You’ve probably heard the phrase "you can't judge a book by its cover" enough times to believe it’s true. But Jessica Helfand says it's nonsense. “At the end of the day, a book is a visual object,” ...

We’re all told that we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but most of us do! In fact, judging a book by its cover might not be such a bad thing. A cover can help readers get a sense of what a book ...

Alex Wermer-Colan received funding from the Mellon Foundation. Alex Wermer-Colan is the Managing Editor of the Programming Historian in English and the Executive Director of Philly Community Wireless.