Do you judge a book by its cover?

[Namekuseijin]

I don't, don't care and don't want anything to do with book cover lovers.

[BenBanned]

While online not so much, Im more interested in reader reviews.
In a physical enviroment, initial attraction has more to do specifically with the spine. I like to walk up and down shelves till something catches my eye. It doesn't have to be eye-catching, I more or less wait for my book senses to go off.

[BeccaPrice]

I'm really strange about covers. I do buy most of my books online, and a professional cover is important to me. I spend hours on calibre adding graphic covers when my kindle books just come with a text cover. But I rarely look at the covers when I go to read on my kindle, and have my Sony 350 home page set up to just list the books rather than show me the covers. I don't know why I want the "real" covers to show up in calibre, but somehow the book doesn't seem complete without it.

[wyndslash]

same here, becca

[piperclassique]

A cover won't ever persuade me to buy a book. A bad one will probably dissuade me

[alishajordan]

The cover of of the book is usually the first element the reader encounters...it sets the his/her frame of mind based on the images and structure of the composition (sharp, jagged letters pointing into things means it's probably a thriller where curvy and flowing letters means romance). A lot of it is subconscious and has become clichéd over that years (you can spot a bodice-buster at 50 paces, admit it!). Covers are important for setting mood and helping to lead the reader into the right tone of the book...so I think it's good to judge a book by it's cover in those terms.

[Yapyap]

Covers matter to me. A bit less so in the ebook world than in physical books, but I've pretty much discarded the output of entire publishers in the past just because I can't stand the idea of having repulsive (to me) covers (i.e. mostly horrible colour and font combinations, bad cover art) in my home, in my shelves.

In the ebook world, covers are one of the main reasons why I've avoided most things on the Baen ebooks site. They're simply awful to my eyes, even if "professional", and I can't bear to browse the site enough to see if there's anything I might want to read.

So, yeah, unless I know for certain (i.e. have read books by an author before) that it's a book I'll likely enjoy a lot, a bad (either objectively bad or simply unpleasant to me) cover can and does put me off from buying a book. On the other hand, good (attractive, competently done) covers can and do make me take a look at the blurb/description/reviews, but I don't buy a book based on just liking the cover art.

[Spock96]

Originally Posted by BenBanned

While online not so much, Im more interested in reader reviews.

I Agree with that statement to an extent. If it wasn't for a friend from another forum I would have never found Turing Evolved By David Kitson.
Though an Ebook with no cover I looked into it, read it( couldn't put it down actually), and just loved it!

Originally Posted by alishajordan

The cover of of the book is usually the first element the reader encounters...it sets the his/her frame of mind based on the images and structure of the composition (sharp, jagged letters pointing into things means it's probably a thriller where curvy and flowing letters means romance). A lot of it is subconscious and has become clichéd over that years (you can spot a bodice-buster at 50 paces, admit it!). Covers are important for setting mood and helping to lead the reader into the right tone of the book...so I think it's good to judge a book by it's cover in those terms.

Completely and fully agree with this. You're right about the letters are formed correlates to the genre of book ( I never actually thought about that myself).

[zhanzr]

Sometimes I also judge a girl by her appearance and wearing.

[Ravensknight]

I like to see covers [ie, slip cases with pretty pictures] on my hard covers in the bookcases. I also like to be able to flip through my Calibre library and see all the covers.

But on my actual reader, or at, say Amazon or some other site? I don't bother at all.

Weird, huh?

[David Munch]

Yes! I tend to pick my stockpile of "to read" books based on reviews and recommendations, but when it comes down to picking exactly which one to read next in the pile, I almost always go by book cover.. What specific mood I am in at the specific time, is a good indicator for which cover I'll choose..

[armanos]

To be painfully truthful, yes. I like well designed book covers.

[Pax]

I am rather tempted to understand the fuzz about baen. However most of their covers are really ugly, so that this puts me off.

[stop__dreaming]

I voted yes, but it's hard to pinpoint how much.

The cover has to be 'intriguing' for me but then it shouldn't. There are a lot of books that are blank on the front, but it wouldn't put me off reading it.

[vulcan_girl]

Of course, especially if the title and cover are equally hideous. Websites and contests for horrible covers are a pleasure of mine.