Necessity is the Mother of Designing Book Covers

I'll admit that it's not entirely catchy, but in this particular instance it's at least highly relevant. So a week or so ago I was careless with my water bottle and managed to make quite a tidy mess of things, nearly spoiling several very important accessories and causing water damage to the book I am currently reading, Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain. Well, the cover was ruined and ended up falling apart. I had been planning to try my hand at book design anyway, and I thought why not now? So, having lost one rather poorly designed cover, I gained a slightly less poorly designed one. The illustration and the design are both of my creation.

The illustration references a turning point in the book, when the main character turns from a visitor to a patient of the sanatorium where the novel is set. It also draws on the medical journals and medical investigation that pervade the spirit of human dissection and study (both mental and emotional) that makes up a large portion of the narrative's intrigue. Hans slowly becomes separate from the self he once knew in the "flatlands" as he becomes more and more involved in the life nestled in the shadow of the magic mountain. I like the color scheme. The view here shows both the front (on the right) and back (on the left) cover divided by the pumpkin colored spine. Hope that you enjoy, happy viewing!