By Ellie Bowker
There is something I need to get off of my chest. It’s been bugging me for a while now and I feel that in order to move forward, I need to be completely and totally honest with you. This is going to be hard. No, don’t look at me like that! The truth of the matter is that I judge a book by its cover. There! I said it! But is it really that big of an issue?
There is something I need to get off of my chest. It’s been bugging me for a while now and I feel that in order to move forward, I need to be completely and totally honest with you. This is going to be hard. No, don’t look at me like that! The truth of the matter is that I judge a book by its cover. There! I said it! But is it really that big of an issue?
It’s no shocker when I say that the first thing you see when you go in to a bookshop and look at the shelf is an array of different book covers. If you go in to a bookshop knowing what you are looking for then you find that book, pick it out, buy it and job done. But when you’re innocently browsing through a shop, there’s always going to be something colourful, shiny and just generally cool looking to make you pick it up and think “Maybe I should give this a go?” Now that is not exactly a crime, is it? On average, a third of all book/magazine buys are based on spur of the moment decisions which, if you think about it, is a pretty huge chunk of people. Usually, it takes a buyer three seconds to decide on whether to buy the book upon seeing the front cover and that’s pretty snappy.
There’s that old phrase that’s been thrown around for years that goes “don’t judge a book by its cover” which I’m sure you’ve all heard plenty of times. But you just can’t help it, can you? Generally, the idea is that if the cover looks good then the story must be equally as good if not better. An example of this would be one of my favourite books, Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. I love the cover for this book because it’s just so simple and the illustrations of the characters on the front are just lovely and the colours aren’t at all tacky. And the story is equally as good, like I said, it’s one of my favourite books. Buying Fangirl was definitely a spur of the moment buy for me. The shade of green and the picture popped out at me from the shelf and shouted, “I’m pretty, buy me!” and, of course, I happily obliged. Sometimes, a great cover does not always result in a great story. When I read Rowell’s other novel, Eleanor & Park, I adored the cover but was sadly disappointed by the story. It’s like seeing a really attractive person kicking a puppy.
In some cases, the process can be completely reversed! On some occasions, I have found that there are some fantastic stories out there but with terrible book designs and, even though it shouldn’t be, it’s really off putting. For example, the first published edition of Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins (in all honesty) looked horrid. I’ve seen cereal boxes with better designs that what that was. But the story is so good! Thankfully, publishers later realised that the cover is awful and then changed it to a much prettier cover of Paris and it’s pink and not so painful on the eye.
Honestly, covers shouldn’t matter but they do and as long as books keep having covers, they’re always going to influence our decisions. Of course, when it comes to books the important thing is the words inside the book because, after all, that’s what you’re going to be reading. I understand that it looks much nicer on your book shelf and it should be allowed to be an important contributing factor to buying the book but it shouldn’t be the most important thing.
There’s that old phrase that’s been thrown around for years that goes “don’t judge a book by its cover” which I’m sure you’ve all heard plenty of times. But you just can’t help it, can you? Generally, the idea is that if the cover looks good then the story must be equally as good if not better. An example of this would be one of my favourite books, Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. I love the cover for this book because it’s just so simple and the illustrations of the characters on the front are just lovely and the colours aren’t at all tacky. And the story is equally as good, like I said, it’s one of my favourite books. Buying Fangirl was definitely a spur of the moment buy for me. The shade of green and the picture popped out at me from the shelf and shouted, “I’m pretty, buy me!” and, of course, I happily obliged. Sometimes, a great cover does not always result in a great story. When I read Rowell’s other novel, Eleanor & Park, I adored the cover but was sadly disappointed by the story. It’s like seeing a really attractive person kicking a puppy.
In some cases, the process can be completely reversed! On some occasions, I have found that there are some fantastic stories out there but with terrible book designs and, even though it shouldn’t be, it’s really off putting. For example, the first published edition of Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins (in all honesty) looked horrid. I’ve seen cereal boxes with better designs that what that was. But the story is so good! Thankfully, publishers later realised that the cover is awful and then changed it to a much prettier cover of Paris and it’s pink and not so painful on the eye.
Honestly, covers shouldn’t matter but they do and as long as books keep having covers, they’re always going to influence our decisions. Of course, when it comes to books the important thing is the words inside the book because, after all, that’s what you’re going to be reading. I understand that it looks much nicer on your book shelf and it should be allowed to be an important contributing factor to buying the book but it shouldn’t be the most important thing.
Have you ever bought a book just because you thought it looked pretty?
What book covers do you think are absolute disasters?
Is the cover important to you?
And, most importantly, do you judge a book by its cover?
What book covers do you think are absolute disasters?
Is the cover important to you?
And, most importantly, do you judge a book by its cover?
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