#3 Sam Potts
Welcome to Episode 3: that time the show notes took steroids.
As we continue to progress through the underworld of book publishing, I speak with Sam Potts, former book designer and fellow bibliophile. We discuss how books are designed inside the cover- how much freedom the designer has and what the bottom line is when the type is chosen and laid out (it's not what you think.)
Along the way, we refer to the following absurdly long list of books and references. There were a few I couldn't find, but here are the rest for your enjoyment::
As promised, the cover of the New Literary History of America, which I owned long before I met Sam. While the cover is gorgeous, so is the interior design:
Here is the halloween font we discussed should anyone be unfamiliar.
A clip of the Great Gatsby with Mia Farrow and Robert Redford.
Design-oriented books:
- Composition No. 1 :: Marc Saporta
- Hopscotch :: Julio Cortazar
- House of Leaves :: Mark Z. Danielewski
- Selected Works of T.S. Spivet :: Reif Larsen
- Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy :: Laurence Sterne
- Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close :: Jonathan Safram Foer
- Essentialism :: Greg McKoewn
Writer's Block Bookstore in Las Vegas. I have gushed about it before.
Books read in public:
- Never Good Enough :: Monica Ramirez Basco
- On the Road :: Jack Kerouac
- Girl With the Dragon Tattoo :: Stieg Larsson
- Bangkok 8 :: John Burdett
Infinite Jest with 2 bookmarks
HotDudesReading on Instagram
Publishers that make beautiful and/or gigantic books:
The giant book of maps (Damn it's cheaper now!)
Tang's Donuts Los Angeles
Beautiful designer cover editions:
- Penguin's Proust series
- Candide :: Voltaire :: Chris Ware edition
- Song of Myself :: Walt Whitman :: Adrian Tomine edition
- Oliver Munday work for Knopf
- Italo Calvino editions
Phew! And there you have it. Happy listening and browsing.