Thursday 21 April 2011

What do you look for on the cover of a book?

Julie, Helen and I were chatting over lunch yesterday, and as I was relaying the story that Sue Welfare had told me about why she changed her name, it got us sharing thoughts about what makes us choose a book. 

I don’t look at the titles alphabetically, so the fact that Sue's surname started with “W” wouldn’t have mattered to me.  In fact one of my favourite authors is Isabel Wolff and I’d always find her books.  What I look for is a cover that I like the look of; a picture that's warm and inviting.  Being a bit of a magpie, anything colourful and sparkly appeals to me and also something that looks a bit on the girly side.  When Kate Long sent me "Mothers & Daughters" to review, I just adored the cover which was purple & pink, had textured sparkly and glittery flowers, handbags and shoes.  Just gorgeous!  If I’d seen this twinkling away at me in a book shop I’d have snapped it up straight away just on the cover alone. 

Julie said that she was a “blue” person and seems to be drawn to anything with a blue theme to it and Helen said that she was reading a classic Jane Austin at the moment but was struggling with it because the cover was quite dull and miserable.  Helen also prefers a book with an attractive cover and she complimented Waterstones, saying that they are great at setting up attractive book displays and said that she always browsed these books first. 

It sparked off quite a discussion which leads me onto my next question.  What do you look for in a cover of a book? 

1 comment:

Janice said...

I'm hoping for a glimpse of what is to come. The book cover to me is a promise - and so it's an important part of the package.

An interesting debate!