Illustrations

They say that one should not judge a book by its cover, but I quite often do, there are good books with unexciting covers but I've also thought that if they don't bother to make an interesting cover, what's the point. This visual judging of books started as a kid, if a picture book has good illustrations, I'm more inclined to read it.

I wouldn't classify a lot of illustrations as "high art" but it was an early introduction for me and so many others, to the arts. One of the books I grew up with was Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak and today I got to go see an exhibit of his work. It was fun to have the nostalgia of childhood but also to be able to see these images as drawings, sketches, watercolors, lithographs etc. and to be able to appreciate Sendak's skills as an artist.