I bought The Strange Library on a whim.
It was the cover that caught my eye. The big cartoon eyes and snarling leopard's mouth spliced together to make a goofy yet menacing face instantly drew me over to it. I flipped it over and read a summary so bizarre that I felt obligated to buy it. When I got home I opened the book by separating the cartoon eyes from the leopard's mouth. Inside this vertical flap was another set of unsettling images. Where the normal book cover should be there was the first page of the story. At this point I knew I was in for a truly original reading experience.
Part of this experience is due to Haruki Murakami's unusual fairytale about a schoolboy, a sheep man, and a ghost girl trying to escape a terrifying library and its cannibalistic librarian. The other part is due to its beautiful design by legendary book cover artist Chip Kidd. He did a masterful job bringing this novella to life with striking images and a truly unique layout. The pictures and typography evolve with the story. Each turn of the page brings something new and exciting. It's a story in a category all its own with a design to match. – Kye Wood
See sample pages from this book at Wink.
