French Book Spines

[it5five]

I was looking at my books last night, and noticed something pretty interesting. The spines on my English books are different than the spines on my French books. The title and author on the English books starts from the top and is titled down, and it's opposite for the French ones (look at the picture for easier explanation). It's like this on all of the French books I own, so I know it's not limited to just the one in my example.

Why is this? What are Spanish/German/Italian/Russian/any other language book spines like?

 

[shecky]

that is typical in europe. usually spines go the opposite way that they do in the US. i have a ton of books from overseas (mostly design/art/photo/architecture books) and they almost all do that.

 

[mkrishnan]

Mostly the continent then? My Russian books look like my French books, but my UK and Indian ones look like my US ones....

 

[Daveman Deluxe]

Let's do a little thought experiment. Stack a multi-volume set up on a table such that the first volume is on the top and the rest go down in order. If the spine has been printed in the European direction, then all of the titles will be right-side up when stacked up this way, and you'll be able to take that stack and put it on a bookshelf such that the first volume is on the left, with the number increasing as you go to the right.

If it's been printed the U.S. way, then the titles will be upside down in the stack. This is why multi-volume works in the U.S. are often put on the shelf such that the first volume is on the RIGHT, so that you can still take the set off the shelf and put them on a table with the title right-side up.

 

[TwinCities Dan]

a small sidetrack here...

Interesting, I noticed in my CD collection all the titles are the "english" style talked about in this thread. I have over 600 CD's and they are all like this except Pink Floyd: Wish You Were Here. Odd.

 

[mkrishnan]

Interesting, I noticed in my CD collection...

You still have CDs? What, like out and in a shelf? I haven't seen my CD collection since 2003.

 

[TwinCities Dan]

You still have CDs? What, like out and in a shelf? I haven't seen my CD collection since 2003.

Yup, I like having tangible assets... (Most of them are imported already but I like having the actual booklets etc.)

 

[mkrishnan]

Nice! I have a similar soft spot for books. And that similar soft spot being taken up by several bookcases full of hardcovers, I have no room left for sentimentality for my CDs anyway, so they're happily crated.