Today, I had the singular pleasure of receiving my author’s copies of the Russian edition of SONGS OF THE EARTH. Click on any image to embiggen.
I have to say it’s the dinkiest hardback I’ve ever seen, short of the BFS Journal. Compared to the German editions, it’s positively sylph-like, yet still weighs in at a substantial 479 pages, thanks to its delicately-thin paper stock.
Externally, under the gloss finish the entire cover is metallicised to give a silvery sheen to the light through the trees. This does not photograph at all well without clever lighting unavailable to a mere mortal with a phone camera and an energy-saving lightbulb overhead, but I’ve done my best. That orangey bit is my T-shirt reflecting in the finish, and if you look closely, you can even (horrors!) see the shape of my head.
Internally, the designers have gone absolutely to town with printer’s ornaments on each chapter head and page number, and in replicating the cover’s curlicues on the title page:
It’s a strange and strangely lovely thing, completely unlike any of the other books on my shelf, and I’m really rather taken with it.
Everybody likes free stuff, yeah? And you wouldn’t be here if you didn’t like reading, so how about I give you some free books?
