Der Vorleser

It seems like yesterday that my summer just started. Now it's actually mid-July. Summer is always the busiest time of the year. Usually my summer is filled with Summer Training, school, traveling, SSOT, and hospitality for the visited guess and yp. I usually was exhausted during this season, yet strangely enough, not this year.
I went to Norfolk, VA early June to visit my niece and also took a break from school. While I was there, my sister introduced me to Der Vorleser by Bernhard Schlink. As much as I was drawn to the story, I can't help also to exam the book layout.

This book is published in China, so it's Chinese.
It's cover is pretty exciting, and the color usage is subtle yet playful. I first thought that this might be a philosophy book. I didn't know it is a novel.
After I finished the book, and while I was pondering the content of the novel. I notice two things.


One is the running head and the other one is the layout of the book. The book has two placements for running head, one is at the center of the left page and the other is at the upper left hand corner of the verso. I think the designer is trying to line up the running head with chapter head. The only page that the running head appears in the book is the review and common of other people. So, in a way, it didn't distract the view that much.

The layout of the whole book is western style, meaning reading from left to right. As I exam other Chinese book, I realized that generally they have two layouts. The western style and traditional Chinese style. The western style is horizontal reading from left to right. (like this book) Traditional Chinese style is vertical reading right to left. I guess the designer choose western style because this is a translated version of a German fiction.