Monday, October 17, 2011

Musing Mondays: Judging a Book by its Cover


This week’s musing asks…
Do you judge a book by its cover?
All the time! Who doesn't? Cover art sets the tone, gives you a clue about the theme, subject or setting of a book. If you're writing about about, say, Marie Antoinette, and you put a movie-tie-in picture from the Sophia Coppola film with Kirsten Dunst in a floppy hat, that's going to make a pretty different impression than, say, her portrait by Vigée-Lebrun. And those choices are deliberate and done to attract different kinds of readers. I paid $15.99 for the trade paperback of one book because I liked the cover and the overall packaging better than the $7.50 mass market version. Books are products like anything else, and of course the outside matters. The inside is what really counts, but who doesn't love a pretty thing?

More Musing Mondays at ShouldBeReading.wordpress.com.

11 comments:

rhapsodyinbooks said...

I definitely judge a book by its cover, ANd the spine - got to have a good spine! :--)

Zibilee said...

I try not to because I have found dome real gems with bad covers, but ultimately, I know that I do judge books by their covers. I think the industry is counting on that!

Sandy Nawrot said...

Yes of course, I love beautiful covers. And I am pissed when a wonderful book has an uninspiring one. Even though I couldn't get past page 12 on that latest translation of Doctor Zhivago, I'm damn proud of that cover. Display it in my living room.

Anonymous said...

Oh I say I don't but I'm such a bad liar! I obviously do. Everyone does, I'm sure of it. I'm such a sucker for a beautiful, fun or interesting cover.

bermudaonion said...

Yep, I'm the same way. I do all I can to avoid movie tie-in covers and will pay extra for a book without one.

Anonymous said...

I definitely judge a book by its cover and I am not ashamed to admit it!

Unknown said...

I've bought numerous books purely because of their cool covers. Book covers sell books.

Vasilly said...

I always judge a book by its cover. I love a great cover and will buy a book that I already own if a newer edition comes out with a better cover. My only problem is finding the time to read those books.

Bryan R. Terry said...

Exactly.

My Musing is HERE

caite said...

some people seem to feel guilty about it, but aren't we meant to use the cover to judge the book? ok, maybe not the FINAL judgement....

Anonymous said...

I love a pretty cover and often pick up books by unknown authors just because of the cover:) Good way of finding new books!