Beer, books, and race

[nathanjw]

Today alphacygni and I spent a nice afternoon at the Bookmill. I picked up a paperback copy of The Brewmaster's Table, which is a book that I've been saying for at least a year that I'm surprised I don't already own. After I got home, though, I thought the book looked odd, and indeed, they've changed the cover from the hardback to the paperback.

Hardback:


Paperback:


I know that there are lots of reasons to change the cover of a book. I really hope that one of the reasons was not "The book will sell better without a black man on the cover".

Comments

[mhaille.livejournal.com]

The first one looks like a beer label- which I assume was intentional (although it'd be better if he were wearing either a powdered wig or St. Pauli Girl frocks..but maybe that's just me.) The second one looks like every other book on food and booze that I've seen come out in the last few years. So yeah, I would say design decision, but I'm not sure I agree with it.