Booking Through Thursday: Cover Story

A meme from Booking Through Thursday.

Today’s topic is “They say you can’t judge a book by its cover, but there’s no question that it can make a difference!  What book(s) have your favorite covers? Something that’s perfect for the story, the tone, the colors, the mood…  And did you pick up the book BECAUSE of the cover? Or were you going to read it anyway, and the cover was just serendipitous?”

Oh geez…  I love looking at covers like Stacked talks about various trends in cover designs, and 100 Scope Notes does Covering the Newbery and  Cover Curiosity… there are others but I just love to drool over these!

Okay one book that definitely caught my attention due to the cover was The Dragon’s Tooth by N.D. Wilson. and that was as an ARC so I’m glad they kept it, but now I look and see that for the paperback they have a new cover.  Alsoooo The Drowned Vault BOOK 2 is out!  How did I miss that?  Must go buy now! It feels perfect, one of those where as you read you flip back to the cover as you realize all the perfect details that they incorporated.  It all fits together perfectly and at the end of a book like this I always end up sitting there for a moment staring at the cover appreciating just how awesome it is.  I can see how the new covers are supposed to be more action packed.  The one for book 2 is more appealing to me than the replacement book 1.  Anyway that kid on the cover is Cyrus 100% – perfection.

The entire Septimus Heap series by Angie Sage beginning with, of course, Magyk.  It was a long time ago but I think that is why I picked them up in the first place.  I still think someone should produce a super special edition with the covers fleshed out with real leather and clasps and brads… *sigh*  Ironically it would probably be way to super expensive for me to afford but it is possible I would just not buy groceries because it would be so pretty I would want to touch it all the time and build a special display case for it.  These covers are interesting because more than displaying the story, they look like they are part of that world.  Septimus would walk down the street with a Magyk book like this under his arm and wearing the ring.  It is also a very good series for consistency.  This hardcover set is sexy all on a shelf together.

Those definitely shows the young fantasy side of my taste but to give some variety I also love the cover of The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen.  It definitely says “I am a book for adults”  it has texture which I like.  I am not big on too much solid.  I think the texture is actually map.  The bird in the cage isn’t just there, it is a metaphor and a very good one.  I also like that the bird imagery continues with the second book The Absent One.  I look forward to seeing how this theme works with the rest of the series as they are released in the US.  The covers used abroad are completely different!  As to whether I picked this one up because of the cover.  I think it might have been one mom actually picked up while wandering the exhibit halls of ALA.  The cover was nice but the blurb is what pulled me out of normal genres and made me give this one a shot and boy am I glad I did.  Definitely a classy cover though, one you feel intelligent when sitting in a coffee shop and reading.

Okay and a few quick other cover notes that I don’t have as much to say about:

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury – I love this cover.  The imagery is perfect and unsettling.

Entwined by Heather Dixon – Women in pretty dresses are taking over the cover world but this one I like.  I adored the book and the cover fits.

And now to conclude with true proof of my cover obsessions.  This is a PowerPoint that I did for a Materials for Adolescents project.  We each had a YA author and we were to read so many of their novels.  I went ahead and read everything Robin McKinley that was middle grades or young adult or adult for young adult.  So everything but short stories, picture books and Deerskin.  I talked about each of these books while I had their covers up.  I tend to be sentimental about the cover that I first read a book with, but there are others I like as well.  The sheer variety is just fun.  After this project I almost wanted to start putting every cover I could find on each blog post but I realized that would probably be a wee bit crazy.