, computer generated fantasy novels covers versus minimal, colorful modern realistic fiction. I also consider what edition of a book I want to keep when growing my personal library. Some books like Harry Potter have had multiple republishings with different covers and sets, but there's definitely some that I want to own more than others.
For the Ted talk on book design, the point that they made about a book designer's responsibility to the reader, author, and publisher stood out to me. They also mentioned that is was like a form of translation, using the contents of the book to create a design for the outside. In one part, the speaker also said a book cover is like the haiku of a story, using haiku as a metaphor. I wouldn't agree with this metaphor however, because while short, they are not abbreviations of something, but rather something wholly individual.
-Joanne
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