This is just something new I am starting for my own personal amusement. I guess I am one of those types of people who judge a book by its cover, even if you’re not supposed to. The way I feel, isn’t it sort of a part of marketing the book – making it so it at least catches the eye? Critiquing books, I often find myself critiquing the covers as well. Sometimes I find myself surprised. So this meme was created to pick out a cover, discuss what I like and/or dislike about it – and have readers vote if they would read it based on it’s cover alone (with no sypnosis).
This weeks book cover: The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough (ISBN: 0060837551)
I decided to use the popular cover, used for many, many years and it’s probably the version you’ll most likely find in used bookstores. This book has been in my parent’s house, reread a thousand times over by my mother. I used to look at it and think, “How boring!” I also wanted to know where the birds were on the front cover. Shouldn’t it have birds? It is called The Thorn Birds, after all. Am I right?
Also it shows just how outdated it was/is – The colors, the types of illustration? It leaves little to attract me to the cover and say, “This would be an enjoyable read.” In efforts to go with my initial impression based on cover alone (taking away the knowledge that I love the movie and/or it is one of my mother’s all time favorite books) the question remains, “Would I take a second glance at this book without having any previous information?” The answer would be, no.
What about you?
Twitter: athomewithbooks
says:
I’ve always disliked this cover, but loved the book so much that I didn’t care. I picked up a used copy of this book (with the cover above) when I was in high school. I didn’t have a clue what the book was about, and no one had recommended it to me (although I was familiar with the title and knew that it had been a mini-series – which I still haven’t seen).It was fabulous to read it, not knowing what was coming next in the story, or how heartbreaking some of it is. I’m so glad I took a chance on this book regardless of the ugly cover.
Twitter: WellReadReviews
says:
I think this is one of those examples where you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. But you wonder how much better it would have done had they tried to attract people by the cover? How many people have not given it a chance because they are turned off by the cover?I have the book (but the newer cover, which I am not a fan of either) because I loved the tv mini-series (own it on DVD!) and my Mom raved about it!
Twitter: librarybug
says:
I am also one of those people who judges a book by it’s cover. It’s hard not to do it. I would not read this book based on this cover.