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Best Book Cover Art
What books do you think have the best cover art?
Please, don't remove duplicates.
This list is about the COVERS, not the books.
Please, don't remove duplicates.
This list is about the COVERS, not the books.
12,384 books ·
7,100 voters ·
list created June 26th, 2008
by deleted user.
Tags:
covers
Comments Showing 1-50 of 121 (121 new)
message 1:
by
Debbie
(new)
Aug 10, 2008 10:22PM
i like this list because you didn't even have to read the book to be a part of it and the art on some of these books are really cool
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I have to agree with Debbie - love a couple of the cover art work but agree with Judi - have to say i think our book covers for both Escape from the Pharma Drug Cartel and Shattered Reality could compete very well here. Thanks and best of luck to those authors involved.www.kimberlycheryl.net
With all due respect, these are all hideous mass-market eyesores. The books themselves may be excellent, mind you, but mass market books are cheap and ugly by nature. For truly beautiful book-objects one needs to look at presses like Ugly Duckling Presse or Futurepoem, or any press whose primary purpose is something other than selling crap to people waiting to board airplanes or to read on the train. For attractive glossy mass-market type covers, I think comics, graphic novels or classic sci-fi or pulp books are far more attractive than the abominations we see here. Of all of them, the old art deco Atlas Shrugged cover is passable, despite the fact that I loathe Ayn Rand with every fiber of my being.
For truly imaginative work you might consider Jinger Heaston's cover for my 'Corruption's Child' or Molly Courtright's for my 'Cruel Cuts' both available from Whiskey Creek Press, www.whiskeycreekpress.com
Mark: not all of them. Paradise Stories, a masterful work of short fiction, has original art on its cover, a beautiful painting done specifically for the book by Joshua Evans.
How many Stephenie Meyer fans are voting because they like the series and not because they think the covers are great? I mean, they work, sure, but, come on!Twilight
really not so special.
The real problem with this list is that you just get whatever cover of the book happens to show up under the "primary" listing; so for an older book with dozens or even hundreds of editions, you might well end up with a very unattractive cover showing on this website. I love the Richard Powers art on H.G. Wells "The Time Machine", and other Wells paperbacks published by Berkley from the 50s-70s, but those aren't what I see when I look up the books here.Which I suppose might be a partial explanation for why almost all of the books listed here are relatively new books that only have 1 or 2 different covers to choose from...
If you hate the "mass market" covers, which really don't dominate as much as Mark says (except maybe Twilight), then look further down the list. The covers with fewer votes usually represent the covers that really drew the reader in, instead of just books that were voted for because they're popular and have a lot of fans here who are voting.
I voted for the covers I chose because I think they suited and enhanced the book inside. AND that they were attractive artistically.
My votes go to Gravity's Rainbow and A Confederacy of Dunces. Almost every edition for these novels, including the first edition and more recent editions, have had a visually pleasing cover that prepares one for what's inside.
I can't even believe that Stephanie Meyer books are on this list.
love your picks {despite what mark says!}. except for stephenie meyer's books. i'm not a fan of the cover art on those.
who keeps voting for stephenie meyer and her boring stock-photo covers?
I'm adding many of the covers produced by my publisher, Echelon Press, including
,
, and
.
Mark wrote: "With all due respect, these are all hideous mass-market eyesores. The books themselves may be excellent, mind you, but mass market books are cheap and ugly by nature. For truly beautiful book-obj..."did you nominate any of these books to be on the list?
Nicole wrote: "I can't even believe that Stephanie Meyer books are on this list."they are on everylist
I chose books whose covers I liked... and would like to be able to comment/question other voters at to what their reason was for voting for certain books...
Damn. People on this site have taste for SHIT. You people probably have Thomas Kinkade paintings on your walls.
nope. I have Jim Warren, Achilleos, Luis Royo, Nene Thomas, Boris Vallejo Julie Bell, Christoph Vacher, Don Paresi, Susan Seddon Boulet, Joseph Michael Linsner, Amy Brown, John Jude Palencar and pictures of my family
I saw this list and got excited because I have a background in design and I have certainly judged and/or bought books based on their covers...That said, this list is pretty crappy.
I'm not declaring myself a "pro" or anything of the sort, but out of just the first 100 on this list, there were only 7 that I felt were good book covers.
Ah well.
thank you for the invite too peruse thru the art works!
I'm seeing books here that are voted on because of how popular they are. They don't belong because the covers are truly nothing special. A good example of this is Twilight. The cover is not outstanding. And it's really not a cover I'd expect o see on a list like this. There are other that also have so-so covers. #654 doesn't even have a cover showing.
I love the cover to CARTER BEATS THE DEVIL - I've read the book as well and the cover does the book justice...and vice versa.
The artist who did the cover and other illustrations on "The Little Black Fish" read the story three times, we very carefully selected each scene according to the importance of that particular event and how we wanted to emphasize and communicate to the young readers. The hero of this book, the little black fish, is not even on the cover, because of the very special and dynamic way this book ends, how the final message is conveyed and how it will impact the readers...
David wrote: "Damn. People on this site have taste for SHIT. You people probably have Thomas Kinkade paintings on your walls. "
LOL! I tend to agree with you about Thomas Kincade.
LOL! I tend to agree with you about Thomas Kincade.
This list needs to be scrapped and started over. A lot of the covers do not belong.
did people just vote for their favorite or the most popular books? There are a lot better books out there in the way of cover art.
buryuntime wrote: "did people just vote for their favorite or the most popular books? There are a lot better books out there in the way of cover art."Yes, it does seem that people voted for their favorite books regardless of the cover art. That is why this list is bogus and needs to be scrapped.
The top ten books in this list do not have anything special in terms of cover art. If any staff is reading this, please scrap this list.
stephenie meyer has the simplest covers
shame on you fangirls
shame on you fangirls
OMG!!! a pair of hands holding an apple, that's gotta be the best cover ever. /sarcasmYou people disgust me.
Canary wrote: "Kode-dekka wrote: "OMG!!! a pair of hands holding an apple, that's gotta be the best cover ever. /sarcasmYou people disgust me. "
AND YOU BORE ME! Get over it already!
"
I'm sorry you feel this list is boring. For those of us who actually want the list to be correct, most of the books on this list don't belong on this list. This list has nothing to do with cover art, but the popularity of the books on the list. Basically, it's a fan wank.
JSWolf wrote: "Canary wrote: "Kode-dekka wrote: "OMG!!! a pair of hands holding an apple, that's gotta be the best cover ever. /sarcasmYou people disgust me. "
AND YOU BORE ME! Get over it already!
"
I'm sor..."
Finally someone who understands, unfortunately I believe it may be impossible to reason with a twitard.
i admit i luv twilight and i voted for them. but the reason i actually started the series was because of the awesome covers!!!!!!!!
Lizzie wrote: "i admit i luv twilight and i voted for them. but the reason i actually started the series was because of the awesome covers!!!!!!!!"
I am totally impressed with the covers also! I actually bought Twilight due to the neverending quiz. I have a BA in Fine Art and I am influenced by book covers. My mother use to give me a very hard time about it. She liked to say I had silly decorator mentality, etc
Lizzie, we just have to ignore those who don't have the good taste we do! ;-)
I am totally impressed with the covers also! I actually bought Twilight due to the neverending quiz. I have a BA in Fine Art and I am influenced by book covers. My mother use to give me a very hard time about it. She liked to say I had silly decorator mentality, etc
Lizzie, we just have to ignore those who don't have the good taste we do! ;-)
Lizzie and Canary...You both now you voted for the Twilight series because you liked the books and not the covers. The covers are nothing special. This list is an abomination overall and those who voted for the nothing special covers (like those of the Twilight series) have ruined what could have been a rather nice list.
Could agree more JSWolf. It's one thing to like covers, but a book you like with covers you like doesn't make them the best covers. You don't even need to have read a book to vote for it in this quiz. Sorry, but the bland covers of Twilight being the best there is? I'm not buying it, just another example of a rabid fanbase destroying another list.
Travis, I agree 100%. What we need is a librarian to remove this list so it can be restarted and more librarians to police this list so the bland covers are not allowed to be voted on.
I think "Where the wild things are" has the best book cover hands down. I would encourage all who may have overlooked this classic to band together against travis's "abominations". If we act now the vampires need not yet win
The best idea is to delete this abomination of a list and start over and have a librarian monitor the list and any books that do not fit get removed before they get added.
JSWolf wrote: "Lizzie and Canary...You both now you voted for the Twilight series because you liked the books and not the covers. The covers are nothing special. This list is an abomination overall and those wh..."
Oh come on now. You know very well that this is all subjective. Who are you to say what I can and can't like? As it happens, I don't like the Twilight covers either, and I don't feel the need to bash those that do. Sure, some of the votes must be because of the popularity, so what. Big whoop I say.
Kody wrote: "JSWolf wrote: "Canary wrote: "Kode-dekka wrote: "OMG!!! a pair of hands holding an apple, that's gotta be the best cover ever. /sarcasmYou people disgust me. "
AND YOU BORE ME! Get over it alr..."
What do you think of the cover of Fawcetta...I'm an artist and I have to say...that is good illustration art...not just photographs of people...
I like book covers that you know people worked hard to produce it. When I see covers that are more photogrpahy than art...that sucks...to me illustration art is the best...because you know it was drawn up...
I do think photography on a covert can be good. But come on, the best covert art is not a pair of hands holding an apple.
I don't understand why so many people are obsessed by a series of books that is basically nothing more than "The Babysitters' Club" with added sparkly vampires. The covers are also very underwhelming.
I was going to start complaining about the awful picks here, but then I realized: it actually is a popularity contest! Should anyone really be surprised that some of the books most commonly read are those most commonly chosen?Which isn't to say that the covers of the Twilight books aren't boring as hell. But you can't expect the Book of Kells to make this list, or old editions of Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, or the new Penguin edition of The Three Musketeers, or even the famous cover to The Great Gatsby, because many, many, many more people have read Twilight (alas).
The Hunger Games, The Twilight series, The Giver (awesome beard), The City of EMber, The Last Olympian, Uglies, and Graceling have the best cover art that I have read.
Adam has no idea what good cover art is.
that he has read, hes still young dude. he doesnt read books about drugs and high school afairs. hes only 14 man. i love the books he posted but i think hunger games and catching fire really catch my attention.
