Book Covers...

Nymeth and Chris are both holding book giveaways (you might want to hop over and put your name in!).  To enter you answer some simple but interesting questions.  One in particular that Nymeth asked got me thinking and I decided to do a post concerning her question, which was: What's your favourite book cover so far this year?

First of all I was glad she said "this year".. or we could be here a very long time!

I really think book covers are VERY important! 

They direct us to a book.

They are, most times, our only visual of what the book is about, and a good piece of artwork can draw us to a book we might not have been drawn to otherwise. 

Some artwork like The Enchanted Forest makes me look up the artist to see other things he's painted.. I am rarely, if ever, disappointed.

Some, like Graceling, my eye may catch the colors they use.

 

There are sooo many good artists showing up for YA books that it's driving me crazy!  Just look at some of these!

 

Then there are books where the cover is nice but I think it's the title that grabs me like The Sorceress. (before that one was The Alchemyst and The Magician)   And doesn't the cover of 100 cupboards make you immediately wonder what's behind all those doors?

 

 

  (This book I bought just for the cover! But the story was good too, thankfully)

Some covers grab you by color and some by the fancy writing of the title rather than a painted picture...

 

Some,  like the one below, I think I did the old, this has to be good just look at the cover!... but I couldn't get into the book , so I set it aside. In this case the cover attracted me but the book did not.

Then there are the books with covers that do absolutely nothing for the story within!  I don't care for the cover of Godmother.  Thankfully, I read reviews and took a chance and loved the book!  This proving the old adage that you can't judge a book by it's cover.... yet we do it all the time!

 

This last book cover is the only book on this post that I did NOT read this year..but have read more than once over the years.  It is  yet another example of fine art.  I love this cover.  Beside it being just a great painting it tells a lot of what the book is about, maybe a little more than the average book cover tells us.  I know I can't look at this cover for long without wanting to read the book again.. sheesh.. I just reread them last year!!

Bookcovers are a very important part of our books.  They make us pick them up and examine them to see if we might like what's inside.   It is a lucky author who gets an artist who just seems to know what should go on the cover of their book.

I am very lucky that I know two such artists who have done book covers.

Roger Kastel:... who is the artist behind the bookcover and poster for the movie Jaws...

(.. among other things.)  Who couldn't figure out what Jaws is about?  duh.

and Ken Kelly...

...who besides his famous paintings of "Kiss" the singing group, did a little cover for an "unknown character".. called Conan!

No matter how many ways I say it, it always comes out the same..

Bookcovers are very important!