Do you go by book covers when choosing what to read?
I have several pet peeves concerning covers. Some of them will actually drive me away if I haven't already decided to read a book because of a recommendation or because it's part of a series, for example.
One of them has been haunting me lately - the cover filled up with text. I'm not saying by any means that this is a recent invention, it seems to me, however, that it becomes more and more popular.
Of course, I understand that it's a matter of marketing.
Tell me what else the author wrote. Mention a book by someone else it reminds of. And if there is a movie, by all means make sure to use an image from it for the cover and tell me that it's now a major feature film with a big star, even better two.
If famous writers, reviewers or newspapers and magazines inform me how much they love a book without actually saying anything about it, I'm sure to love it too. Use words like "groundbreaking", "exhilarating", "impossible to put down". Oh, and let me know if it makes you cry or laugh, please.
Add some "stickers" and award information (not removable on physical copies of course) and I will love it even more.
There's just one thing - I don't. I'm not interested in what those people say, mostly because there's a good chance I don't even know them. I also don't want to know if the book is a some book club's choice or on which bestseller list it is, actually not even that it is a bestseller.
For me all of that is visually overwhelming. It possibly makes me dismiss a book without giving it a fair chance because it makes my brain explode a little. Enough for it to become a pet peeve, well, and even write about it.
As a post without a picture always looks a bit sad, but I didn't want to call out books whose covers I don't like (although I already had a list), I chose one instead that I do like. A title and a name. A bit old-fashioned, just like me.
Seriously, though, how important is a cover for you? Have you seen books you didn't want to read because of their covers, if so, for what reason?
By the way, if you write book reviews or blog posts about other book-related matters - even movies based on books - please check out "A Good Book and a Cup of Tea", a monthly bookish blog link party that I host together with Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and Lisa from Boondock Ramblings. You can find out more about it here.


































