Judging A Book By Its Cover

When I look for a book, I make sure it has a beautiful cover because 1. I enjoy staring at my books, and that 2. it just makes my day whenever I see beautiful artworks. I've gone to great lengths to make sure I have the best cover there is and so far, I have not disappointed myself. Well, Ned Vizzini's It's Kind of a Funny Story is a bit of a challenge because most copies have the movie tie-in cover already. But I'm not one to give up so easily.

Ain't the original cover always better?

I don't know about you, but when I buy a book, I make sure that 1. the cover is enough to cover the book, meaning, there wouldn't be the slightest hint of the flyleaf when you look at it, and that 2. the spine design should be within the spine limits and should not crossover and be seen on the cover because it would just be ugly to look at. And yes, I am talking about the last copy of It's Kind of A Funny Story (in it's original cover) I found in Fully Booked after searching in two Powerbooks branches. And no, I still did not buy it. It was ugleee!

I like the black one better

I have an aversion towards real people being on the cover of books. Adam Brody or Michael Cera, I might reconsider. Otherwise, I just think it defeats the purpose of letting the reader imagine a character for him/herself. So for SD's The Truth About Forever, I initially got disappointed when the black cover was not available (despite my best efforts in checking two bookstores) until I realized that the cover I wanted might have been for US publishing only especially that I only saw it on the Internet.

Markus Zusak's I Am The Messenger

In I Am The Messenger's case, the one with the black cover (far left) would have been great if 1. the title wasn't altered and 2. the book with that kind of cover was available for purchase. The second one, I don't even care about. The third one I didn't buy because the font was similar to Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns whose book suited the font better than that of Zusaks. Funny how the fourth cover was the first one I saw but only bought it after checking 3 more bookstores.

John Green's Looking for Alaska (as if it weren't obvious)

I've been wanting to read Looking for Alaska for the longest time and was glad to have known that Fully Booked had a copy. Naturally, the first thing to ask was “What does the cover look like?” and the guy from the other end gladly described the book only to find out that I wasn't going to buy it. I found my match in Fully Booked BGC and after a few trips back to the rack to make sure I have the best one, I bought it.

Imagine how psyched I was when I found out about foreveryoungadult.com's hilarious cover art score system. They use terms like Brown bag it! for books you just can't read in public because1. it's fugly, and 2. an obvious YA cover that you can't just be seen in public reading. They also have one called Fake I.D. for YA books with covers that could pass as "normal adult stuff." You should totes read their blog--it's hilarious!

Obviously, I'm rambling but I do hope that I get my point across. And I hope that the next time you buy a book, you also search for the best cover there is. Spread the book OCD!