Saturday, September 02, 2006
On book covers and book choices
An interesting post over at Carl V.'s blog on book covers. I've mentioned before that both covers and titles are important to my book choices, and this post illustrates the differences in opinions. Ruth and Booklogged seem to have expressed some of my own views on covers, and it's interesting to see those whose opinions are quite different. You really can't judge a book by its cover, but we all do a good bit of choosing or rejecting a book by its cover.
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Thank-you for referring me to Ruth's blog. I read her post about the diffference between a bicycle and a picture. It's the first I realized that maybe I shouldn't be posting the picture of books in my posts, although I don't quite get it. I've asked Ruth to explain it a little more for me. After responding to her post, I looked through her blog and noticed that she includes the books' pictures, so now I really don't get it. I really liked Carl's post.
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to add that I think about you often and hope all is going well with caring for your father.
Thanks for the mention. I like your idea about accepting or rejecting because of the cover. I can think of several books that I passed over because of horrible dustjacket art only to pick up when the paperback came out and I liked the art on it. The story turned out to be great which annoyed me even more about the hardback cover art. I despise this new trend of putting only the book title and the author's name on the cover of reprints of fantasy and science fiction books. They end up being nice quality books with absolutely horrible covers and it is very cheap and lazy on the part of the publishers.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to read Ruth's post.
Reading into the comments it appears that you are caring for your father which is quite admirable. It is a good thing that you are doing. I commend you and admire you for it.
I'm influenced by cover art and by the feel of the whole book -- the paper, the type, etc. They do tell you something about a book. I don't think I can help it, and I don't think it's really a bad thing -- it's just picking up on clues about what a book is.
ReplyDeleteBooklogged: One blog leads to another, doesn't it. I read that post, too. I don't think Ruth was referring to book covers, but examples of people taking pictures from other blogs without permission. Maybe because I saw where someone else was complaining about a picture from her blog appearing somewhere else (although they did reference her blog post). Need to check it out again...
ReplyDeleteJust left Laddie, and he was in a fine mood this afternoon...Thanks!
Carl: I like covers that "imply" or "hint" - that arouse my curiousity without steering me too much in a particular direction. Like others have mentioned, creativity also goes a long way. Covers with only title and author don't invite like a good cover does.
Dorothy, I think I remember a post awhile back that that discussed the importance of paper, type, etc. Probably yours! I agree these things provide more clues, if not about the content, about the pleasure of holding the book and turning the pages...even the weight of a book in the hands provides sensory pleasure.
Clarification - Ruth's comment on Carl's blog about covers is what caught my attention. I then visited her blog and discovered the post Booklog mentions.
ReplyDeleteDorothy,
ReplyDeleteI agree about the "feel' of a book...there is something about a book that feels good in the hands...
I am influenced by covers, I admit. But I do try to find something else out about them before rejecting them if the cover turns me away...
i've learned the hard way not to pick up a book just because the cover looked cool. from now on, i'll read a chapter or two in the store before buying. :/
ReplyDelete