Aren’t You Supposed to Judge a Book by its Cover?

Judging a book by its cover is judgmental—we’re supposed to look past the exterior and instead look to the interior. And this is all well and good when we have the time, energy and an inclination to do so. Logically, I know that looks can be deceiving, but that doesn’t keep me from making those snap judgments and I don’t think it’s always a bad thing. We each have our own past experience that acts as a base of knowledge when we look at something, and it is this knowledge that helps us form opinions and make decisions faster than we otherwise would have.

When I’m browsing at the library, I rely on book covers to convey what’s on the inside—that’s the purpose of book covers (otherwise they’d all look exactly the same). Granted, sometimes books have deceiving book covers; terrible books can have awesome covers and awesome books can have terrible covers. Sometimes I’ll pull out a book and shake me head in dismay (or perhaps in disbelief) that someone created a terrible book cover and that is was somehow approved. [How can they not see that it’s truly awful? (Sigh.)]

I’m attracted or repelled by book covers. Of course the book titles themselves say much about what type of story it tells, but often enough it’s the color and the chosen font that says more to me than the actual words ever could. When I see pink (or any “girly” color) I tend to avoid it as they’re often romance novels, but when I see black or red my interest is suddenly piqued since they’re powerful colors and are more likely to be suspense novels. It’s rather essential that I make snap judgments to find the books that I’m more apt be interested in (otherwise I’d be at the library forever).