This site says it shows only the worst, and some of these are very bad. My problem with the site is that it shows one or two of my favorite books. I know the covers are bad, but I you can’t tell a book by the cover, as they say. I don’t anyone to figure the words inside are as bad as the artwork.
Not all of these covers are bad. Some of them are just not appropriate for the book, but if a lurid cover helps sell a good book I am all for it.
4 Comments
What evidence do they offer (besides the cover art) when they say that these stories are bad?
Oh wait. Never mind. For some reason I thought that they were showing the covers of the books and saying “see how bad this story is?” Sorry.
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You’re right. I clicked on the link and I almost immediately found 4 covers that I liked. Some of them are good enough to become wall art in my room. I can’t help but question the criteria this guy uses to figure out what makes a good cover.
Mush,
I think they are just commenting about the covers. The stories, at least some of them are GREAT! Some of the stories look dreadful and so the covers are appropriate. Many of these are the British editions, since the guy is located over there. Maybe in England the publishers don’t have to actually read the book before choosing the cover art.
They have Bradbury’s “I Sing the Body Electric” with an odd cover that has nothing to do with the stories inside. This is one of the very best Bradbury collections.
Other bad covers with good stories are Poul Anderson’s Avatar, Fred Pohl’s Slave Ship, Heinlein’s Star Beast, Lewis’ Perelandra, and one of my favorite unknown masterpieces, Sterling Lanier’s Unforsaken Hieoro.
Basically, this guy goes into used book stores and takes pictures with his cell phone and then ridicules the covers. Sometimes he talks like he’s actually read the book, other times he has just read about the book. It’s a good Gig.
A better blog would be to find interesting books that are long out of print and read a few, but blog the rest. Just go into a used book store and snap a shot of every old book they’ve got and spend the next month blogging them. Rinse and repeat and you have an interesting blog.
I find it offensively lazy to point at a book’s literal cover and judge the entire book (weather or not anyone should read it)based on the outside cover art.
he’s not even critiquing an aspect of the book that people find distracting once they open it up and begin reading. Here’s an example: If you can get lost in a story that is acted out by paper dolls, you begin to forget early on that you are looking at poor graphics. Poor cover art should be a passing comment when discusing a book.
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I need to get to the bus to take me to school. The next possible time for me to respond will probably be at 4pm pacific time (I’m on the west coast.)