Cover Love?

As many of my GReeps know, I am not the sort of person who goes crazy over covers. In point of fact, I can't even pretend to understand the degree of fascination many people have with book covers. Sure, sometimes they're pretty, I guess, but on the hierarchy of Book Things of Importance, they rank somewhere below the consonance of the author's name.

However. While all of that is still true, it is not the point of this post. The point of this post is this: the other day (calendrically appropriately), I had an epiphany. I'm actually not totally indifferent to covers! For the first time in my life, I looked at a book (The Assassin's Curse, on the left) and said, "Ooo, pretty. Waaaannnnt," without even looking at the description (which does, as a matter of fact, sound like something I would really enjoy, so double bonus there). Isn't that great?

Yeah, yeah, you don't really care. But what I want to talk about here is the part of my calendrically appropriate epiphany where I realized what I like in a cover and the reason I thought I didn't care for so long. See, most covers out there, especially ones that make bloggers ooh and ah, have one of three things: a) a girl, preferably in either a lovely gown that is somehow appropriate even though no girl has ever worn a dress even remotely like that for anything other than her prom, or looking questionably under-clad for a super bad-ass warrior mage shapeshifter vampire whatever, b) a shirtless hunk, which, while appealing enough to look at, somehow fades to mediocrity among all the other shirtless hunks out there, or c) a single object with a monochrome background, a la The Hunger Games or Twilight. And while all of these things are fine, they don't really wow me.

Here are a few things I have recently discovered I like in covers.

-A cool font. I realize that "cool" is among the most subjective and least helpful adjectives I could have chosen, but I have never taken an art class in my life and can't come up with anything significantly better. Just look at the covers here, okay?

-Clean design. Nothing crazy going on, not too many colors, but attractively simple. Or maybe simply attractive.

-No people. I can't think of a single cover with a person on it that I really, really like. Of course, since the list of covers I really like has approximately four entries, that's not actually saying much, but there are so many covers out there with people on them, you'd think I'd have liked one of them if I were ever going to.

So I don't not care about covers! Granted, the list of covers I love wouldn't even cover half of a top ten list, but I consider this progress. Go me.

What kinds of covers do you like?

Don't judge a book by its cover, or do you?

I think everyone knows this English idiom. It's a metaphorical phrase which of course means "you shouldn't prejudge the worth or value of something, by its outward appearance alone".Now there is something I have to confess: I'm Renée, and I *do* judge books by it's cover.

It feels good to get that confession of my chest. Yeah, I judge my books by their looks. If a book has an amazing cover, I have to read it! But if everyone is raving about a story, but the cover sucks... It's bye bye book...

But does this mean I'm missing out on some amazing stories with an ugly exterior? Probably... 

Do I think I can change? Probably not...

I love pretty covers! A gorgeous cover is for me a reason to buy a book. When I'm in a bookstore I even stroke the pretty covers! 

So does this make me a bad person? Or is this screening process working for me? 

Let's check some covers of books I've read:

Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers

I LOVED this cover. Cool kick-ass chick, smoking red dress, great background, and of course the most amazing weapon ever (I don't know if you know this, but I have a thing for crossbows) the crossbow!

But did this cover mean it was an amazing story? Hell yeah! 

One of my favorite books EVER!

So that's 1 for judging books.

Darkness & Light by J.A. Belfield

As soon as I saw this cover I had to read it. It was cool, interesting, original. I can't really say why, I just needed to know more about it.

The genre was a new genre for me, but I tried it anyways. And I was glad I did. It's now one of my favorite series and Julie is one of my favorite authors and bookish friends.

BUT after a while D&L got another cover, a cover that fitted the rest of the series. And truth be told, I don't know I'd have read this novel only based on it's cover if it had this cover to begin with. (SRY JULIE!)

So I read this novel, because of it's cover, and loved it. So that would make it another point for my screening process. But I wouldn't have read this book based on it's new cover (I guess I would still have read it though, because of my co-blogger Jen's raving reviews), so that means a point against judging books.

That would make the score now: 2 points for screening by looks vs 1 point against.

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

This book, I wouldn't have read if it wasn't for it's cover. 

As soon as I saw this cover I was intrigued. I needed to know more, so I looked it up on Goodreads. But the blurb on there didn't really interest me, so I decided to put the book on my 'might read' shelve and forgot about it. But I kept seeing this cover, and the more I saw it, the more I needed to read it. 

And I was so glad I did! I loved it!

So that's one point for screening books AGAIN! That makes 3 vs 1.

Delirium by Lauren Oliver
I HATE the first cover! HATE IT! I think it looks horrible! I read some amazing reviews about this story, but just couldn't put myself to picking up this book. But when they released it in it's new cover I did read it. And I have to say, I'm glad I didn't miss out on this book. It's a great story.

Again a point against judging books by it's cover, which makes the final score: 3 vs 2.

The final score isn't really convincing me to stop judging. And to be fair, I never think I will. But I will try to keep an open-mind and read books that other people are raving about, but aren't great lookers.

What about you guys? Are you a judger? And are there any books you've read and loved, but you hated the cover? Or the other way around, great lookers with a bad story?

Happy reading,