Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

Sometimes we do judge a book by its cover. What covers do you think are especially beautiful, original or fitting? Or the opposite, is there a cover that is ugly or just wrong for the story? (like the woman on the cover is blonde but in the book she is dark-haired)

I am one of many who detest movie tie-in covers.

I am currently reading this book and loved the cover: .

Robin P wrote: "I am one of many who detest movie tie-in covers."

I agree.

- Classic beauty

- I love her smile!

- I have two wiener dogs, a Black/Tan and a Red

- Reminds me of an old Irish farmer I met in Waterford.

- Love the art deco touch

This would make a great prompt...hint, hint

- Made me chuckle

- Classic profile. Love the bird on his head.

Kathy wrote: "Robin P wrote: "I am one of many who detest movie tie-in covers."

I agree."

I hear that a lot. What about it bothers you? I don't mind them.

Whenever I get asked this question, I always go with . I totally read that book based on the cover.

A cover I couldn't stand was . I wound up putting a post-it note over that mopey face, I got so sick of looking at it.

Jennifer W wrote: "Kathy wrote: "Robin P wrote: "I am one of many who detest movie tie-in covers."

I agree."

I hear that a lot. What about it bothers you? I don't mind them."

The actors often don't look like the characters or at least the way I think of the characters. And it makes it seem like the movie is more important than the book. When a book is turned into a play, they don't usually do a new cover.

Robin P wrote: "Jennifer W wrote: "Kathy wrote: "Robin P wrote: "I am one of many who detest movie tie-in covers."

I agree."

I hear that a lot. What about it bothers you? I don't mind them."

The actors often do..."

I guess I don't mind because covers rarely match what I imagine characters to look like anyway!

I assume they do it to advertise to people who didn't know that the movie were based on a book and might then pick up the book.

When I was in college, my roommates were geeking out over the first Lord of the Rings movie coming out. I was wandering through a store and passed by the book section and saw a movie tie-in book (Legolas, for the record) and thought to myself, "hey, I should tell the guys that there's a book version of the movie they've been talking about!" LOL Fortunately, I didn't!

I did not need to know what the book was about, I just bought it.

The Essex Serpent

The most gorgeous cover I have ever seen. I won a hardcover of it in a give away and honestly I only wanted it for the cover-LoL. Still have it on display in my living room shelf

Jennifer W wrote: "thought to myself, "hey, I should tell the guys that there's a book version of the movie they've been talking about!" LOL Fortunately, I didn't!"

LOL! That's hilarious! Made my day. :)

Robin P wrote: "I am one of many who detest movie tie-in covers."

Ditto this!

Agree with hating covers that are movie tie-ins that have the actors on the cover. The copy of the Age of Innocence I'm reading ow is a tie in and now I can't stop picturing Michelle Pfeiffer as the Countess, who is described as "small and dark" in the book. I don't mind picturing Daniel Day-lewis in my head though......

I loved the cover of Before the Coffee Gets Cold which is what drew me to the series. Interestingly there is no cat in any of the stories but every cover has one

I have no problem with film tie-ins maybe because I don’t tend to picture characters in my head much. That said, and I haven’t seen the production, it seemed like this cover for Red, White & Royal Blue got the president’s son and the prince spot on.

Two books that I read because of their intriguing covers are:

Look Who's Back
and
he

This one is all wrong to me!! I even commented about it in my review as everytime I looked at it I cringed.....that's the main male character Holden.....how he looks right at the end of the book. He doesn't look like that for most of the book. I want how he looks for most of the book Holden on the cover!!!

This was my "read because it's a beautiful cover" for April

Thankfully, it was a good STORY as well.

only time I ever bought a book for the cover The Children's Book

Amanda wrote: "I did not need to know what the book was about, I just bought it.

"

That's on my list, too.

I don't mind media tie-in covers when the art is good - but like anything, some is ugly and some is generic and some is good.

The Game of Thrones cover art that came from the show is gorgeous:

vs.
vs.
vs.
vs.
vs.

But then the Six of Crows art was horrible:

vs

What really bugs me is when there is a gorgeous cover art for the hardcover, but then they put it out as a trade paperback with an ugly cover:

vs.
vs. (The creepy eyes don't help)

And they just came out with new cover art for Ilona Andrews' Hidden Legacy original trilogy and I think they're much nicer, but there have been a lot of complaints from other fans about how they're too generic. I think they're pretty and the original covers are both ugly and cheesy.

Old:

(At least the guy gets a shirt instead of plastic looking abs for the 3rd.)

New:

(See, much nicer)

But I already have the original covers and I'm not shelling out extra money to buy books I already own with a different cover.