Do You Judge Books By Their Covers?

[DragonHeart]

Originally Posted by Bookewyrme

Also, interestingly, I can get attached to specific covers for books. So, I have lots of books that I love the covers of, but I'm often weirded out and repelled by alternate covers from other editions of the same book (especially when talking about an older edition of SF/F). I don't know why. It's the same book, but I want to read MY copy, not the other copy. :P

Hah, me too. I have a copy of The Lost World (Crichton) from just before the movie came out (they didn't do posters for covers back then...like it was so long ago XD) and I haven't seen a copy of it with that exact cover before or since. It's red with a holographic t-rex on it that goes from the iconic t-rex fossil logo to an actual t-rex head. Love it. I've read it so much my copy is starting to fall apart but I refuse to replace it because it wouldn't be my copy anymore.

Anyway, I can say I don't but it would be a lie, I most certainly do judge by covers. Mostly because these days I browse on an ereader and self published titles tend to hit you in the face with the awfulness of some of them. =/ Maybe the book is good, but with a cover like that I'm not touching it. There's one series that pops up almost every time I browse and literally every book in it has the exact same terrible cover. Some commercially published books have terrible covers too of course, and I'll often avoid those too unless I've got a specific rec for it.

The Name of the Wind was one of those, actually. The first printing had semi-shirtless Kvothe on it, which surprisingly did nothing for me. Something about his pose just seemed off. Not that generic hooded man on the mass market edition is much better but by then it had so many accolades I went for it anyway.

On the other hand, I've bought books based solely on the cover before. Give me an awesome cover and I'm like a magpie, I just have to have the shiny. XD

[TaintedBoo]

Originally Posted by DragonHeart

Anyway, I can say I don't but it would be a lie, I most certainly do judge by covers. Mostly because these days I browse on an ereader and self published titles tend to hit you in the face with the awfulness of some of them. =/ Maybe the book is good, but with a cover like that I'm not touching it.

Haha, that is so true. I'd like to think I'm not shallow enough to judge a book by it's cover, but I skip right over the ones featuring characters that look like they were poorly photoshopped from an 8x10 Walmart picture frame.

However, I've also been suckered in and disappointed by many a great cover, so it goes both ways.

[njmagas]

Shamefully, yes, I do. The cover has to be the first thing to reel me in, or rather, that's how it's been in the past.

I'm trying to overcome this now by just buying whatever Goodreads suggests I might like.