Thursday 25 April 2013

Book covers

I wonder how many of us pick up a book because of its cover.  I know I often do - in the library;  in the bookshop; and on the second-hand stall.  This was one I absolutely could not resist.  Could you?


14 comments:

  1. oh, yes, I've been known to do that very thing! the old cliche of "You can't judge a book by its cover" means nothing to me. else why do publishers hire someone to design a cover? well, have you read it? blood on a tea cozy...hmm

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    1. Yes, I read it - and thoroughly enjoyed it. An ideal cosy crime for curling in front of the fire with.

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  2. Love the title and the old 1920's style design.
    I love the look -- the feel when I hold the book in my hand-- the colors of the cover. These things add much to the pleasure of my reading. Which is one reason why I really don't want a Kindle. Besides I don't think I'd do very well just staring at that little screen all afternoon or evening. But then, you already knew I was a dinosaur, didn't you? :o)

    xoxoxo

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  3. I like these - http://i.livelib.ru/boocover/1000471270/l/8422/Alan_Bredli__Sornyak_obvivshij_sumku_palacha.jpg and http://j.livelib.ru/boocover/1000479027/l/e8cb/Alan_Bredli__Kopchenaya_seledka_bez_gorchitsy.jpg
    These are the covers of Flavia de Luce series by Alan Bradley.
    "Precocious 11-year old fascinated with chemistry and death bicycles around Bishop's Lacey from ancient country house Buckshaw in 1950s England. Picture a girl who lives there with her most unusual family. Picture a long-abandoned Victorian chemistry laboratory; no one ever goes there but Flavia. Put them all together and you’ll have a new kind of detective fiction"

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  4. Yes. Book covers are very important to me. Of course they are to marketing people too. Think of the series identification of the various McCall Smith series for one small example. Contemplating a bit more perhaps I am put off by an unappealing cover more than drawn to a 'good' cover. Hmmm. More food for contemplation.

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  5. Good grief! I haven't thought about egg cosies in a coon's age. I smiled to myself recently when I was watching a British movie and saw one of the characters tapping the top of an egg in an egg cup, and then spooning off the top. I wondered how many Americans watching had any idea what he was doing. I've never seen it done over here. But egg cosies?... I have egg cups -- or maybe 'had' not sure what sold in the garage sale, but I bet i could start a fad over here with egg cosies.

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  6. Is this an old book or a new one? The cover does draw you in and I would be very tempted to read it too! It just looks vintage to me...maybe it's the cigarette. You don't see too many people smoking on TV or in movies any more and seeing that on a book cover caught my attention.

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    1. It was written in the 1970s but set in the 1930s. James Anderson was a British author best known for his books featuring Inspector Wilkins. This was the first of them. His books are set in the fictional British Stately Home of the 12th Earl of Burford. The books are a humorous look at the Golden Age type of mystery.

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  7. Ironically I've come to realize even more since I bought my Kindle, just how important the title and cover actually are to catch my interest in a book (if I've not heard about it some other way already). This one certainly has an intriguing title and cover that indicates an Agatha Christie kind of story. I'm not all that much into crime novels at the moment but I put it on my Amazon wishlist so as to remember it.

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  8. We are visual beings, no doubt about that. The book looks intriguing - one is trying to make a connection between illustration and title, almost involuntarily.
    I have often wondered about the strange choice of book cover; some have so little in common with the book's contents, while others manage to capture the book's essence really well.

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  9. Never judge a book by its cover.....glad you enjoyed it.

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  10. And I could not resist the title, either. Blood stained egg cosies - what next? It makes me smile just to think about it, somehow.

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  11. Great question! If I've never heard of a book and am just browsing the library shelves for something to read, I think the title or the author's name (if familiar) are more likely to entice me to pull a book from the shelf and read the jacket. Come to think of it, it's at that point that I see the book's cover for the first time! :-) If the title, author and plot synopsis leave me on the fence, the cover might help decide me.

    So, is the book living up to its name so far? (I halfway hope not, the thought of a bloody egg cosy is disturbing on many levels! And this from a crazy wench who's about to finish "The Graveyard Book." :-)

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  12. The cover or the title - either would have grabbed my attention!

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