Classic books enjoy gorgeous makeovers

We've been told not to judge a book by its cover, but nobody said we couldn't judge a cover by its design. Publishers know that some people prefer aesthetics and, based solely on the jacket design, readers may decide whether a book is or is not for them. Enter Recovering the Classics, a joint project from The Creative Action Network and DailyLit that hopes to make literary masterpieces, with their fresh cover art, appealing to contemporary readers.

"Sadly, many of the greatest classics in the public domain are left with poorly designed or auto-generated covers that fail to capture what makes these books exciting and inspiring to us. So we invited illustrators, typographers, and designers of all stripes to create new covers for 100 of the greatest works in the public domain."

Anyone can contribute, and aside from book covers, there are also posters, hoodies, and t-shirts available, with proceeds going to the artist. Below are some of the brilliantly designed covers from Recovering the Classics that you should add to your collection today.

[h/t: HuffPo]

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Preserved tattoos of the dead

The idea of preserving tattoos after death came into existence long before NAPSA . London's Wellcome Collection has over 300 specimens of preserved human flesh bearing tattoos , collected in the late 19th century. There are many more examples of smaller collections in Paris, Poland, Portugal, Berlin, and Austria. But what fascinates me the most is this lesser-known museum at Tokyo University, the Medical Pathology Museum, which houses pieces of skin collected since 1926 by Dr. Masaichi Fukushi. "Fukushi would perform autopsies on donated cadavers and dissect off just the skin. He created a method of treatment to preserve the skin and kept them stretched in a glass frame, essentially like a leather. Later the ownership of the tattooed skin collection was passed on to Fukushi's son Katsunari. Katsunari added a further 20 tattooed skins himself and it's believed that the Medical Pathology Museum has 105 in its collection, many with full body suits." ...

Happy Birthday, Faith Hill!

It's a week late, but I wanted to wish a Happy Birthday to Faith Hill. My wife has been a fan of her music for years, and honestly, who can blame her? On the zillion-to-one chance that Mrs. McGraw ever sees this blog, I'd like to remind her that the world abounds in people who know her songs by heart, and can and will sing them at the slightest provocation.

Enigmatic Shapes and Psychedelic Patterns

To say that I love Sanagi 's work is an understatement. Looking at her art feels sort of therapeutic, and I find her drawings refreshingly intricate. They're trippy, psychedelic, and resemble something that you might see under a microscope. Not much is Googleable about Sanagi, but that's fine. There aren't many artists these days that still pull off the whole mysterious vibe, so I commend her for that. By the way... they're all hand-drawn with pen and ink.

finding cain

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