Feature: Question of the Week

July 18, 2001

Does a book's cover ever affect your decision to buy it? Which book do you think has a great cover?

Zamboni1864@aol.com
No, the cover of a book does not affect my decision to read it or not.

Alita464@aol.com
I think the book cover sometimes affects your decision to buy it or not --- it has to look really good, it has to catch your attention, like, "yeah I have to get that book." Like the cover of THE COLDEST WINTER EVER by Sister Souljah. It has a lady on it but you can't see her eyes, just her lips, and they're blood red so your curious to pick it up. I think the tile of the book plays a part as well.

PaperPistol@aol.com
Book covers do influence me greatly, actually. Sometimes I wish it didn't, because you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover. You can judge it, of course, sometimes. Like you can tell if a book is for children, is romance, is horror, or is teen romance or light aka "stereotypical and unimaginative" teen writing.

Four awesome book cover (not in order) that I was attracted to:
1) ANGUS, THONGS AND FULL-FRONTAL SNOGGING by Louise Rennison
2) ON THE BRIGHT SIDE, I'M NOW THE GIRLFRIEND OF A SEX GOD by Louise Rennison
3) SPEAK by Laurie Halse Anderson
4) THE ONLY ALIEN ON THE PLANET by Kristen D. Randle

MPhelps17@aol.com
I won't lie, I judge books by their covers and titles. If a cover is cheesy, like a drawing of a cheerleader from the 70's meshed with a car crash, I won't pick it up. If a title is boring and unattractive, then I won't pick it up. The best covers are ones that are tasteful and simple. An example of my point are the Mary Wesley book covers, which show a single photograph that compliments a plain title.

The Harry Potter books have great covers. They give you just the right amount of hint to get you guessing, but they don't give anything away. They are drawn beautifully and artistically

TedD1989@aol.com
Of course covers matter. I wouldn't buy any book with a stupid cover of girls or people making out. Dumb.

Numskull07@aol.com
It makes me pick it up. So, in some aspect it does affect my decision to buy
it. If you read a lot you can usually just sort of tell by the font and various other things that a certain book is one you would be interested in. Then comes the reading of the summary and the first few pages of course

RtificiallySweet@aol.com
I know everyone says not to judge a book by it's cover, but sometimes the cover does affect my buying decision. One book that I really liked that also had a great cover was HARD LOVE by Ellen Whittlinger.

aquamarine_demon@yahoo.com
If I've never heard of the book or the author, then yes, the book cover does effect my choice. I think one of the best covers is on a book called THE SERPENT'S CHILDREN by Laurence Yep. That, and JRR Tolkien's LORD OF THE RINGS all have good covers :)

Dannysgirl13@aol.com
Book covers are so important! Seems like designing them would be the coolest job! I'd like to do one for my favorite author Amelia Atwater Rhodes.

Browneyes915@aol.com
Everyone tells us, "don't judge a book by it's cover," but I think they're just being hypocritical. Everyone now and then passes a book up that may have been a great read just because it didn't LOOK interesting. Even though most of us try to NOT judge, and in this day and age where anyone hardly ever even picks up ANY book, first impressions make all the difference in the world.

Dreamshadows88@aol.com
Yes, most of the time. Unless I have been told about it or like the author

Bkworm12@aol.com
Yes, I think the cover helps me to decide whether or not I'm going to buy the book, because if the picture jumps out at me then I take a closer look.

Geogirl1215@aol.com
Yes, I does. Even though you aren't supposed to judge a book by its cover, sometimes the cover influences me more than the title. I think that it is very important for a book to have a good cover.

dcpunk@uswest.net
I am definitely influenced by the books cover, if the cover looks childish or older I usually won't read it, also if it has a blunt name like, "the boy who didn't want to be
alone," I don't think it will be a good read for me.

Starbeam876@aol.com
Yes, if a book has a really great cover it catches your eye and gets you to notice it and read the back while you may never notice the same book with a plain cover.

RedVine216@aol.com
I think cover of a book has some influence on whether or not I pick it up, but it's not really the biggest factor -- I usually pick my books by research, or hearsay, or just keeping up with the latest efforts of favorite authors. However, I lucked out in that I found Laurie Halse Anderson's SPEAK (which is, by the way, the most incredible, funny, heartbreaking book you can ever hope to fall in your lap and change your life) because of its startling, haunting cover. Guess it goes to show you -- it's ok to judge a book by its cover once in while. Or at least decide to read it. =)

RynAz99@aol.com
Yeah, the cover of a book does influence my decision about whether of not I want to read a particular book. I mean covers that look cool and are interesting always make me want to take um home, but, its not the only thing that makes me want to read it, the descriptions have to be pretty good to.

Baby Wiccan89@hotmail.com
I don't care what the covers look like :) For example, the V.C. Andrews covers are really cheesy but the books rool.

sikorski4@home.com
A cover may draw me to look at the book but it does not affect my decision to buy it. A book is only considered good by its text not by the shiny cover.

GROOVERSDM@aol.com
Unfortunately, yes. : (

ZebraSummer02@aol.com
At times the cover affects my decision. Mostly though a short story description on the inside cover or back of the book, if what makes me get a book. But I am more likely it get it if I heard about it though word of mouth or on Teenreads.com and read the back cover.

Bopps58675@aol.com
I do judge books by their covers... literally! If it has a corny cover I assume it will be a corny book. If it has an ugly cover I think it will be an ugly book. The books cover should fit in with the theme of the book. It shouldn't be brightly colored if the story is about death.

Roxy5352@aol.com
I believe it sometimes entices a reader to choose the book, for instance V.C Andrew books put a lot of emphasis on the book covers, hoping to entice readers. I don't really care about the book cover I care about the summary on the back.

TeEnBaBy742@aol.com
Yes, books covers usually affect whether or not I will either buy/read a book because if an author makes an attempt to make a cover look good then maybe worth reading. An example of this would be the book GIRL by Blake Nelson. It was a great young-adult novel for teen girls.

Prpl496@aol.com
Of course it does. The books cover is half the story. After all, first impressions make all the difference! The book I think has a great cover is Richard Matheson's I AM LEGEND. Not only is it one of my favorite books ever, but it has fantastic artwork.

Snickie1794@aol.com
Yes, I usually choose a book with a nice, not weird cover.

CBlueStar4@aol.com
Usually if the book has a good cover AND title then I'll probably look at it first but that won't make me ignore books without good covers. But for the most part its the title that gets me.

Jazzmin212@aol.com
I try not to judge a book, but some covers are really awesome. I like the cover to STARGIRL by Jerry Spinelli.