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Monday, June 27, 2011

Book Covers: No Judgement...well maybe a little.

I always judge a book by its cover and I’m not convinced it is such a terrible thing. I mean isn't that what the covers are for? One look and you can tell the genre, the intended audience, and even a little of what to expect.

I want to make this extremely clear: I’M NOT MAKING A STATEMENT ABOUT HOW GOOD OR BAD ANY OF THESE BOOKS ARE, just how I feel about the covers.

So what do I love in a cover? I love abstract covers. Nature. Art. And as weird as it seems—Torsos.

What do I dislike? Full on faces. I hate it when the cover dictates what the main character looks like. I want to imagine it for myself. I will actually pass on a book if there is a face on the cover.

Here is an example. I LOVE Pendragon. The Pilgrims of Rayne is a great book. But which cover do you like better?

Maybe I'm crazy? Am I the only one who hates faces, because over 50% of the books have them. Opinions?

-Angie

2 comments:

Angela Ackerman said...

You make a good point. For me, I love the covers that have a symbolic image or two because it gives me a stronger idea of what the characters will be wrestling with and/or what the book will be about. :)

Angela @ The Bookshelf Muse

Amy said...

So funny you picked that Pendragon book because, personally, out of all the pictures of Bobby that is the one I thought was the most like the boy I imagined.

I definitely agree with you. I judge books by their covers too. But there isn't really anything that would turn me away from a book, except maybe a scantily clad woman. I don't like pictures of character's faces for the same reason. But I'll read almost anything if it catches my eye.

I'm kind of strange in the fact that when I'm looking at books in a bookstore, I almost never will read the whole backliner. I don't like to have any preassumptions about the story or the characters before I start it. And since I don't judge it by the back, I often just go by the front.

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