Phil (ptkwt / shell1.aracnet.com) wrote:
> It's all because O'Reilly chose to put a camel 
> on the cover of the Programming Perl book - 
> there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason 
> to their choice, but as the years  went by the 
> Camel became the symbol of Perl.

I suspect that the O'Reilly animal books derive their inheritance from the
infamous "Dragon Book" (see
http://www.jargon.net/jargonfile/d/DragonBook.html), an absolute classic
that was used to torture a couple generations of wannabe computer
scientists.  

Also, now that I am reminded, the sorcerer/sorceress idea was already done
for the "Wizard Book," (see
http://www.jargon.net/jargonfile/w/WizardBook.html), the also infamous
_Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs_ fondly known by some as
"SICP."  For a closer look at that famous artwork, along with the full text
and much more, see http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/sicp.html.

For information about other famous book monikers, see
http://www.jargon.net/jargonfile/b/booktitles.html.

Why do books end up with animals and people on the cover?  I don't know.
Please consult your nearest marketroid!

John Tobler
grepninja / diganet.com