Favorite Book Cover

Out of all the book covers in the world, we're picking our favorites today.

My copy of Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall does not have this cover, but I love this cover. In this book - bear with me here - there are creatures, made of thought and information, that eat... thought and information. It's a little trippy as a concept, but the book is incredible and original and I love it. The fish (the thought creatures are all modeled after sea creatures) manifest through text, sort of (it's hard to explain) so this is a very fitting cover. Beyond the (only) image on this cover, I also like the font of the title/author (usually I don't like them being the same, but the use of space between them and different sizes makes it work for me) because it reflects the jagged, uneasy feeling you get while reading the book. (I don't think it's necessary for novels to state "A Novel" as a subtitle, but at least it isn't obtrusive here.)

You should know that my reasons for liking the cover of this book are incredibly, incredibly girly.

I really liked the big pink foofy dress.  I would LOVE to own/wear a dress just like that.  I have this obsession with big skirts and old fashioned dresses like in Gone With the Wind.  I constantly kept seeing this book in the library (along with the other books, below, that featured big, poofy dresses.)  And while I realize that they are historically inaccurate (the first book takes place in 1899), if we've learned nothing else from this blog, we know that cover art very rarely matches what the book is actually about.

Look at these dresses.  Who WOULDN'T love these dresses?

 



Even the text is awesome.  It's cursive and elegant and very old fashioned and fits amazingly with the BIG, POOFY DRESS.  And I put off reading this book for a long time because, per the description on the inside flap, I got the feeling that the dress was going to be the best part of the book.

I was right.  The book was a huge let down (even more so than I anticipated.)  It was incredibly predictable and not well researched, not to mention the author had an obsession with Lord & Taylor (I don't know; maybe she doesn't have the money to shop there?  So her characters must?)  Not to mentioned, the book sends out HORRIBLE messages via subliminal text (IE. Being an independent woman means you're a bitch and a slut.  How nice.)

But this post is about COVERS and, honestly, even after knowing the book is terrible and not really worth the read at all, I can't help but look at the cover every time that I go to the library.