29 March 2010

Cover Win / Fail #1

As some of you already know, I'm a huge cover junkie. I'll be the first to admit that I judge a book by its cover and I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing ... What I appreciate about beautiful covers is that someone put a lot of effort and thought into it and made it irresistable - I often have the urge to buy certain books just because the covers are a work of art, even if I don't like the story, I just want to stare at the cover, heh. On the other hand, if a cover is (in my humble opinion) poorly designed or boring or just plain unappealing, then I don't feel guilty at all about disregarding a certain book. Because honestly, I *buy* most of my books and if I'm going to spend my money on something, then at least make it worth my while - I want the whole package. Is that weird? I know it's shallow, but I don't feel too guilty about it. :)

I know some people only care about the story inside, but to me the covers are immensly important too and I always comment on them soooo I thought I'd dedicate a new feature here just to the covers. I've decided to call it Cover Win/Fail - it'll be posted sporadically (basically whenever I feel like it :p) and in it, I'll highlight two covers, one that I love and the other that I don't love. Is that wrong, to diss other people's work just like that? I do feel a bit iffy about that, but I mean no harm, no offence, it's all just MY PERSONAL OPINION and please do let me know if you disagree with my choices; other points of view are always welcome.

Anyway, without further ado, here are my two choices:


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Cover WIN: Encore Valentine by Adriana Trigiani
This is a sequel to Very Valentine (which I won on Novelicious, yay!) and I'm head over heels in love with this cover, it's too pretty for words. Some people don't really like drawn covers, but I'm a huge fan of them so you'll be seeing a lot of them here. And what's not to love about this cover? Pretty colours, lovely font, cute drawing - we have a winner! I'm not crazy about the plot itself, but I'd frame the colour, ha! Gorgeous!

Cover FAIL: I'm So Happy for You by Lucinda Rosenfeld
This one makes me shudder! As I said, I like covers with drawings on them because that tells me that someone put a lot of effort into it, but what I do not appreciate are covers with horrible stock images and normal font on them, eurgh. I really dislike the *orange* dress - who wears dresses like that? And even if a hideous dress like this plays an important part in the story (which I hope it doesn't), I'm sure it didn't have to be reflected on the cover if the publishers wanted this book to sell. So yeah, I dislike the style and the colour of the dress and simple font - it's too boring and unappealing and I'm afraid it wouldn't interest me in reading the back cover to see what it's about.

So what do you think of this new feature, is it too controversial? :) Do you agreee/disagree?

18 comments:

Keris Stainton said...

I'm a cover junkie too so I'm loving this new feature :)

I like both covers, but I much prefer your Fail cover! I'm one of the people who's not a fan of cartoon covers, mainly because they look too young. Encore Valentine is for grown women, yet the cover could easily be a YA book or even a children's book. It also doesn't tell me anything about the story, apart from that it features a man and a woman.

I'm not a huge fan of the orange on I'm So Happy for You, but I assume they chose that to be eye-catching and it would work for me. I also don't like the woman's hand, which looks a bit red and wrinkled! But the combination of the photo (the fact that she has her fingers crossed), the title and the tagline ("a novel about best friends") all tell me something about the plot of the book and make me think it would be an entertaining (and amusing) read. Maybe I should read it now and find out!

prophecygirl said...

I'm a cover person too (LOVE them), so IU'm liking your new feature :)

I love all of Adriana Trigiani's covers, they're just so pretty. Even her YA book is looking lovely!

I'm not too keen on I'm So Happy for You - the title font isn't the best, and wow check out the big block of orange!

Tales of Whimsy said...

You're right! 1 is adorable and 2 is blah.

Lais said...

I am also a cover junkie. I like both covers. The Fail cover is very mysterious. The title of the book and then seeing her fingers crossed makes it very interesting. If I saw this cover I would def. see what this book is all about. The Win is cute. But I think I would go for the Fail book cover.

s.meadows said...

What a great feature! I see what you mean with the covers! Nicely done!

Jeanne C. said...

Love this feature! Good to know I'm not alone in judging by the cover!

Anonymous said...

This is a really fun blog feature. Being a huge fan of covers I always flock to these kinds of posts. Anyways, I agree with Keris in the sense that I too prefer real live people as opposed to the cartoon variety on book covers.

That being said, I really do like the cover for Encore Valentine. The colours are really pretty and it's a nice layout. Still, I prefer the I'm So Happy For You Cover. It intrigues me that she's crossing her fingers, you kind of get a sense of what the book is about by the cover and title alone.

Sheila (Bookjourney) said...

I am a big cover snob and totally agree with you that it is the "eye candy" to getting me as a buyer to look more closely at a book.

There are covers I want to print out and frame in my reading room. I may still do that one of these days....

as for the two covers here - neither would draw me to them. I love Adriana so that may cause me to buy the book because I do enjoy her writing but this cove would have been a pass if she was unknown to me.

Out of the two I like the colored one to the right a bit more but only a wee bit. First of all the big letters for the title in an ugly font is cheesy. And the large orange jacketed girl makes me think it is a cover trying to be cool... but not succeeding.

Luisa at Chicklish said...

I love thinking about this kind of thing, though it's all a bit, "Huh?!" for me. ;) I'm usually quite easy to please when it comes to covers and I tend to like them all! (Though there are exceptions.) Anyway, it's very interesting to read other people's thoughts on it. Great post, and great feature!

Jenny said...

I completely agree with you on these two covers! And I like talking about different covers!! I don't think it's too controversial.

kay - Infinite Shelf said...

I agree on these two, I prefer the first one, too. The orange dress isn't pretty - although I'll admit I liked the cover more in person.

Chloe said...

Love this new feature... we're allowed opinions on stuff so authors shouldn't have a problem. I agree with this choice, the book on the right looks so naff, but the Trigiani one is gorgeous. I always UK covers to be much nicer than American ones too so it'll be interesting to see if that trend continues as you do this :)

Mel (He Followed Me Home) said...

this looks like fun, I love analysing covers too. As Chloe mentions above, US vs UK is also fun to see! Looking forward to what you have next week :)
I do disagree on your win/fails though.
The 1st one doesn't grab me at all. I don't know why, maybe I'm not into the cartoonish feel?
The 2nd one, yes the orange dress, how odd LOL But I love the contrast of image & title. Her fingers crossed which makes me wonder her true feelings & finding out what this book is about.

Caroline said...

I totally agree with you!
Covers are an important factor in grabbing the book in the first place. Which is why I usually buy books with interesting covers because they're the ones just making me want to pick them up.

I agree with your choice, the picture + bad typo of the second cover could be an advertisement for washing powder for all I'm concerned...
The first one on the other hand looks paradoxically more sober than the other one as in three strong colors are used (pink, black and white) but don't look too much.
Plus I'm a sucker for pink flowery covers ;)

YA Book Queen said...

Gotta agree on both points (and they couldn't have used a better shade of orange? Seriously??)

Lauren said...

I think this is a fab idea for a feature! I'm a bit of a cover junkie too. I have to say neither of these particularly thrill me, but the 'fail' one is quite off-putting. From studying the cover I'd guess that the MC has to be a bridesmaid at some point in a really bad orange dress... but it's not the type of cover that would usually grab my attention.

Nayuleska said...

I'm not so keen on the hand on the Fail cover, but I actually quite like it.It's vibrant (and I mean that nicely) and yes, style of dress is good and hopefully gives a feel of the book.

sewa mobil said...

i'm also agree with the others
oke, nice article

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