2021, Day 3: Never judge a book by its cover? Or?

[Melindam]

Any book you love even more because of their gorgeous cover or because you think they manage to depict the content?

Or else books you love despite the terrible cover?

And books you were attracted to because of their cover, but felt let down by their content?

[Henk]

Oh, nice topic!

I do have covers that really put me of, most recent example is for instance:
But also the Dutch cover of Station Eleven, which I loved, is a bit too much for my taste:
Conversely, I really found the cover of Vanishing Half appealing but was kind of disappointed in the book.

I must say I particularly enjoy series of books, for instance the Fitzcaraldo editions or certain Russian books here in The Netherlands. And in general I feel less is more for book cover designs.

[ꕥ Ange_Lives_To_Read ꕥ]

Great question!
I specifically remember this book:

because I liked it very much but thought the cover art was so cheesy that I even mentioned it in my review.

I think authors should put more thought into the covers, and I agree with Henk, less is usually more.

[Gogol]

I loved my old Lord of the Rings and Hobbit covers that J. R. R. Tolkien had drawn himself. I also loved the drawings inside the penguin edition of My Family And The Other Animals, by Gerald Durrell. In contrast, I didn’t particularly like the old cover art of Ilona Andrews’ Hidden Legacy books (I think they’re changing the artist, right?)

[Melindam]

Gogol,

I still remember those attrocious covers popping up on my GR feed which made me want to gag. And yet, all trusted GR friends gave such glowing reviews that I had to check it out. And ever since, Hidden Legacy has been my favourite Urban Fantasy series despite those horrid covers.

For the other member's benefit I am posting them here so you see what we mean with Gogol. :D

Altogether, I think the middle one is just the most gag-worthy cover I came across for such an awesome book.

[Melindam]

As for great covers I already had had at least 2 paperback editions of Pride and Prejudice when I came across this one and I loved it so much that I had to buy it.




Another cover that I was spot on to depict what the book is about is . This is an all-time favourite book and the cover manages to convey all what's behind.

I am also a sucker for covers depicting small towns/villages - especially if they are Xmas scenes- and they may or may not meet expectations. For this reason I created a GR shelf titled "falling for the cover". Here are some examples from this shelf

- This has been a nice read.

- I found this book horrible, it was totally devoid of magic

- this was an OK read

[Gogol]

Love the colour and the blurb of the goblin emperor. It just went into my tbr. Hidden Legacy is an all time favourite of mine too!
And now that you mention it, I don’t have any particularly pretty edition of any Jane Austen book that I own. They’re mostly plain gros-grain in dark green and bordeaux. And I wonder where I’ve put them?

[Melindam]

Gogol, ever since I got "The Goblin Emperor" as a present, I reread it every year. I just love it.

[Emma Deplores Goodreads Censorship]

Oh yeah, I'm definitely particular about which covers I want to display!

A couple of books I love despite terrible covers/covers that don't depict content well:

- this looks incredibly pulpy to me, but it's a really fun feminist fantasy novel with great characters

- this whole series looks like it should only be available for sale at Wal-Mart, but it's actually solidly literary as well as great reading. I feel like every recommendation for it has to come with a "please ignore the cover" warning. All four books have covers in the same awful style.

I think cover art for professional publications is usually pretty good, so there are a lot of books with good covers that I disliked, but this one stands out to me as one I read this year that did not at all live up to the promise of that lovely cover. Agreed about The Vanishing Half as well.

[Gypsy]

i chose a book because it had a cover that was clearly from a much older time period and it ended up being one of my favorite books...i feel pictures can reveal something about a book...is the cover dark? it'll probably be a heavy read...is there a whole bunch of fake people on it it'll probably be some chick lit....HOWEVER i feel the saying should be changed to never judge a book by it's title because there are so many good titles out there that are shitty books

however there are always expections