I am 100% unashamed to admit that I pick up books based on their covers. I both buy and don't buy into the whole "don't judge a book by its cover" thing because I have an A Level in media studies and in order to get people to pick up your book, it needs to look aesthetically pleasing. Anyways, I like pretty covers. Not to the point that I'll refuse to pick a good book up because it has an ugly cover, but I like good books to have good covers. So here are ten of my favourite book covers, whether I have actually read them or not.
These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner - All of the books in this trilogy have gorgeously amazing covers, but this one sticks out in my mind more because it's blue, which is my favourite colour. Also, the pretty dress on the cover is totally relevant to the story itself so it gets more bonus points.
Cinder by Marissa Meyer - Same as with the Starbound series, I love all of the covers for the Lunar Chronicles, but Cinder's cover is my favourite. The metal leg under the skin shows straight away that Cinder is a cyborg and also that this is a retelling of Cinderella, which the other covers don't exactly do, instead they just show which tale the book retells. Also, this book is the best one to edit into black and white for Instagram.
Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld - I may be a little (or a lot) biased because Scott Westerfeld is one of my favourite authors, and also because this is my favourite series ever, but I adore the cover of Leviathan even though it's not actually the first edition, which I do also love. Because this is a steampunk book, the cover has all sorts of mechanical elements to it, which looks so cool.
Stitching Snow by R.C. Lewis - Apart from this cover being gorgeous, the copy I have has parts on it that are embossed, which is one of my absolute favourite things that book covers can have. I'm constantly stimming and when I read I constantly flick large chunks of pages so embossed covers that I can run my fingers over are always delightful for me.
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell - I get that from a glance this edition isn't that spectacular to look at because without the black bars it's just a reprint of the old penguin cover designs, but the cool thing about those bars is that they're added over the top of the book and rub off on your fingers as you read it. See that? Symbolism. And symbolism is cool.
To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han - This cover isn't too flashy but that's okay because it works so well for its genre. Contemporary books rarely have covers that are covered in a million details or big flowy dresses, because those aren't the kinds of stories they tell. I love the covers for this series because they're so simple and understated, and also the model on the cover is East Asian, just like the main character so win.
Splintered by A.G. Howard - Look, a green cover! I don't see green covers floating around too often so I'm always delighted whenever covers come in any shade of green and are done well. The covers for all of the books in this series are pretty, but this one's my favourite because it's the only one that I own for now 😅
Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo - I love pre-Soviet Russian aesthetics (i went through a phase where i was hugely obsessed with russia) so obviously the Grisha covers draw me in. I especially love the dark colours used on the cover of Shadow and Bone because it gives a sort of wintry feel, and obviously Russia gets pretty freaking cold so it's fitting.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson - Leatherbound books are gorgeous. This leatherbound edition of Jekyll and Hyde is especially gorgeous. All of the little images on the cover are gold and shiny and oh so cool to look at. In fact, I've spent so much time looking at the cover that I still haven't read the book. Oops.
Dracula by Bram Stoker - All of the Barnes & Noble leatherbound classics are pretty, but because Dracula is one of my favourite books, it has my favourite cover next to the cover for their edition of Frankenstein. Wit a book like Dracula, you don't need the cover to tell you what it's about, so this one doesn't really do that apart from the occasional drips. Instead, it shows the genre through the colours (red = blood, black = death) and the font and the end result is just so pretty.
What are some of your favourite book covers?
