I tend to do this a lot. If I hate the books cover there is a very little chance of me buying it, and I feel like a dick when I do this.

If I don't already know the book I'll judge it by the summary on the back :L So pretty much yeah, judging it by the cover.

quote Shane

If I don't already know the book I'll judge it by the summary on the back :L So pretty much yeah, judging it by the cover.

This, not the literal cover. Of course most of the books i buy have gotten good feedback.

I judge books by their covers all the time...It's sad, I know. Once I bought a book that was TOTAL TRASH but I liked the cover and I bought it without reading the first page. I felt like a fool.

We had a whole lecture in a college English course about how the cover of a book influences how we perceive the book itself. Flashy, colorfully illustrated covers usually get associated with genre fiction, like sci-fi/fantasy or romance novels, or with pulp fiction books that aren't expected to do more than provide light entertainment. In contrast, books thought to possess more literary or scholarly value tend to have understated, simple covers, often in black-and-white, as though to show their content is more important than their packaging.

One of the best examples the professor chose to demonstrate the influence of covers was Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep. From what I remember him saying (I've never read the book myself), the book was initially believed to a risque, crowd-pleasing detective thriller and was marketed as such, with a suggestive cover featuring a half-clothed girl voyeuristically glimpsed through a keyhole. As it slowly became recognized as a classic, though, the cover became increasingly abstract and elegant. One of the most recent editions the professor showed us had an abstract design of palm trees with the title and author on top, which certainly looked impressive, even though it actually had nothing to do with the book itself.

So, don't feel bad if you're influenced by book covers. You're supposed to be.

It's what attracts my attention in the first place, I then look at the first few pages and blurb.

quote Silver Mirror

It's what attracts my attention in the first place, I then look at the first few pages and blurb.

Ditto. That's pretty much exactly what I do.

The cover/title intrigues me, I read the synopsis, and the first paragraph or more.

I tend to go for bulky books because I read quickly.

actually... i judge the book by its title not its cover. so long as it has an interesting title, there will be a huge chance that i'll stop and bother myself to read it... lol ^^