Never Judge a Book by it's Cover

The best and worst books I read because of their cover

  It is without a doubt that we're all quite familiar with the phrase "never judge a book by its cover" whether we're actually talking about books or in its metaphorical sense. As much as I agree with this statement and think that there are many great books out there that have not so great covers; I do find myself guilty of often, at least initially, picking books up with pretty cover art or even pretty titles. This is something I've always done and I'm sure whoever is reading this has done this at least once too. Whether it's just because prettier books catch our eye or we have a bias that the better the cover the better the book, sometimes we just tend to pick up the prettier colorful book than the plain brown one with just a few words. And with that, I pose the question of; is that always such a bad thing? This is my experience with some of my favorite, and not-so-favorite, books I picked up because of their cover.

1. Internment

I remember the day I found Internment at the library. It was a typical summer afternoon, I was back at the library for the 2nd time that week picking up even more books I had ordered. Once I was given my books I decided to browse around, just see what was on the shelves quickly and then I'd go home to read all the interesting new books I'd acquired. That's when Internment caught my eye. The white cover featured a girl wearing a black cap with bold white letters spelling out the word "Resist", and a black turtle neck. Not just any black turtle neck though, as inside said shirt there was an image of a brick wall with barbed wire and the moon, making her clothing simulate the black sky in the background. Not only this but the drawing of the girl was also very well done and looking back it actually encaptured the essence of the book and Layla (the girl on the cover) very well. Upon picking it up, I skim read the little inside flap with the summary and found myself very intrigued about the contents of this novel. Despite my big pile of books that were the sole reason I'd even gone to the library that day, as soon as I got home I got straight to reading Internment. And this is a choice I am glad I made because that would come to be one of my favorite books I picked up that summer. With a very interesting spin on realistic/science fiction, the author does a spectacular job in this book of bringing awareness to Islamophobia, Xenophobia, and many other prevalent issues in our current society. Although many readers see this as an overly-exaggerated book I personally think that it was well-written and complex enough to make a good, and pretty emotional, story.

2. WildWood

I originally picked this book up a couple years ago, somewhere back in the 4th-5th grade. We were at a thrift store and the books were only 99 cents so I obviously tried to get my hands on as many as I possibly could. One of the books that stood out to me the most from the shelf stocked high with countless novels, was WildWood. The cover was nothing short of beautiful, with a unique art style and even fun texture (which back in 5th grade was something I very much enjoyed). It featured an image of a boy and a girl running through a beautiful forest with pink flowers and many shades of green leaves. The font and overall writing on the cover also caught my eye and since I didn't exactly have the time to sit down and read the book right there, I just threw it in the basket without thinking. Despite being only 99 cents, I wouldn't mind having gotten my money back. Turns out Wildwood was not for me no matter how much I tried. I still own this book and to this day I have never gotten past the 25th page. The positive thing about this book that I will admit to is its wonderful illustrations, whoever drew the art for this book definitely deserves to draw for better stories. I am not too sure as to if mine is a popular opinion, maybe a lot of people did in fact enjoy this book, but in my case, it just wasn't for me. It could've been the genre, slow-moving pace of the author, or just the overall writing style but there was something that made this so hard for me to actually finish, so as far as I'm aware the book will continue to sit in my basement, doggy-eared on page 25.

3. The Henna Wars

Lastly, in an attempt to end this blog on a positive note, I will be talking about yet another great book I read this summer; The Henna Wars. Similar to Internment, I found this book at the library. On this particular day I was looking for sapphic YA novels and found myself with a variety of options. I had browsed through a couple books but none really got my attention. Thats when I noticed the pastel pink cover with subtel intricate henna like designs. On top of this background were 2 girls wearing henna with their hands towards each other. The drawing style reminded me of the newer disney style and the font of the title was also pretty neat. Similar to Wildwood I actually did not read the summary for this book before taking it with me since I was running out of time and still needed to get to other things. However, in contrast, this book was one I enjoyed greatly. A pretty easy and lighthearted read, slightly dealing with homophobia but more so centered around the sweet almost enemies to lovers story between these two high school girls, it was definitely a very fun novel that I'm very glad to have picked up.

So, to summarize, it is indisputable that a book and its cover aren't always of the same quality, however, at times a cover can also be a great way to discover what could come to be your next favorite book.

-Fabi