I like that someone noticed this:
(I also enjoyed that the book [Racing the Beam] itself is a nice recursive hack. Its (fairly cheap) printing process didn’t allow reproducing the detailed color photos of the games needed for reference. So they printed them on the inside of the dust jacket instead.)
Indeed, it was essential that color images of the games appear somewhere in the book, but plates were out of the question so the press could keep the reader’s cost down as low as possible (street price is an affordable $15ish, not bad at all for a hardcover book).
The dust jacket served just the purpose, and indeed takes on the spirit of creativity and constraint discussed on the pages it dresses.