It's also OK to judge a book by its lover, Stevie Wonder

May 1, 2007 6:10 PM

Books judged by covers. Via.
posted by klangklangston (12 comments total)

Related--
Worst Book Title Ever:
"Lo Mein Kampf".
posted by Dizzy at 6:40 PM on May 1, 2007

Also, bad books/great covers: Longmire does romance novels.

See you and raise you, Dizzy: "The Tail of Benji."
posted by rob511 at 6:47 PM on May 1, 2007

That bad book cover blog would be more useful if she talked more about design--what makes covers bad and good? Her analysis tends to, "Oh, that hair! Oh, that weird thing there!" She's not wrong about most of those covers being bad; it would just be more fun and edifying if she talked more about why they're bad.
posted by not that girl at 6:58 PM on May 1, 2007

That's a fair point. I was browsing it and found it pretty funny, but I might have had my funny pump primed by the Comics Curmudgeon. Ah well— if it gets deleted under a "This is not the best, only the moderately amusing of the web," I'll live.
posted by klangklangston at 7:35 PM on May 1, 2007

I picked this book up today because of the cover.
posted by dobbs at 8:26 PM on May 1, 2007

YES!
posted by furtive at 8:35 PM on May 1, 2007

Oh, you can and should. For instance: embossed lettering = commercial fiction, usually a thriller or mystery. Part of a female body (illustration) + shopping bag = chick lit. Part of a female or male body (photo in soft focus) + brown/beige/black background = "urban" fiction. Photo of author on front cover = some kind of celebrity claptrap. Repro of Real Art = Penguin Classic.

As for the worst book title ever, I defy anyone to beat "Wake Up, I'm Fat" by Camryn Manheim.
posted by scratch at 6:25 AM on May 2, 2007 [1 favorite]

"Fat Up, I'm Awake" by Hibernating Bearheim.
posted by Dizzy at 6:50 AM on May 2, 2007

Yuk yuk yuk! Good one, Dizzy.
posted by scratch at 8:04 AM on May 2, 2007

"...a little too little Tom of Finland, if you get my drift."
posted by kirkaracha at 8:53 AM on May 2, 2007

My simple rule: author's name > book title? Avoid.
posted by blag at 3:15 PM on May 2, 2007

Here's another site devoted to book design: Book Covers. It features the book dobbs bought because of the cover. There's no commentary on this site, just graphics.
posted by Amy NM at 10:14 AM on May 5, 2007