Another Friday, another Book Hop from Crazy-for-Books.com. (Link on the Image up there^). Today's question is "Do you ever judge a book by its cover?"
Well, yeah. On so many levels, though, and perhaps not exactly what the question is going for. Let's start with the obvious. There's some important info on the cover. Stuff like - Title, AUTHOR, and usually a synopsis, of sorts. I often prejudge a book on this info alone. Ok, so mainly the author's name, but still. Example? If a cover has the name David Markson on it, I'm going to cringe.
Then there's the aesthetic thing. Sure I judge a book by it's cover's aesthetics. This doesn't really have a thing to do with what I think about the story/prose/poetry/whatever. But it still means something. A good book with a good story AND a good cover just pleases the book lover in me more than a good book with a good story and a crap cover. When I went to the Big Ass Book Sale, I found different copies of books. Don't think I didn't pick out the books with cooler covers. I even revere a cool cover book over the book with more commentary, annotations, etc.
This all leads to another thing. Digital books vs. 'real books'. The cover is really part of the 'packaging'. I own a nook, but I still would choose a real book, partly because the real book just looks and feels nicer. On my nook, I always use the feature where I can view the covers in my library over just list form. Despite the fact, that these 'covers' are so small that you cannot make anything out...I still prefer seeing the cover.
One other thing...If the cover has a Fabio look alike nibbling on the neck of some woman pouring out of her top, I'm going to judge that book. It's a book I'm generally not going to be interested in reading. Also, there are the self-published books you see now with covers that are really cheap looking and fuzzy, like some non-professional graphic designer booted up his/her pirated copy of Photoshop. Judged.
What do you think? Does the cover mean anything to you?
New follower from the blog hop. Yes, the cover means a lot to me. To me it's about putting your best foot forward. It's like showing up to an interview in a good suit vs. a wrinkled suit. You might give a great interview but the way you look does matter.
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From the TBR Pile
of course, the author is seldom involved with the cover (I think) at the major publishing houses. I wonder if they can reject a cover? I suppose it has to do with their contract...thanks for stopping by
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