7-Day Book Cover Creation Challenge

[7-Day Book Cover Challenge]
A familiar chain post on social media. It came to me via Facebook.
(Rules are at the bottom)
Every time I move, I let go of more and more of my favorite books, so I have almost none left on hand. Because of this, I set a different rule for myself than others.

That is to give myself the mission of
posting a book cover (design) I created with my own illustrations every day.

Here, without touching on where the chain post goes or following the rules, I would like to write about the book summaries, my random thoughts, and various things regarding my self-made covers.
(Regarding the cover design, since I am an
illustrator, not a designer, I would appreciate it if you could just look at the
mind's eye and just the illustrations and think, 'Well, this is how it is.')

I will post them in the following order.

・Book Title
・Cover I made (Illustration + Book Design)
・Book Summary
・A few words on my random thoughts and the cover design for this challenge

I will go in the reverse order of how I announced them!

"Audubon's Prayer" (Kotaro Isaka)

2020.04.29 Wednesday [Day 7] "Audubon's Prayer" (Kotaro Isaka)

*Book Summary
The debut work published by Kotaro Isaka in 2000.
Won the 5th Shincho Mystery Club Award.
You are drawn in until the very end by the freshness of his sparkling talent and the intricately woven story.
Audubon is the name of an ornithologist who actually existed from the late 18th to the 19th century.
This book features an impressive episode involving Audubon and the extinct passenger pigeon.

*Random Thoughts & About the Cover Design
If asked which of Isaka-san's works is the best, I would struggle a bit.
If asked which one I would choose to design, this is the only one. Because I can draw birds.
Well, a designer might tell me, 'Don't draw birds'...

"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" (Lewis Carroll)

2020.04.28 Tuesday [Day 6] "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" (Lewis Carroll)

*Book Summary
A children's novel published by Lewis Carroll in 1865.
Lewis Carroll is the pen name of the British mathematician Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. It is based on the story 'Alice's Adventures Underground' that he told to the three daughters of an acquaintance in 1862.
It uses playing cards as a motif and was written with his favorite of the three sisters, Alice Liddell, as the model. The sequel, 'Through the Looking-Glass,' uses chess as a motif.

*Random Thoughts & About the Cover Design
'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' is a favorite in a class of its own.
I started with the Disney animation and am now a collector who owns many copies.
For this Alice cover, I used an illustration that was well-received at my solo exhibition two years ago.
As a classic masterpiece, it has been released by many publishers.
Among the several copies I own, I have chosen to be particular about this one, my absolute favorite: the 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Original' from Shoseki Joho-sha.

"Defy Your Own Fate" (Taro Okamoto)

2020.04.27 Monday [Day 5] "Stand Up to Your Own Fate" (Taro Okamoto)

*Book Summary
Based on and expanded from a portion of the life advice column serialized in "Weekly Playboy" from 1979 to 1981. It is a newly organized collection of excerpts from life advice that didn't fit into the original, featuring words that are worth reading now.
Chapter 1: Why don't you be more 'yourself'?
Chapter 2: The thrill of 'Amazing!' is the catalyst.
Chapter 3: Why don't you try living as a whole human being too?
Chapter 4: Even if you're clumsy, you should just sing your own song.
Chapter 5: How to fight yourself and win.

*Thoughts & About the Binding
The words of Taro Okamoto, one of Japan's leading artists, are truly powerful; they make you want to straighten yourself up, and at the same time, they give you the energy to feel that it's okay to be this way.
Anyone who wants to walk forward, even if it's a path different from others, will surely be encouraged.
Most of Taro Okamoto's books use his own photos for the cover, so I decided to avoid that. I chose this motif because the shield I hold in my heart seems to be concentrated in the Tower of the Sun, which stands tall facing the sun.
This is the only illustration I drew specifically for this cover design.

"Nagoya Station West Cafe Utrillo" (Tadashi Ota)

2020.04.26 Sunday [Day 4] "Nagoya Station West Cafe Utrillo" (Tadashi Ota)

*Book Summary
Ryu Kagami, born in Tokyo, is a university student attending Nagoya University Medical School starting this spring.
Ryu, who is boarding at his grandparents' cafe, is consulted by a regular customer who is troubled by chicken wing bones being left in front of their house.
Ryu, with the help of his friends and seniors, takes on the mystery.
Fried chicken wings, Sugakiya ramen, miso oden...
A linked mystery full of the charm of Nagoya cuisine. Newly written!

*Thoughts & About the Binding
It's amazing that he could come up with a mystery like this involving Nagoya cuisine!
Currently, two volumes have been published, and I'm looking forward to the third!

Since it's a book about Nagoya cuisine, I tried scattering my specialty Nagoya dishes, but...
there were many heavy colors, making it cluttered, and I struggled to pull it together neatly.
I'm glad that Mr. Ota himself saw it and seemed to enjoy it.
I was moved to tears by a Nagoya bookstore clerk saying, "I want you to sell this only in Nagoya!"

"Flowers for Algernon" (Daniel Keyes)

2020.04.25 Saturday [Day 3] "Flowers for Algernon" (Daniel Keyes)

*Book Summary... A science fiction novel by American author Daniel Keyes.
Published as a novella in 1959, it won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story the following year.
It was adapted into a novel in 1966 and won the Nebula Award.
It stands as science fiction with the premise limited to the scope of surgery to increase IQ and the events associated with it.

*Thoughts & About the Binding
I first got my hands on this book because of Kyosuke Himuro.
The title of Himuro's first solo album is "Flowers for Algernon."
I automatically cry when I remember the closing of Charlie's final letter.
It's a masterpiece that goes without saying, and it has been adapted into a drama twice in Japan.

Regarding the binding, this is actually the only one not made for this occasion.
It looks elaborate, and you can tell it's a drawing made for this binding. Actually, I submitted this to a contest and it was soundly defeated.

"Black Tea" (Fumio Yamamoto)

2020.04.24 Friday [Day 2] "Black Tea" (Fumio Yamamoto)

*Book Summary
A man and a woman drowning in an aphrodisiac called "sin"—the shadows and darkness that nest in the fragile, fleeting human heart. A sinful love penned by the up-and-coming female author Fumio Yamamoto.
A collection of short stories depicting lonely people with troubled hearts living their lives to the fullest!

*Thoughts & About the Binding
I love Yamamoto-san's books so much that I think I've read almost all of them.
I like both her short stories and novels, but I think her short story collections are particularly excellent.
That said, I wouldn't be able to choose a favorite among Yamamoto-san's works.
I happened to have a picture of a rose, so I desaturated it to make it black tea.
(It was originally a pink rose)
I only had a small image for the web, and it has a signature at the bottom (lol).

"Media Theory in the Field" (Tatsuru Uchida)

2020.04.23 Thursday [Day 1] "Media Theory in the Field" (Tatsuru Uchida)

*Book Summary... The decline in television viewership, the sharp drop in newspaper circulation, the slump in publishing... Where lies the cause of this unprecedented crisis?
Exploring the social significance of media from the anthropological horizon of "gift and return," this book identifies the essence of the crisis. A lesson in "knowledge" that Tatsuru Uchida offers to everyone who needs to survive in a future without a manual. A book version of his popular lectures at Kobe College.

*Thoughts & About the Binding
I read this book after it was recommended to me by an editor, and it was truly interesting. For someone like me who usually only read literature, I felt that this was what it meant to have a new world opened up to me. I envy those who can attend such lectures.
As for the binding, it doesn't match the atmosphere of this book or Uchida-sensei at all, but the content is somewhat appropriate (I think). On the front cover, a cat that has been given food is patting the shoulder of the person on the back cover in return.

There are still many books I want to recommend and books I love,
but that's all for now.

Thank you for reading this long post.
My first time exceeding 3000 characters in a while!