Gallery: Cover Stories: Cases to Make E-Books Look Like Real Books
01kindle-launchlinings
Like books, e-readers and tablets need protection. Their delicate, computer-like screens can get cracked or smashed by the vagaries of life. And like books, we spend hours staring at these delicate devices. So why not make them look more like books? We don't just want to protect tablets and e-readers, but honor and personalize them, and maybe bring back some of the quaint pleasures of reading an old leather-bound volume at the same time. The most natural way to signal their special status as reading machines and engines of cultural consumption is to borrow what we know from the look and feel of book covers. And if making an e-reader look like an old hardcover book or a composition notebook adds a little trompe l'oeil fun, so much the better. This slide show highlights some of the best faux-book covers for e-book readers and tablets. __Above:__ Covers made by Dodocase for the Kindle 3.
02abc-kindle-joint-0
Originally, because [early e-readers tended to ship with protective covers](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000FI73MA/3MA-20), there weren't many third-party accessory companies working on cases for e-readers at all. Cases with the look and feel of vintage books began as a homemade, user-driven phenomenon — and the easiest way to make a case that looks like a book is to start with a book. In 2007, Mobileread forum user Artsci posted photos of a [Kindle cover created from a Leonardo leather calendar and address book](http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17437): > Since I know a bit about bookmaking techniques, I decided to make a case that looked like a fine book that when opened revealed the Kindle -- a kind of old-world, new-world idea. Artsci used a handmade, Florentine leather book cover, added marbled end papers, and even added gold leaf to create the illusion of gilt-edged pages. The Leonardo "ABC" covers have a classic high-quality look, and of course the alphabet suggests the versatile reader inside. Artsci later repeated the trick with a [similar cover for a Kindle 2](http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40384). __Above:__ The homemade Leonardo cover is for the Kindle 1, with a lovingly crafted interior and exterior. *Images: Mobilereads Forum*
03hardy-boys-2-0
In July of this year, IBM technician Randy Belyk created [Vintagecovers](http://www.etsy.com/shop/vintagecovers), an Etsy store for tablet and e-reader cases made from covers of classic books. Belyk made his own cover for a Kobo e-reader from a favorite Spider-Man comic after being disappointed with the drab e-reader covers on the market. One of Belyk's co-workers asked if he could adapt the process to make an iPad cover, and his side business was born. Belyk scours flea markets, secondhand stores and garage sales looking for books with the right size, condition and look for a quality cover. The covers generally cost between $27 and $32. Given sufficient lead time, Belyk's Vintagecovers can even make a cover out of a customer-provided book. It's a very different approach, rooted more in nostalgia and childhood attachment than the illusion of prestige. __Above:__ Vintagecovers used *A Figure in Hiding* from The Hardy Boys' series, to make a case for the Kindle 3.
04oberon-medici
Of course, it wasn't long before professional artists and designers realized there was a substantial market that could benefit from their skills. One of our favorites is [Oberon Design](http://www.oberondesign.com/Kindle3.php), a leather and jewelry company that makes covers and cases for a wide range of electronic products, as well as handbags, belts and datebooks. Oberon's Kindle covers have a textured, three-dimensional design, and a large pewter button with a bungee strap that keeps the cases closed. The covers come in a range of covers and designs, but generally have a vintage fantasy/ *Lord of the Rings* look and feel. It doesn't come cheap: This Kindle 3 cover costs $70. For some users, the cost and look may be too precious; for others, it could be just the right cover to suggest the magical device hidden inside. __Above:__ The Oberon Medici leather cover for Kindle 3.
05m-edge-cambridge
[M-Edge's Cambridge Jacket](http://www.medgestore.com/products/kindle3-cambridge.psp) is the workhorse in the faux-hardcover case ecosystem. Forty-five dollars gets you scotch-guarded cotton canvas with a leather binding. In [my review of the Cambridge Jacket](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/11/two-cases-make-your-kindle-look-and-feel-like-a-book/), I wrote that the cover "has more of an 'Everyman's Library' feel to it.... It's softer, it has more texture; the spine's just as stiff without feeling hard." __Above:__ The M-Edge Cambridge Jacket for Kindle 3.
06cindy-chew-81710-dodocase-ipad-cases-are-manufactured-at-local-bookbinding-studio-cardoza-james-binding-in-soma
For a classic hardcover notebook look, it's hard to beat [San Francisco's Dodocase](http://www.dodocase.com/). Its Moleskine-inspired leather and bamboo iPad case is the urban-electronic equivalent of a black winter jacket: popular and stylish exactly because of its stark simplicity. Dodocase plays up its roots in artisan bookmaking, but its most striking innovation is probably the bamboo-carved frame for the iPad or Kindle. Most third-party cases use leather or bungee straps to hold a device in place; Dodocase's bamboo completely surrounds it, with rubberized corners that squeeze-lock the device inside. The grain of the bamboo still preserves the illusion that there just might be paper inside. It's ingenious. __Above:__ A $60 iPad case from Dodocase. For more on these cool covers, check out Charlie Sorrel's [hands-on look at the Dodocase](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/10/ipad-case-smackdown-dodocase-vs-pen-quill/).
07composition-ipad-case-6
Like Dodocase, Portenzo makes iPad and Kindle cases in bamboo and faux-leather. Portenzo, though, mixes up the Moleskine vibe with themed cases like this [Composition iPad case](http://shop.portenzo.com/product_p/composition%20ipad%20case.htm), Ostrich-skin cases and others. __Above:__ This Composition iPad case by Portenzo costs $70. *Image: Portenzo*
08ekocase
Ekocase is another Dodocase-like iPad casemaker offering a few variations on the bamboo + faux-leather = black hardcover book theme. The bamboo frame in the [Ekocase's Folio for iPad](http://ekocase.com/ekocasefolio.html) has a redder, cherry-like finish, and it uses EVA shock-absorption pads rather than rubber to keep the iPad in place. The Dodocase frankly has enough imitators that the differences usually hinge on minutiae like this — so while those may sound like trivial changes, they're probably critical to *someone*. __Above:__ Ekocase's Folio for iPad costs $60.
09book-for-ipad
[Nedrelow's Book for iPad](http://www.nedrelow.com/bookforipad.html) takes a slightly different approach. Really, the iPad is too long and thin to look like most ordinary hardcover books. That's why so many third-party makers take the Moleskine or Composition notebook approach. However, the iPad is just the right size and shape for an oversized art book — and that's what the Book case looks like. You can even indulge yourself with an [arty, Surrealist joke](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Treachery_of_Images) by having "This Is Not A Book" engraved on the cover or spine. The Book for iPad struggles with a tension common to several of these cases: Is this a case for use, storage or both? You can use the Book case as a kind of monitor stand, but otherwise, it's really designed to store your iPad away and stick in a bag or (preferably) on a bookshelf. __Above:__ The Book for iPad commands a museum gift-shop premium price: It starts at $100.
10bookbook-ipad-stack-product-2-
Twelve South's [BookBook iPad](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Treachery_of_Images) case packs a little bit of everything. It's got the colorful, vintage, hand-rubbed slightly-fantasy-like leather look of the Oberon covers and the zippered closure and bungee straps of the bag-inspired cases that don't look like books at all. You can close it up tight and throw it in a bag, or pop it open and pretend you're reading a slender old book. __Above:__ The BookBook iPad case costs a mere $70.
11kate-spade-great-gatsby
Most book-like cases for e-readers and tablets go for either the authenticity of the old or the discreet invisible charms of the modern (sometimes both). [Kate Spade's Kindle 3 cases](http://www.amazon.com/kate-spade-new-york-Generation/dp/B003UYV1JW) go a completely different way. These are books that are designed to look like paperbacks that you just bought at the bookstore or newsstand. They're colorful: bright, audacious, fake color. And I have to say: I love them. Kate Spade's cases flaunt their inauthenticity, taking classic literary texts (*The Great Gatsby, Great Expectations, The Importance of Being Earnest*) and making them over with covers that never were. Instead of encasing great books in a mausoleum, the cases aim to reinvent them as if they were being published by a popular trade house today. There's a keen literary sensibility guiding the choice of covers, too -- all stories of parvenus masking or rediscovering their true identity. It's a bit like the e-reader itself, hidden behind the protective cover of a fake book jacket, suddenly discovering that it has been telling nothing but the truth all along. __Above:__ Kate Spade's *Great Gatsby* cover for the Kindle 3. *Image: Kate Spade New York /Amazon.*
