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Feb
09
Weekly Geeks 2009-05
2009 at 9am Posted by Rebecca Joines Schinsky
Judge a Book By Its Cover!
This week it’s all about judging books by their covers! Pick a book–any book, really–and search out multiple book cover images for that book. They could span a decade or two (or more)…Or they could span several countries. Which cover is your favorite? Which one is your least favorite? Which one best ‘captures’ what the book is about?
(Forgive the crazy formatting here…I’m having issues this morning)
Choosing the book this week was the easy part. I’ve loved The Scarlet Letter since I first read it my sophomore year of high school, and I’ve been collecting old and vintage editions for several years. The covers are almost universally unappealing.
I can’t say I really have a favorite….all of the women picture are kind of freaky looking, and a picture of a woman holding a baby doesn’t really tell you much about this book. Then again, I’m not really sure how you could design a cover that would portray much about the book. Hmmm. I like how dark and creepy this one is
but it’s also a little weird for the story. Ditto for the one after it. I like the simplicity of the repeated A pattern on the Dover edition and the painting on the Penguin edition. At least that one shows a man, though really, we’re not supposed to know who the father is until the end of the book, so I’m wondering who the man in the painting is supposed to be.
I can totally understand why this is a difficult book to design a cover for, but man, these are generally pretty bad.
What do you think?
Join the Weekly Geeks fun and explore book covers from one of your favorites.
And if you’re looking for fun commentary and information about new book cover designs, don’t miss The Book Design Review.
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Wow, that one with the letter on her face! Creepy. All of them are better than that one.
I think I like that final cover the best! It’s simultaneously interesting, slightly creepy and cool.
I’ve always liked the one with the big fancy scripted A the best. But the one you picked- wow it’s really intriguing, in a creepy way. Too dark for the mood of the book, but definitely more interesting than the others.
I actually like the creepy one the best. I think it says the most about stigma. Then again, I haven’t read the book in years and I hated it the first time (sorry Rebecca!) so that might reflect my preference.
I am partial to the one in the top row with the big cursive letter. I think it is the prettiest
I’m with Erika. I like the top middle one the best. Good pick and all interesting.
I like the repeated A ….and the creepy one with the woman on the front…I would pick up the book to see what it was all about.
I agree the last one is creepy…but if I were going to buy one by the cover, I would go with the Dover.
I have to go look what cover my copy has because none of these look familiar.
I think they’re all nightmare inducing. That baby in the first pic is frightening. And the fourth cover looks like Little Red Riding Hood. And I thought Anna K had problems!
Interesting to see how widely varied these covers are
I agree most of them are unappealing so I will settle for the second one.
I have the Kaplan SAT/ACT edition and I love how it looks.
http://www.amazon.com/Scarlet-Letter-Kaplan-Score-Raising-Classic/dp/1419542206
This is one of my favourite reads. The one I own is not here!
Covered!
[...] creepy book covers for Weekly Geeks [...]
[...] I mentioned in last week’s Weekly Geeks, The Scarlet Letter is one of my all-time favorite books, and it has some interesting and (now) [...]