A mini-trend struck me this morning on the train as I was perusing my latest travel-reading, Dan Hind's excellent The Threat to Reason. To my horror, I realised that anyone casually glancing at me and my book across the carriage might think that I was reading something trashy. Witness the cover:
The design is, of course, a witty parody of traditional pulp fiction jackets. But could someone glancing at me for less than a second really be expected to take this in? It was then that I thought back to my previous transit reading, Christopher Hitchens's God is not Great—a high-energy source of trashy signals if ever there was one:
Evidently, a profound subversion of the visual language of publishing is taking place—and is quite possibly generating sales for heavyweight authors who deserve a mass audience. But, please, can someone bring out a Harry-Potterish "adult" version of these books, so that we intellectuals in our trains and cafés can retain the thrill of knowing that those around us know that we're reading terribly clever stuff…
