Pretty Pictures! (Ever judge a book by it's cover?)

Member Name: fangedwolf

Product:	Ever judge a book by it's cover?
Date:	09/10/01 (47 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Can give a good idea of they type of book that it covers

Disadvantages: May give a faulse impression of the book in general, using only one scene from the book.

Walking down the aisle looking at the book spines, glancing casually over the titles and authors until one jumps out at me, and I pick it up.

This is what people typically do when in a bookshop. You dont look at every book in detail; you scan the titles and perhaps the covers if they are visible for one that takes your fancy. In this way at least you have already discarded many books through the cover/ title bar. You have indeed already been sweyed by the power of the cover images.

When looking for a book you have to make descisions on which books to pick up and look at, and which ones not to. Luckily for us bookshops are now split into different sections that allow us to choose which type of book we wish to read. No longer do we see "how to play the guitar" next to "heavenly sex in 5 steps"!

Past that it really is up to our own descression, knowlege and choices about which books to look at and which ones to leave on the shelf.

We may go into a bookshop looking for a specific book, and there are two of this same book, but with different covers. Would you then not pick the book with the nicest cover? In that way we may choose books buy their covers.

But if we do not know of an author or title of a book that we want to buy, we do what we all do in bookshops, and indeed all shops, we browse! Dont we just love all the pretty colours, we get sedused by the shiny covers, the wonderful paintings, the snappy titles. All these things help us decide if the book is worth buying.

Everyone has their own habits when it comes to choosing books. I have always thought that in fantasy books especially I tend to choose books with illustrations by specific painters. I know that these illustrators are used by authors that write in a specific manner, and are a good enough writer to pay for them! Strange I know, but I have found that it works!

Other people go by the titles, if they grab the
attention, before looking at the blurb to check out the plot.

Although the cover of a book can give an excellent impression of the book, readers must remember that the illustrator have unwhittingly given a faulse impression of the book as a whole, perhaps only using one scene from the book, rather than the general feeling of the book. In this way you should be warned...always read the blurb to make sure it is the right book for you.

I beleive that everyone in one manner or another chooses books through the cover in varying degrees, whether it is just by the browsing and randomly picking up books that appeal to us, or by going as far as to choose the book specifically because of the cover illustration and title. In this way we are all the victims of clever advertising - long may it live!

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