They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but can I tell you a secret? I kinda still do. A badly designed cover is very likely to make me put the book back with some subconscious idea that the book is also going to be tacky. By contrast, a beautiful, professional looking cover is going to make me linger longer, and honestly, I’ve taken more than a few books home just because they had an absolutely gorgeous cover that blew me away. I’m a bit of a shallow reader like that.
To me, a nice cover is like an invitation. It promises a rich, carefully crafted story. It proclaims the quality of the book by giving it a wrapping that matches the amazing story within. A nice cover is basically telling me: Look at how gorgeous I am. And this is just my outside. Wait until you see what I’m like inside. Don’t you want to know what this pretty cover is referring to?’ I’m a sucker for an invitation so beautifully presented.
Nice covers aren’t just an invitation to read the book though. They also turn books into decorative collectors pieces. There are so many series I want to own in print, just because I love the design of their covers. For example, I desperately want to own the rest of the Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus books in print, as well as the e-copies I already possess, because their covers are amazing. One of my favourite things about the tenth anniversary edition of Patrick Ness’s Chaos Walking series is the amazing cover design. Even when I’m not reading the books, they sit on my shelf prettying up my room, the best decorations a bookworm could want.
A beautiful cover is definitely one of my biggest draws to a book when I’m looking for something to read. It’s what catches my eye, and part of what I evaluate when making the decision whether to read this particular book or not. Pretty covers make me more likely to buy the book in print, rather than if it has a meh cover, which I’m more than happy to have as an ebook. And it promises good things to come the moment I start reading.
I probably shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but I do. And I feel like a pretty cover makes a good book better, grabs my interest, and makes me want to buy it, collect it, and show it proudly on my shelves. But I’d like to know, do you ever pick books up because they have lovely covers? Have you ever put a book back because you didn’t like the look of the cover for any reason? What book or series, in your opinion, has the best covers?
