O'Reilly Media book covers

O'Reilly Media is known for their distinctive book covers, which usually feature a woodcut of an animal.

The animal is often chosen because of its literal ("Programming Python" has a python on its cover), figurative ("JavaScript: The Definitive Guide" has a rhino species native to the island of Java) or humorous (a grotesque toad was chosen for "Windows XP Annoyances for Geeks") connotations.

These often follow themes: for example, a camel was chosen for "Programming Perl" and then a llama (morphologically similar to a small camel) was subsequently picked for the introductory "Learning Perl".

Other examples:

  • Webmaster in a Nutshell - spider - pun on "the web"
  • Oracle (series) - insects - humorous snipe AbOUT Oracle software being "buggy"?

See Also

Picture cover

"Picture cover" is a common term among book collectors. Many early series books and later...