Book covers and titles

For a while I seemed to be more attracted to the colour of the jacket that anything else. I think (hope) I'm over that now.

The title rarely pulls me in. Authors' names tend to be the grab for me these days. Either it's a name I'm following or looking for, or it looks interesting and I'll pick the book up and read the blurb on the back. I rarely look at the artwork on the cover of a book ... and titles fall behind the artwork. That is, I know what the title is - but it's rarely a factor in selecting a book to buy/read.

Titles maybe but not on a notably conscious level. Titles that are dead give away for romances and chick lit-esque books might scare me away.

Blurbs? I only bother with blurbs from recognized book review publications and often ignore blurbs obtained from peer authors simply because they seem to be you scratch my back and I'll give a good blurb for your book bit of quid pro quo going on there. Unless it's an author I really love and respect which means I would rarely ever see his or her name on another writer's book cover.

Color is interesting. I notice so many white or yellow covers these days.....

by blurb I'm talking about the "this is a story about a dog" thing, not reviews

Yellow. Yellow was my thing for a while.

I found a reprint of a copy of The Yellow Book, as well as one about the history of The Yellow Book. That started something.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Yellow_Book

I read stuff by L.E. Modesitt, Jr. The covers are really weak, but I think I made a good guess in thinking they are by an aspiring artist within the family. I suppose I read them in spite of the cover art.

One of my all time favorite titles is Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Then, they went and called the movie Blade Runner.

Go figure.

it was a decent movie, did it adhere to the book?

Not really. I did enjoy both, though.

The jacket art is usually what grabs my attention first, but then I am an artist so I guess that makes sense. Once I get past the art I read the blurb, if it doesn't grab me then, eh.

Many of us here are artists of one sort or another. For me, I'd be apt to have to ignore covers as I might like the writer past the front.

That said, I have long liked cover art.

Title means more to me than anything. Before ever i had heard of William Faulkner, i saw The Sound and the Fury on a spine of a book in the library. I knew were the title came from, and i was intrigued. Although not at all mentally prepared to understand the book and all of its nuances, knowing that "it is a tale told by an idiot" definitely helped me to read it whan 12 years of age.

There's an aspect of ntellectual snobbery in that, to the extent that i'll be attracted more by a title which has a literary reference, or a reference to an historical event, or a recent notorious episode of current events. But, after all, reading is an intellectual exercise.

It works that way for me for movies, too. It's certainly not infallible--The Fisher King (reference to Arthurian legend) with Robin Williams was excellent, while Outrageous Fortune (reference to Hamlet) proved to be just a vehicle for Shelley Long and Bette Midler, and What Dreams May Come (yet another reference to Hamlet) is an awful movie featuring Robin Williams.

I don't always know the reference, but a good title will intrigue me. A Confederacy of Dunces was an entertaining novel, and i did not know until i looked into it that the title was from a quote of Jonathon Swift. Silent Running i took to be about submarines, and was pleasantly surprised to tind the little gem of a science fiction movie which used it. But, books or movies, the title will mean more than anything else in attacting my interest.

I was thinking about this last night and realized that reading on my Kindle has changed the way I read.

I find myself reading less fiction and the fiction I have read seems somehow less "fresh" than something I was drawn to in a book shop display. It's not as spontaneous. I don't stumble across books the way I used to. Browsing a website feels too much like shopping (something I hate) while hanging out at the bookstore never felt like shopping.

Hmmmm......

Yeah, ever since I have a Kindle, I go strictly by recommendations - so far so good!
Book titles are somewhat important but usually what grabs ones attention first is the cover itself. So Mo did well in that department and I think if you have an exceptional well cover, the title becomes secondary.

That title would never have worked for me.

I look at the title of a book, prefer them on the shelf so I see the spine, this way there's as little as possible to draw me in. No pretty pictures or quick statements. The title grabs me first, then the author's name. If I don't care much for the author's name I may pass on the book. In those cases, I try to read a few paragraphs within the book, sometimes that will change my thinking.

In cases where the cover is viewable, a police badge tends to gain my interest. Quick turn offs are 'recommended by _____________' and it's some television star who I don't care about.


Actually looking at the shelves, there are a lot of books with red lettering on the spine, maybe that's one of the things which attracts me.

"The Sisters Brothers" is a western. It's very good!

Perhaps at some time in the future I'll take a look at it. The title just kind of didn't work for me.

Some books I buy or get at the library because of the author.
Other times I select a book for a trip - then it is usually for the title or the book cover.
There are a few books which I have bought just for the beautiful cover.
This book cover I loved even before I could read. It is hard cover and kind of a box that you have open up to get to the book itself. The pages feel like cloth and not paper and the illustrations were just fashinating for me as achild and I still like it.

http://www.google.de/imgres?imgurl=http://www.baxleystamps.com/litho/hasegawa/dich_1912_14tau_6-1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.baxleystamps.com/litho/hasegawa/dichtergrusse.shtml&usg=__iejNF4njxnOjPsQx5wCt12UWTjw=&h=931&w=1250&sz=253&hl=de&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=AmztyKTjpPLutM:&tbnh=123&tbnw=121&ei=gMNgT-m9Ks7dsgaKu4CzCg&prev=/search%3Fq%3Ddichtergr%25C3%25BCsse%2Baus%2Bdem%2Bosten%2Bjapanische%2Bdichtungen%2Bvon%2BK.%2BFlorenz%26hl%3Dde%26biw%3D1016%26bih%3D589%26gbv%3D2%26tbm%3Disch&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=337&vpy=4&dur=1980&hovh=194&hovw=260&tx=113&ty=114&sig=116406469360944378052&page=1&ndsp=17&ved=1t:429,r:8,s:0

I find that I read a lot more than I did before I had an ereader. I guess because I pretty much take it with me everywhere (it fits in my purse), and before it was sometimes just too much trouble to grab a big, heavy book to lug around as I was going out the door.

Mr.Irish, on the other hand, still prefers hardcover books. He mentioned that he wanted to read Hemingway's Boat the other day (which I have in ebook form), but he said no...he wants the book-book lol. Different strokes.