“Don’t judge a book by its cover” is a saying we have all heard. But do you follow it?
I would like to think I do, but I would be lying if I said I did. I have a confession to make… Yes, I do judge books by their cover. Sadly, I’m more likely to read a book if it has a well designed, pretty cover, than if it has a more poorly designed cover. Is this a bad thing? Probably, but I promise, I only judge books by their cover… usually (sometimes I judge cereals by their box designs too).
I don’t know, it’s just that in my experience, the good books usually have good covers and the more poorly written ones have bad covers. It’s like people are more willing to give the better books good covers and work harder to do it than if it was a more poorly written (or less profitable) book. I don’t know, it’s just the feeling I get sometimes. Anyways, judging a book by its cover is kind of a bad habit that I’m trying to kick because it has kept me away from some books that I have loved reading just because their covers weren’t pretty enough for me. Sigh.
And it’s not just the quality of the design, but the design itself that I end up judging. If a book cover portrays it to be too romantic or cliche, I’m less likely to read it. Take the cover of Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry for example. The cover depicts two characters kissing and that kind of ruined its appeal since my mom liked to see which books I borrowed and to her that would have meant the book was inappropriate… But when I actually read it, I loved it. I think the cover kind of failed to cover the essence of the story in those pages.
Do you judge books by their cover?
Why or why not?
I think books with better covers = better overall budget = better editing. That’s how I judge a book by the cover 😉