Judging By Covers

I'm leaving for Wisconsin today to visit my niece for her second birthday. I'm also going to a dulcimer festival the morning we get back and speeding home hours later for a viola recital I just found out about, having not rehearsed and sight reading a second piece on cello for a quartet. Should be fun... So since I don't have any adventures quite yet, this is one of my wise advice posts. Contrary to what teachers and librarians say about not picking books based on the front, I always judge books by their covers. Here's some quick tips on how to pick a book:

1. Cool cover

2. Creative title

3. Author's picture

4. M.C.'s name

5. Setting

6. Interesting description

7. Font

I tend not to like covers with people on them. Especially if they're cartoons or supposed to be weird. Also the colors have to fit the sort of book it is. Honestly, it seems modern books aren't even illustrated by artists anymore! Why in the world would someone want clashing colors? Moving on, I like short titles, and I'm annoyed if I can't figure out why it is called that. Mostly short and catchy does the trick. Third, flip to the back cover and take a look at the author. This sounds mean and might be the least useful since there are obviously good writers whose looks don't match the personality of their book. But it does work a lot of the time. I read an awful book once that I would never have picked up had a looked at the author. Again, this isn't because they don't look good, but I can tell that I wouldn't connect with their interests and type of humor. Okay, next I look at the main character's name, if it's easy to find. This is a relatively new trick of mine, I picked up a book a few days ago and I think I was reading the summary or something when I saw the girl's name was Alyssa. I immediately put it back. For some reason, that name, though it's close to mine, really bothers me and would distract me from the plot. I'm pretty sure I've never read a book where I hated the main character, perhaps it would be an interesting experience though.

I don't often check the setting one. Probably because you can usually tell based on the genre. I just mean don't read a book if it's based in space and you hate sci-fi. You probably won't like it. Maybe it's more a tip for finding books you do like rather than the other tips which are about putting back ones you wouldn't like. For example I like fantasy and castles and dragons and magic. If I pick up a book with pixies in it and another about baseball, I'm going to pick the pixies. Okay um about the interesting description, I'm not 100% supportive of that either, because sometimes they can spoil the book if it's a bad overview when it's really an otherwise good read, and sometimes it gives away too much. Just if I do read it, I want it to be intriguing, not complicated. Alright, last one I can think of right now is font. This is why old books have to be re-covered and redesigned. I, like many others, don't especially like the plain looking block letters or on the other extreme, the pointy bloody letters of vampire books. I truly believe that Harry Potter was the leader of cool new title designs.

And that's it. I'd say I use between one and three of these every time I'm looking around, depends how hurried I am. Tell me if you use any of them, and if it helped at all.