Judging Books By Their Covers

Covers and cover art. As humans we are really into beauty, the definition of which is blurry. But it is beautiful. We like beauty in everything; our homes, our clothes, our partners and ourselves. Then why not our books. They are filled with beautiful characters and places so why can’t they have beautiful covers?

YA readers and bloggers are very lucky in the sense that YA literature tends to have beautiful covers. They are bright, decorative, artsy, fashionable and plain stunning at times. They call to you. 

"Mari! Pick me, pick me” 

This is great. Books should be beautiful, it’s called marketing. And literature doesn’t need to be plain, especially when the words inside are so colourful.

Covers like these make me facepalm. That poor author worked so hard and he is probably very proud to be published. But somewhere in the peripheral of his mind he's probably wondering why the cover artist chose that cover.

Why Me!?

Of course this isn’t always the case. I mean if simplicity was a cover instead of a word, Stephen Chbosky’s Perks of Being a Wallflower would've taken the medal. Yet, due to the fact that the insides are beautiful, and that Chbosky has created a wonderful story, with dynamic characters. As well as some luck and a dedicated fan following, the book is an all time favourite for many and not to a mention Hollywood movie with Emma Watson!!!

Speaking of Emma Watson, would Harry Potter be what it is today if the cover artists didn’t feel like adding the lighting bolt to the end of the P in Potter? That lightning bolt might have been the reason that little 11 years old boy/girl picked up the book and that lightning bolt might've been the catalyst that started the revolution that is Harry Potter!

The YA section in my library houses one shelf, albeit a large shelf but it's still one shelf. So how is the library so full? What are all the other books? I don’t know.

When I walk down the adult fantasy isle, my favourite genre being fantasy. I can’t find much that I want to pick up, despite the fact that fantasy tends to have more of the interesting covers, may it be YA or adult. Walk down the non fiction aisle and I just might fall asleep, unless there is a book on volcanos; then I might blink a few times.

Point of the story being, JUDGE THE BOOKS BY THEIR COVERS! Do it. I know you do it anyway.

One has every right to judge a book because the book is interesting looking therefore it might be good. I think this gives publishers more of a push in making their books more pleasing to the eyes. If you're going to do it, then do it right. Do justice to those books because that author has worked hard and deserves a book cover that he or she can readily boast about. 

-MARI