Ethical Book Covers

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If I pick up a book with vampires on the cover, I want there to be vampires. If I pick up a book with spaceships on the cover, I want spaceships. If I see one with dragons, I want there to be dragons inside the book. Proper labeling. Ethical labeling.

Judging a Book By Its Cover

Let us be literal for a moment: we generally judge books by their covers. If the cover is bleh, or just doesn’t suggest the sort of read we’re looking for, we move on. If it intrigues, we take a look inside.

Moby-Dick Book CoverPersonally, I’m put off by garish covers with colours that attack each other, depictions of hysterical half-naked people, and convoluted decoration that obscures those all-important details like the title. Also fonts that are so stylized that making the title out is like deciphering your great-aunt’s handwriting.

On the other hand, old leather bindings with gold tooling draw me like a bee to honey, regardless of the actual contents of the book. (Minor Products of the Phillipine Rainforest, Volume II? Well, why not?)

What do you look for in a cover? What engages you, what drives you away?