Reflection 5: Judging Book Covers

I hate boring and cliché book covers. If the title seems abstract and the cover doesn’t clarify at all, I’m less likely to read it. I don’t think having the title really big is necessary because people will look for the title of the book no matter its location or size, and it’s easily found on the spine. I also think that including awards on covers don’t need to be prominent because you find some on almost every book on the shelves. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series does this and I don’t think they’re very attracting covers. The plot definitely doesn’t lack interest, but readers may never know that if the cover isn’t anything special. Personally I like when covers are real pictures and not rough sketches of what might be the plot. These can come from the movie adaptation or not, but I’m more likely to read a book that appears to be from this era. I read Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close and I think the cover with the boy on it was very well done. It looks modern and it’s not an image you seen a million times, like most Jodi Picoult novels. I’m always looking for something new and if a book has an interesting and unique cover, I’m much more likely to pick it up. A cover tells more about a book than authors would probably like because it’s hard to capture a novel in its entirety in a single picture.