It has come to my attention that covers play a VERY large role when people are selecting books.
I have just finished reading Looking for Alaska by John Green (and will review it soon I promise!). I bought the book because I had read Paper Towns and really enjoyed so I thought buying another book by John Green would be a good investment. And it was. The book is REALLY REALLY good, though read 'how far is too far in teenage books' if you think you might be offended by some of the content.
I have a MUCH bigger issue with the book than simply the sex, and that is the cover.
My copy of Looking for Alaska is the British version, and the cover looks like this:
Quite nice, yes, HOWEVER the main character in this book is a boy. Most of the main characters are boys. The author is male. Yet this cover suggests that the book is for girls, with the daisy and the curly writing with the heart. The daisy does have significance in the book, but not till very late in the story.
Now I don't know John Green's opinion on this cover (and I am considering emailing him about what he thinks of it) but if I was the author of this book, I would be slightly annoyed. Boys SHOULD read this book, in my opinion! It's definitely not a girly book.
This is the American cover of Looking for Alaska:
Well firstly, this cover is also black, like the British cover, but there is no flower. The candle with the smoke is a reference to events in the book and there is nothing remotely girly or boyish that would distinguish this book as for one gender as opposed to the other.
ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH... covers annoy me sometimes. One of my favourite books, Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli, originally had a hot pink cover. Just like Alaska, this book is narrated in first person by a BOY and is written by a MALE author. It is not a girly book at all! It's a book about breaking down stereotypes and friendship and love!
So, what do you think? Do covers effect the choices you make when you are choosing a book to read/buy? Boys, would you consider reading Looking for Alaska if you saw the British cover, or would you dismiss it as girly? Please tell me what you think in the comments! Also, do you have any books that you would not originally have read because of the covers but only read because someone recommended them to you?
I'm interested to find out whether other people see the issues with covers I see.
Covers influence me for sure.
ReplyDeleteLife of Pi had a great cover that had me intrigued, so I was keen to read it. My hardcover copy of Cloudstreet has a really nice cover which makes me want to read it again. Covers that are interesting and a bit quirky tend to get my attention.
My Louis deBerneires books have really odd covers - hand painted pictures with lots of bright coloured patters - which reflects the South American setting of the stories. But at first I thought they looked tacky. Now that I've read the stories though, I kinda see what the artist was thinking.
Also, I have True History of the Kelly Gang, which has yellowed pages and uneven page sizes, so it feels like you're reading a collection of random pages, rather than a mass-produced book. I like that.
Steven Herrick's "The Simple Gift" has, in my opinion, a terrible cover, but the book was absolutely brilliant! I loved how easy it was to read through. Didn't even take 2 hours to finish and I'm an extremely slow reader. The book is written in really Australian prose poetry.
ReplyDeleteIt's about a boy, Billy who runs away from home and meets this elderly hobo, Old Bill and this young girl from a snobby school, Caitlin. The structure is set up from each of their perspectives.
I definitely recommend that you don't judge this book by its cover and give it a read. Especially 'cos it takes less than 2 hours (if you read as slow as me) and you've got like 20 books to read in just a couple of months. :)
Yes!! Email the author, that would be so cool!!
ReplyDeleteYou know, they say that you can't judge a book by its cover, but people do it anyway, whether they want to or not. I agree with you 100% on this. I'm usually very picky about covers, especially if there are more than one versions of the book I'm reading... then I have to get the one with the better cover, you know?
ReplyDeleteI think, as an author, it is really important to choose or design cover that best represents what his or her book is about. Unless we've heard about the book elsewhere, us as readers can't really help but form our opinions on whether the book is worth reading based entirely on the cover, because honestly, what more can you go by? We can't read everything we see.
Looking for Alaska is one of the best books I've ever read, and I think that the British cover does sort of demeans the book. It looks like it's having an identity crisis... maybe it's the font or that irritating schoolgirl-doodle heart after 'Alaska'.
By the way, nice blog! I've just found it after doing a random search on what people have to say about Sarah Dessen, but became interested in your project. I really enjoyed reading through it!
Hi Megan - sorry it's taken me so long to reply to this!
DeleteThanks for your feedback. Even though I wrote this ages ago I still totally stand by what I wrote (and still love the book too!) Do you like the cover for his new book? I haven't read it yet, but I find it to be quite a plain cover. I suppose he has a big enough fan-base for it not to matter so much anymore, but it still makes me sad that it might get overlooked. Anyway, I'm blogging at elisabethanera.blogspot.com now if you wanted to check that out!
Where did you buy the British Version? I really want to buy that one! Thanks
ReplyDeleteNafisa, I think I bought it at Borders in Australia.... which is now closed! But you could try online? maybe book depository? i believe that's based in England, so you might get the British cover.
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