Judging a Book By Its Cover

Yes—I judge a book by its cover!

Book covers that I love has become even more important to me these days. I know that right after my friend who pointed me in the direction of the book Exiles I found a really beautiful copy of Wreck of the Deutschland at a bookshop in Stillwater that I wished that I could afford. One of the reasons why I love having an incredibly bookish Twitter account is seeing all of the different beautiful book covers there are out there. I love scrolling through and seeing what my Twitter crush Mother Horror has to recommend for horror novels because there is a type of book lust that this fulfills for me. The presence of an enticing book cover just fulfills part of my bookish instinct.

Cover art on books can be really beautiful. I had a really hard time getting into In the Light of the Garden recently but I thought the cover was really luxurious. Since this book was not exactly my cup of tea, I was relieved that I found a copy of it on Kindle Unlimited. If I had a copy of it on my shelf I know that I would be conflicted about loving the artwork on the cover and not wanting a copy of a book that does not represent something that I love.

I have not gotten rid of my copy of Spinning Silver because even though I found it to be a flawed book I loved the cover with calligraphy letters that felt like an older book.  I learned that commentary on the experience of holding the beautiful book in my hands may not be professional enough for a review for Twin Cities Geek. However, the way a book looks and feels to me does influence my relationship with it.

 As I have been cleaning out more of my books that I feel no need to keep this year I found that I had to keep my copy of My Best Friend's Exorcism not only because I found that the book was fabulous,  but also because I found that I thought that a book cover that looked like an old VHS had a really unique look about it that I just had to keep around.

Growing into being more discerning about the books that I purchase I have learned that book covers are actually quite important to me.  I realized that having a book cover that I love just makes the experience of reading a book more luxurious for me.  Don’t get me wrong—I have read some amazing books that are in the public domain with unappealing generic book covers on my Kindle. I love being able to instantly download copies of Henry James, Charles Dickens and LM Montgomery’s work and have a free copy of the book on my Kindle.

So I do evaluate a book on its content. It is just that I find that having a book cover that I love elevates the experience of reading a book for me. It is another way that I can engage in the experience of reading the book. I love that reading is a task that realize on visualizations that emerge in my head based on the descriptions that an author utilizes. But a good book cover is a work of art that I find incredibly pleasurable because it is artwork that is designed for me to hold in my hands.

Of all of my Book Riot 2018 challenges for some reason the task of reading a book with a cover you hate was actually the task that I was slowest to get to this year.  Maybe its because I do not have the money to do things like go to the opera or a gala this year that the appearance of a book cover has become more important to me than before. Maybe because it is because I have grown more discerning about the books I choose to keep on my shelves and purchase for my collection. But I have to admit that I am a sucker for good cover art on my books.

And on the occasions that I find really cheap books to buy used on amazon, I base my choices on the cost of the book, not the cover of the book. I am Legend was one of those books for me. I got a cover that captured a picture from the movie. I really am not a fan of having movie covers on the books that I read. I feel like movie adaptations of a book are different from the book itself and therefore should not be used on a book cover. I totally understand that this is a marketing decision and that for some people seeing a picture associated with a movie would get them to consider to buy a book. But just because I understand the logic behind this does not mean that I like this decision.

I thought that this would be a good choice for this task because I have read and loved a lot of books by Richard Matheson this year. I really do enjoy his style and he has enticing stories. Not liking the cover did not diminish my enjoyment of reading the story, but I did not get the visual stimulation of having a book cover entice me to reading the book that a different cover would have.

Quite honestly, the other reason why I found this task to be quite challenging to complete was because I do find that Harlequin series romance novels and horror novels have covers that I find enticing. My husband and I have discussed how horror novels have some of the most amazing cover art….so finding a horror novel that actually fit the bill of being a cover that I hated was challenging to find.  A cover with a picture from the movie  was perfect for me to read for this particular challenge because I knew it was a book that I really wanted to read…even if I found the cover distasteful