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Christopher Burke's Active Literature: Jan Tschichold and New Typography

I'll show mine too, since I'm asking. This is a Korean book (which I can't read, but find inspiring and fascinating):

Not the best picture (but a remarkable novel):
http://s158562511.onlinehome.us/000204.jpg

Then there's this.

Hmm…
So how do people feel about the idea of flush-left horizontal text on the spine of, say, a novel?

Well, if you have enough space, why not?
That said, flush left leans towards modern/design-y, so maybe it depends on the novel too.

"flush left leans towards modern/design-y"

Sure seems like it.

I guess I'm asking a non-question here… I was just wondering because this seems so rare that I was suspecting some underlying big issue. Guess not. :-)

I've never seen it done before so I'll be interested to see what you come up with. I'm sure you'll make it look great.

this seems so rare that I was suspecting some underlying big issue

Thinking about it, other than the inability to scream DAN BROWN or similia using all available space (mitigated by the better readability of horizontal text), the only other issue I can think of is with the type of binding. A used paperback book, one that was actually read, tend to develop vertical cracks along the spine. Vertical text would appear somewhat stenciled, but still legible until a certain point. The risk with horizontal text would be the cracks deleting single letters.

Interesting. I've been thinking about this as well of late. It seems that we've become quite used to tilting our heads (or our brains) to be able to read vertical text on a spine, especially when it reads from top to bottom (in North America). But on websites, magazines, or other collateral, it's not recommended nor is there a convention established.

Does anyone know when vertically displayed text became a standard in book publishing or is it just a matter of longer titles and shorter books requiring it?

Does anyone know when vertically displayed text became a standard in book publishing or is it just a matter of longer titles and shorter books requiring it?

This question came out before (http://www.typophile.com/node/65375), still no definitive answer.

Got lucky with a short-worded title. So far nobody has complained – I'm curious to see if anybody will :-). It is rather uncommon, but I tend to think that's a good thing, in terms of making it stand out.

Beautiful achievement! :-)

(Just hope they wouldn't want a series!* ;-)

* http://typophile.com/node/69633

Ha! I hope :-)

I found a few...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ekusupo/6293800281/in/photostream
and
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ekusupo/6294325956/in/photostream
and I nearly forgot these...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ekusupo/6293798353/in/photostream

Do it! Break the rules... or stretch thyself!