Define:
Series: a number of things or events of the same class coming one after another in spatial or temporal succession (Webster.com)
Sequence: a continuous or connected series
The main difference is in a series for example with numbers would go 1, 2, 3, 4 but in a sequence the numbers could go 2, 4, 6,. A sequence has a pattern but a series goes in order.
Sign-a fundamental linguistic unit that designates an object or relation or has a purely syntactic function (Webster.com). A sign is a stimulus pattern that has meaning, in my own words a sign refers to something and is up for interpretation depending on context.
Index- these kinds of signs suggest other things, cause the reader to focus, hints. A Bite out of a piece of pizza is an index someone has taken a bite.
Symbol-associated with large groups of words, these kinds of signs are agreed upon in the culture as a whole to be understood, needs an interpreter. The no smoking sign is a symbol
Sign index symbol
Readings
Chip Kid: I was searching around the site and came across a cover by Ben Pieratt for a book called Shobiz by Jason Anderson. I was reading through the comments and one stood out to me “blood stains on book covers are cliché I think” I want to keep this in mind when designing my covers. As for the Chip Kidd cover I really liked the depth the covers seem to have literally inviting you into read the words. A comment someone made on this one “the whole point of a book cover is to sell the words, or at least the big two: James Ellroy.” (James Ellroy is the author) this is also something I want to keep in mind when designing my own cover.
Smithsonian Magazine: Avoid things that are literal. Yes rules are meant to be broken but make sure that it is not too racy or stores wont carry the book. I am confused on the cover he designed for Crichton’s Jurassic park and why it was son innovative, to me it is pretty literal.
Steg magazine and the Covers article: What I liked reading about most about these articles is when they tell stories of specific covers. Like in the covers article about the Lolita book cover, the comment made my the New York Post that it was the “raciest cover yet.” Knowing the back stories give so much more meaning and appreciation for the work. John Gall states the mission is really to allow the book to make a great first impression.” In theory I think many people partly choose a book because of the cover I do, partly at least. Then I read the back cover and try to really get a grasp on what the book is about by adding the visual elements that grabbed my attention and first made me pick the book up in the first place.
What makes a successful book jacket
''The best book covers possess a form of hidden eroticism...in order to say 'take me, I am yours,''' Powers in Front Cover, a retrospective of the century's best book jackets.Now
Know your market, Research, Color, Legibility, Placement of elements (www.bookgraphics.com)
Does it sell the book? Is it intriguing? Is it original? Is the design intriguing without the title? Is it reflective of the writing?
All these covers are successful and have created much discussion on the covers site which i enjoyed reading about each of them. I hope soon to start picking up on the elements that the discussions point out. Some things that they have in common are the simplistic factors they use to imply pages and pages of writing. Each of the designs themselves are intriguing in their own way. Every element is important to the cocept the cover is portraying. While looking at the discussions i learned that paperback and hardback covers work differently.
James Frey A Million Little Pieces
SUMMARY: Intense, unpredictable, and instantly engaging, A Million Little Pieces is a story of drug and alcohol abuse and rehabilitation as it has never been told before. Recounted in visceral, kinetic prose, and crafted with a forthrightness that rejects piety, cynicism, and self-pity, it brings us face-to-face with a provocative new understanding of the nature of addiction and the meaning of recovery.
BIO: James Frey is the author of a million little pieces and my friend leonard. After battling with alcohol addiction and spending time in rehab, he wrote a million little pieces which was published in 2003 in America and the following year in the UK to critical acclaim. He wrote the sequel, my friend leonard about life after rehab, which was published in 2005 in the US and the year after in the UK. James Frey now lives in New York with his wife, daughter and dog. He is still writing.
Steven Levenkron The Best Little Girl in the World
SUMMARY: Teenager Francesca Deitrich feels too fat, giving into the pressures of her ballet teacher and the pencil-thin models in the media, in a revealing story about a ""perfect"" little girl suffering from the destructive obsession of anorexia nervosa.
BIO: Steven Levenkron is a well known psychotherapist in New York City and the author of seven books, both fiction and non-fiction, published from 1978 to 2000 by Warner Books, Scribner and W. W. Norton. His work is widely acclaimed as original and groundbreaking in both the theoretical conception and clinical treatment of Anorexia Nervosa, Self-Mutilation, and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Levenkron’s theoretical analysis of these disorders is explained and illustrated in five non-fiction books
Dave Pelzer A Child Called It
SUMMARY: David J. Pelzer's mother, Catherine Roerva, was, he writes in this ghastly, fascinating memoir, a devoted den mother to the Cub Scouts in her care, and somewhat nurturant to her children--but not to David, whom she referred to as "an It." This book is 
a told brief, horrifying account of the bizarre tortures she inflicted on him, from the point of view of the author as a young boy being starved, stabbed, smashed face-first into mirrors, forced to eat the contents of his sibling's diapers and a spoonful of ammonia, and burned over a gas stove by a maniacal, alcoholic mom. Sometimes she claimed he had violated some rule--no walking on the grass at school!--but mostly it was pure sadism. Inexplicably, his father didn't protect him; only an alert schoolteacher saved David. One wants to learn more about his ordeal and its aftermath, and now he's written a sequel, The Lost Boy, detailing his life in the foster-care system.
BIO: Pelzer was born in Daly City, California, to Stephen Pelzer and Catherine Roerva Pelzer (née Christen) and was the second of five boys. As a child, Pelzer was abused by his mother, who thought of it as a game. Pelzer states that his mother enjoyed torturing him by starving him, forcing him to drink ammonia, and other horrors. His teachers stepped in on March 5, 1973 and 12-year-old Pelzer was placed in foster care. In 1979, he joined the Air Forc e and later became an author. The fourth boy Richard B. Pelzer has also written about his own abuse.
Associated Word List
Abuse, mistreat, perverted, misuse, shout, wrong, horrifying, atrocious, horrible, ugly, sad, depressed, hurt, pain, agony, gloomy, tragic, distressed, bittersweet, yearning, detached, separate, uninvolved, involved, free, apart, isolated, obscure, stranded, scattered, stray, quarantined, help, aide, service, assist, support, encourage, improve, better, boost, inviting, helpful, empty, hollow, remove, bare, void, deprive, vacant, role play, glazed, fake, lifeless, blank, phony, bogus, manipulate, imitation, pretend, imposter, falsify, isolate, obscure, simple, naked, desolate, expose, public, lust, famish, thirst, crave, hopeful,
Define 10 words:
Void: containing nothing, not occupied, not inhabited
Abuse: Improper or excessive use or treatment, a corrupt practice or custom
Agony: intense pain of mind or body, a violent struggle or contest
Desolate: devoid of inhabitants and visitors, showing the effects of abandonment and Neglect: to give little attention or respect to leave undone or unattended to especially through carelessness
Hopeful: having qualities, which inspire hope (to cherish a desire with anticipation)
Support: to promote the interests or cause, to hold up or serve as a foundation or prop
Encourage: to inspire with courage, spirit, or hope
Bittersweet: please alloyed with pain
Inviting: to offer an incentive or inducement, to increase the likelihood of
Tone:
east _x _ + _ _ west (eastern/western or east coast west coast)
organic _ _ +x _ _ high–tech
minimal x_ _ + _ _ ornamental
retro _ _ + _ _x contemporary
vintage _x _ + _ _ futuristic
nostalgic _x _ + _ _ contemporary
unrefined/rough _ _ +x _ _ clean/sophisticated
machine made _ _ + x_ _handmade
traditional _x _ + _ _non-traditional
complex _ _ + _x _easy
-the raw side of the prudness of the east coast sort of feel, Dramatic, minimal, traditional
To Suggest List
-the need to help
-old shaky films
- the loneliness these characters feel
- anxiousness/anticipation to hear these characters stories
-mysteriousness enough to invoke, again, a need to hear these stories
-a feeling of excitement
-create an attachment from the start
-an intense sensation
-a yearning to help this person
-connect with the reader, so using everyday images
Quotes, Phrases etc.
- I don't want to be alone. I have never wanted to be alone. I fucking hate it. I hate that I have no one to talk to, I hate that I have no one to call, I hate that I have no one to hold my hand, hug me, tell me everything is going to be all right....I hate that I have no one to share my hopes and my dreams with, I hate that I have no longer have any hopes or dreams, I hate that I have no one to tell me to hold on, that I can find them again. I hate that when I scream, and I scream bloody murder, that I am screaming into emptiness. I hate that there is no one to hear my scream and that there is no one to help me learn how to stop screaming. A Million Little Pieces
- Life is hard, Kid, you gotta be harder. You gotta take it on and fight for it and be a fucking man about how you live it. If you're too much of a pussy to do that, then maybe you should leave, 'cause you're dead already. A Million Little Pieces
- Daddy, for *once* in my life I am telling you how I feel! I... I just want you to love me... no matter what I do. The Best Little Girl In the World
- "My relationship with mom drastically changed from discipline to punishment that grew out of control. It became so bad at times, I had no strength to crawl away--even if it meant saving my life." A Child Called it
- Now Nicole’s stuck up in a world on her own forced to think that hell is a place called home Nothin’ else to do but get her clothes and pack she says she’ bout to run away and never come back. Never thinkin’ ‘bout the consequences of her actions livin’ for today and not tomorrow’s satisfaction Ludacris Run Away Love lyrics
- The life of the Addict is always the same. There is no excitement, no glamour, no fun. There are no good times, there is no joy, there is no happiness. There is no future and no escape. There is only an obsession. An all-encompassing, fully enveloping, completely overwhelming obsession. To make light of it, brag about it, or revel in the mock glory of it is not in any way, shape or form related to its truth, and that is all that matters, the truth. A Million Little Pieces
- They were all Alcoholic disasters, they all found God, they all started dancing the Twelve Step, they all got better. As with most testimonials like this that I've read or heard or been forced to endure, something about them strikes me as weak, hollow and empty. Though the people in them are no longer drinking and doing drugs, they're still living with the obsession. Though they have achieved sobriety, their lives are based on the avoidance, discussion and vilification of the chemicals they once needed and loved. Thought they function as human beings, they function because of their Meetings and their Dogma and their God. Take away their Meetings and their Dogma and they have nothing. Take them away and they are back where they started. They have an addiction. A Million Little Pieces
- Passion is a positive obsession. Obsession is a negative passion. Paul Carvel
- It's no longer a warmth hidden in my veins:
it's Venus entire and whole fastening on her prey.
Jean Racine
- Holding anger is a poison...It eats you from inside...We think that by hating someone we hurt them...But hatred is a curved blade...and the harm we do to others...we also do to ourselves The Five People You Meet In Heaven
- holding anger is poison. it eats you from the inside. we think that hating is a weapon that attacks the person who harmed us. but hatred is a curved blade. and the harm we do, we do to ourselves. The Five People You Meet In Heaven
