Dick, Philip K. The Minority Report. 2002.
Pantheon reprint designed by Chip Kidd.

To coincide with the release of its movie adaptation, this short story was released as a weirdly over-designed hardback. I had to read it just to see what it was like to read a tall book bound at the top instead of the side. It is ergonomically harder to turn the pages, but the reading experience (in this case) was not essentially different.

The design of this book takes many other design risks: parts of the front and endmatter are in a font that is semireadable. There are slick low-res images (Dick's face?), and the designer makes the gesture of repeating the UPC code over and over on the inside back cover. (Is this to make the book look more futuristic or is it some kind of statement about the commodification of literature?)

While I hunger for unusual books, and think that a tall book bound at the top is a great idea, I cannot see what that idea has to do with this coherent, economical (well, no wasted plot development but too short to spend 13 bones on), suspenseful science fiction detective short story with dull characters but interesting reflections on the nature of time.