Weekly Geeks is kind of hard for me this time around…
This week it’s all about judging books by their covers! Pick a book–any book, really–and search out multiple book cover images for that book. They could span a decade or two (or more)…Or they could span several countries. Which cover is your favorite? Which one is your least favorite? Which one best ‘captures’ what the book is about?
Most of the authors I read have really only been around for the past 10-15 years and the vast majority of them even more recent than that. So a lot haven’t really gotten to the reprints of their novels yet or have just recently started selling overseas. Don’t get me wrong, some of them have made it to various covers (Laurell K. Hamilton has quite a few for Guilty Pleasures and Kelley Armstrong has a few out there for Bitten), but I was hoping to find something different. Maybe I was just trying to make this more difficult than it was, but when it comes to the urban fantasy/paranormal romance genres, all of the classics are either known, have been out for awhile, and/or I haven’t read them. The only real UF/PR classic I’ve read is Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice and I didn’t even finish it. I don’t read classics. I generally find them overly descriptive, long winded, or not that engaging. I know a ton of people out there will tell me I’m wrong, but each person is different. I do plan on reading a few of the classic authors – Neil Gaimon, Charles de Lint, and a few others – but I’m really enjoying discovering all of these new authors that have been popping up – Jocelynn Drake, Larissa Ione, Jeaniene Frost, Melissa Marr, and Carrie Vaughn just to name a few.
However, I am very much a person who judges books by their covers. In fact, the cover for Guilty Pleasures, by Laurell K Hamilton, is what pulled me into the UF/PR genre. If I had not picked up her novel, and had purchased and read the rest of the series within weeks of reading it, then I wouldn’t even have delved as far into UF/PR as I have. I would probably still be reading Nora Roberts and other romance novels even though I was starting to get burned out on them.
Now days, for a novel to garner my interest, the cover has to be there. I don’t get many chances to browse through a book store or a library anymore (and if anyone has had success taking their time with a 2 year old toddler, I would love to know how you do it), so when I do get the chance to walk into one, I look at the covers – I don’t even notice the titles or authors until a cover pops out. I can tell you that is how I picked up Steelflower by Lilith Saintcrow recently.
After finally receiving a gift card for books (thank you Jeaniene Frost!) and Ian off visiting the grandparents for the weekend, Jesse and I had a chance to walk around Barnes and Noble. It had been awhile since I was last in one, so I had a lot of shelves to cover, and knowing Jesse (he says whereas most guys are stuck waiting near the dressing rooms, he’s stuck waiting for me in the book store), I wouldn’t get as much time as I wanted. So I went up and down the aisles checking out the various covers. There were quite a few that caught my eye – Devon Monk’s Magic to the Bone, the anthology Blood Lite, and Shiloh Walker’s The Missing just to name a few – but the one that continuously caught my eye was Steelflower. The novel is straight up fantasy, and not what I was reading at the time, but I couldn’t get the cover out of my head, so that was the one that went with me to the register.
That is what it takes to get my attention. Give me a cover that sticks with me, makes me think and continuously draws my eyes to it, and you’ll find it on my bookshelves. That’s how I found Halfway to the Grave by Jeaniene Frost and Pleasure Unbound by Larissa Ione. I kept seeing their novels in the grocery store and my eyes wouldn’t go anywhere but to those books, so after the fourth or fifth time walking by, I got them. In fact, the latest novel to completely captivate me is pretty much solely based on the cover. Ghostland by Jory Strong has a fabulous cover and it has been in my mind ever since December 19th, when I first saw it.
So while I don’t have a few covers of the same novel to show everyone, I’m going to showcase the covers that have recently caught my eyes and were mentioned above. Here are the covers for: Devon Monk’s Magic to the Bone, the anthology Blood Lite, snf Shiloh Walker’s The Missing
And: Jeaniene Frost’s Halfway to the Grave, Kelley Armstrong’s Bitten, and Larissa Ione’s Pleasure Unbound
The Ghostland cover is gorgeous.
I think good covers probably make a big difference to sales, or at least in getting the book noticed
I would have to say that if you only allowed me one of these books and I had to pick the one with the most appealing cover, it would have to be Ghostland.
Long list to choose for a good reading, thanks for the titles.
Interesting post! I’m not sure if I’m going to do this week’s WG, just because I don’t really have a strong opinion on covers. One that did to me what Pleasure Unbound did to you is the first Jacqueline Carey novel, Kushiel’s Dart. I love that artist so much and was really disappointed when they went with someone else for the 2nd trilogy.
Hmm. Maybe this is the beginning of my WG blog post. ;)
ghostland is fantastic. I would love to read that one.
I think I ought to explore this genre!
Covered!