Judge a book by its cover

I like WASP's cover of "Somebody to Love" by Jefferson Airplane.

Am I doing it right?

N.B. This wasn't meant in a derogatory, or offensive, way. It was merely for genial humour and I love you. Sorry for any harm the aforementioned meme may have caused.

just off the top of my head,

these editions of paperback for the phineas trilogy:

uhhhh,

these two, from this edition of BEE's books:

and, i too love the penguin modern clasics covers. couple of my favourites:

okay...maybe i should stop now. i could go on and on, though, i think i'll allow some other people to get in first.

also, ps. i thought this was going to be a thread for ragging on shitty book covers, plunk, not the other way around. imma make that one now, in oppostition to your thread!

I haven't seen that cover of Less Than Zero before, Matt. It's awesome! I have this one:

The cover of Perfume is cool too, I've never read it though.

I can think of plenty of those!

well plunky-plunk, fire away. i just made the thread!

yeah, i have the whole series of his books in that "style". i fucking love matching covers. so lame. here hey are(not the best pic in the world, but it's from my web cam, on my laptop, so... deal with it[as sean bateman would say]:

actually, the rules of attraction one is amazing, too! not that keen on the glam one, or the lunar park one, but what-do-ya-gotta-do!

also, this, definately:

That's awesome. My Informers & Glamorama one are different too.

I think the American Psycho cover is the best one.

Alsooo.. How stoked are you for Imperial Bedrooms release in a few months? Woo hoo! I hope BEE does a book signing in the UK.

i think i have some kind of thing for watery images because:

sooo many more, too. i just couldn't be arsed to copy paste all the damn links right now.

yeah, i'm pysched. i'm a rlatively new BEE fan too. and LTZ is probably my favourite of his, so far (haven't read glam or lunar yet). i liked american psycho BUT i felt it ragge din places, and after a while i felt i as just skimming all the fashion jargon and him obsessing over peoples outfits/needing to describe it everytime. i get it was a character thing, but it just was too much for me. and i loved rules of attraction too.

i've read a couple of little things here and there about IB and, yes, i can't wait. i hope it gets released in aust. quick-smart, because i know there probably won't be no signings!

When You Are Engulfed In Flames by David Sedaris:

Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk:

brandon.tietz wrote:

aghhhh, come on, man!

i forgot about Haunted. i have two different copies of that. one of them i saw at a second-hand shop one day for a few bucks and couldn't not buy it. it's this one:

then when you opened the first cover it had the girl behind it. i hadn't seen it before, thought it was kind of cool. kind of like she was peeping at me through a hole in my door whil i got changed or something.

I really like the cover of Jesus' Son, but I'm not so keen on the cover of Reasons To Live, it looks like the kind of book you get free with a Sunday newspaper or a women's magazine.

Although I don't think there's any cover that could make this book look bad. As near to genius as I've read.

i've never read that, nor have i heard of O'Connor. what's it like, Mood?

ps. that is a terribly tacky cover. and so, so, so funny.

She mostly wrote short stories (the above is a collection)set in the south and dealing with typical southern things, but each story is hiding a real wallop. Has to be experienced to be believed. Astonishingly good.

It's a totally cheesy zipedidoodah type of cover but I find it very charming.

I love these Irvine Welsh covers:

I also like these:

Ha, I like the Irvine Welsh, but of course I would.

I love this so much.  You wonder who is under the bed, and why.

This is a great looking book, and a beautifully made one.  I like how it starts right on the cover

Didn't Chuck's dad hide under the bed when his father killed his mother?

Yes. But it's a haunting cover even if you don't know that. It would be a great cover for a Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison too. I'm sure there's other books it would work well for. The concept is so great.

it's a great concept, but i have to challenge that particular cover, artistically. it's a pretty crappy photograph. i think that cover could be improved upon ten-fold but that's just me.

EDIT: sorry, in case it was unclear, i was directing the above comments at the Palahniuk cover. the Eggers one is; astonishing.

Really? I think it's perfect. The shoe is so polished it's frightening, the door cracked open to bath the room in golden orange sunshine is so sad yet beautiful, like it's a beautiful day out there..the fringe on the bedspread gives it an old fashioned feel..even the shoelace scraping the floor adds to the overall menace of the photo.

shit. the way you describe it makes it sound amazing. i even scrolled back up to make sure it was still the crappy photo i was refering to. it was.

i guess when i look at it i don't see those things. to me, the lighting is off, i don't like the colours, i hate the shoe. i love the ed spread though. i used to have this real ugly looking spew-green coloured one when i was little.

matthew.odonnell wrote:

shit. the way you describe it makes it sound amazing. i even scrolled back up to make sure it was still the crappy photo i was refering to. it was.

i guess when i look at it i don't see those things. to me, the lighting is off, i don't like the colours, i hate the shoe. i love the ed spread though. i used to have this real ugly looking spew-green coloured one when i was little.

I guess it's just a matter of taste really because everything you dislike about it, I love.

yeah, it's funny how that can happen. i can see your point though. the whole "if everything is so damn perfect--the sheets, the shoes, the sun, the floor--then why the hell is someone hiding under the bed" thing. right? that's the thing isn't it?

i really like that gargoyle cover, except for the Heart. what's with that? i think maybe the font would look better in black. maybe.

and although i haven't read the book, yet, this cover makes me want to:

Yes, exactly! Everything is beautiful (to me) until I realize that the perspective is all wrong! Someone is hiding under the bed, and suddenly it's all very menacing. I think it's brilliant.

This is one of my all-time favorite book covers.

Kerplunk wrote:

I've been meaning to buy this - but I don't know anybody who's read it.

Be the first, man! Pioneer that shit. What's the worst that can happen?

I think both Invisible Monsters covers are pretty cool.

Whether it be the upside down man:

or the woman behind the eyes:

yeah, i also dig the UK cover for Diary. the Lindquist above reminded me of it.

That's not a bed, it's curtained off area where writers pay money to pitch their novels.

Here's one that I hate:

But after Mirka posted that I grabbed my copy and really looked at it, and I think that what she thinks is right.

The feet wouldn't be pointing directly at us if he was pitching somebody.

Blake Butler's "Scorch Atlas" has one of the coolest covers and overall designs I've ever seen. The book is pretty damn good, too.

There was a book I saw once, can't remember the title or author, but it centered around a videotape. The design of the book was an actual plastic VHS black box plastic cover with a library slipnote holding the title and author, with the book attached inside. Not helpful, I know, but still a very memorable design.

Also if I ever get my copy of Chip Kidd's The Cheese Monkeys back here in LA, I wanna take pictures, because that's an awesome design all around.

I ABSOLUTELY ADORE THIS! (capitals were unintentional, but they will remain.)

Where did you come up with that cover for Sanctuary? I've never seen it. And why does it say Vintage Faulkner instead of William?

Ah, no wonder.

This is my favorite Chuck cover.

That whole Lindquist/Faulkner thing is funny. I like the vintage one better. It's got a bit of a vintage look about it. Slightly faded. Looks better to me.

Reminds me of one of the old maybe-covers for Godspeed. Somenother guy came out with a book published by The Cage that had the exact same cover, just a different title and author name.