They say that you should “never judge a book by it’s cover” and I completely, 100 percent believe that to be true.  Unfortunately, the cover of a book is what will initially make you want to pick it up, read the synopsis, and eventually determine if you will spend the time to read the book or not.

When I was a teacher and I would begin to read aloud a book with a torn (or lost) cover, my students were never as excited to hear it as they would have been if the cover were beautifully artistic.  I used this “teachable moment” thousands of time in my 14 year career trying to instill in my students that just because something isn’t beautiful on the outside doesn’t mean that it’s not beautiful on the inside (and yes…I hope that lesson carried over into real life with them and not just books…)

Here are a few examples of amazing books with not so amazing covers:

I hate when books ambiguously use real life people on the covers.  Always messes up my image of what I think they should look like as I read.  I feel like I then have to conform my mental images with the ones on the cover…fail.

This book is AWESOME.  This cover is…pretty…but says absolutely nothing about the beautiful book inside?  So misleading…

AMAZING book with a strange faceless woman on the cover.  How old is she supposed to be here???  Says nothing about the book inside.  You can read my review of this amazing book HERE.

Here is an example of a book where the gorgeous cover doesn’t quite match up with the words inside:

I was bored. You can read my review HERE.

Sometimes a book can easily be judged by it’s cover when the cover isn’t great and neither is the story inside:

The story itself was just ok…unforgettable.  The cover?  Not so unforgettable.  In the history of the entire world, I truly don’t believe an uglier cover exists. Holy hell.

This book had so much possibility!  The topic is FASCINATING….the cover (and the writing) is boring.

I absolutely hated everything about this book.  Including it’s ugly cover.

And HERE we have the perfect combination of beautiful covers which also just happen to contain beautiful stories inside:

Bottom Line:

Just like people…some books are prettier on the inside then they are on the outside but you have to read them to find out 🙂

Have you read any of these books?  What did you think?  Can you think of other books with beautiful (or not so beautiful) covers?  Do you allow a book cover to determine if you want to read the book inside?

Still Breathing Giveaway Winner:

Congratulations, Loredana (I’d love to visit Paris, I wish this since Inwas 18 years old, wanted to go there with my best friend after we finished high school, but didn’t make it so far :(. I’m Internationally, also I’m subscribed to your blog. Hugs and kisses from Romania!)

Please email me (bookcoffeehappy@gmail.com) and I will make sure your copy of this lovely book gets sent to you!