Check out this cool video that is a great documentary about a reporter’s difficult search for the celebrated Japanese Book Author, Haruki Murakami. I just discovered this beautiful gem on YouTube the other night and I knew I had to post it because every fan of Murakami is going to enjoy watching it. In fact, if you have never heard of his books, then you should watch it, because afterwards… you will love him.

Yes, you read the title of this post correctly, the eagerly-awaited new novel from Haruki Murakami is set for release in Japan on Friday (that’s tomorrow!) will have an initial hardback print run of half a million copies!

The new book’s title is only available in Japanese for now and is titled, “Shikisai wo Motanai Tazaki Tsukuru to Kare no Junrei no Toshi”. An unofficial translation in English gives it the title, “Colourless Tsukuru Tazaki and the Year of his Pilgrimage”.

The new novel is expected to hit bookstores on Friday, April 12th, with major outlets planning to open early at 8:00 am, while at least one large seller in Tokyo flung open its doors at midnight on Thursday (see photo down below).

Publishing house Bungeishunju Ltd. said, “Online book giant AMAZON JAPAN had received more than 20,000 pre-orders for the new novel as of Saturday, faster than any other book by Murakami.”

Half a million copies is the largest initial hardback print run for the Japanese publisher, one of the country’s biggest.

It will be Murakami’s first work in three years after the final installment of “1Q84″. That book, which can be read as “1984″ in Japanese, proved to be a worldwide phenomenon. As a side note we should mention that Chip Kidd designed the cover for the Knopf edition of 1Q84.

One last thing, we apologize for not mentioning the designer’s name of the cover to this new book. At the time of this writing we didn’t have that information.

Source: PanARMENIAN.Net

We recently discovered a cool blog named CORPUS LIBRIS that has a very fun unique concept. They share photos that people have taken where the picture shows them with a real-life BOOK JACKET COVER very strategically placed in the photo to blend in with their own body. You have seen these before, sometimes they’re really very clever! Well, that website has a ton of them and you could easily spend an hour or two of your time just laughing! Here a few we wanted to share, but for the full effect you need to visit their webpage, so please CLICK HERE!

As an important side-note we should mention that a few of these book covers were designed by Chip Kidd like, Jay McInerney’s THE JUICE and a few Book Covers for Japanese Author, Haruki Murakami.

This is just a fun post to share some recently created graphics that celebrate both Book and Authors. You might recognize some of these Writers: Haruki Murakami, Dr. Seuss (represented by the Cat in the Hat! ), and Neil Gaiman.

Please feel free to share these on your favorite social networking website, like Facebook and Twitter. Thanks!

OK, I’ll admit this is kind of a dumb thing to share but I thought it was pretty funny. The other day I was on YouTube, enjoying some music, and all of a sudden I randomly get THIS advertising banner for Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84 Book ( This cover was designed by Chip Kidd ). Random House created this ad to announce that the book is coming out in both the Paperback and eBook format. The cool thing is that it links directly to Random House’s special “Haruki Murakami” website. To check it out, just CLICK HERE!

This post is just for fun and it’s where we post some recent pictures we have found that are all pretty funny! The 1st pic is the very recent cover to George Orwell’s classic book, Nineteen Eighty Four 1984 ( not designed by Chip Kidd ). This is a Penguin Group printing and it’s hard to believe that they blacked-out the title of the book AND the Author’s name. Oh man, that really takes some balls, ha ha! But the design concept here is really cool. Actually, the black bars are dull black and the lettering is high-gloss. So, you can see the title if the light hits it right.

Next up is a photo that is Chip Kidd related. It shows two people using the Book jacket for Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84 (Knopf 2011) to cover their faces. It matches up pretty good with their own heads and it’s totally hilarious!!

Pretty soon you’re gonna need to visit the HACK THE COVER Website because Writer, Designer, and Blogger Craig Mod (@craigmod) has written a very provocative essay on the future of book cover design in the digital age. This is an essay for both Book Lovers and Designers curious about where the cover has been, where it’s going, and what the “ethos of covers” means for digital eBook design.

In it, he explains about the new “function for Book Covers to stop being Salesmen” and how covers are now either regulated to just being an icon image or not even existing at all. He also shares a theory about what all this will mean for over-all book design as well. Another great thing about the article is he gives a nice shout out to a few Knopf Designers: Peter Mendelsund, Cardon Webb and Chip Kidd. Seriously, we can’t gush enough about how wonderful and important this piece is so please be sure to click HERE and check it out!

ALBERT CAMUS Book Cover Designs by Peter Mendelsund

OLIVER SACKS Book Cover Designs by Cardon Webb

HARUKI MURAKAMI Book Jacket Design by Chip Kidd

As if being included on the New York Times Best Seller List was not honor enough, the NYT website also published a very funny Comic Strip by Grant Snider that is sort of “Chip Kidd related” and also totally hilarious! It’s a BINGO Card designed around the ideas & concepts of Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84 Book. Now, if you look at the very bottom panel, far left-hand side… Chip Kidd Cover!! Hilarious!! ( Thank you Grant Snyder & NYT ).