Cover Love

Don't judge a book by it's cover, but in the end we all do. Well, I do. Call me shallow, but do you pick up a book when the cover doesn't appeal to you? To be clear I'm talking about picking up books you hadn't heard of before seeing it. Or maybe you make your choice based on something else? Of course, if I heard great things about a book, there's not much that can stop me from reading it, especially not an unappealing cover. I've even gone as far as reading books without liking the synopsis, just because the reviews were that good. 
This post is mostly about covers and a bit about the books behind them.


Beautiful covers, amazing stories

These are just two examples of many. I've read Under the Never Sky recently and I loved it. His Dark Materials I read a while ago, like two years, but I mostly choose this book for it's cover. In The Netherlands this isn't a book every child has read, so I didn't discover it until the movie The Golden Compass came out and I didn't really like it, but when I saw this cover I just couldn't stop thinking about it. So I bought it, read it and now it's one of my all-time favorites. 


Unappealing covers, beautiful stories

Another one of my all-time favorites: The Time Traveler's Wife, what an amazing story. I have cried for hours after finishing this book. It's so beautiful, complex and well written. But I never really liked the cover. The same with Finding Sky. The story is good, but that cover is just a bit weird. But luckily that didn't stop me from really loving these books, so hopefully I'm not that shallow after all. 


Beautiful covers, disappointing stories

And there's the other way around. I couldn't wait to read these books, especially Switched. I had only seen the cover and I just wanted to read that book! With The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove I already knew the Fallen series by Lauren Kate, but I loved this cover as well. And the stories were so disappointing. I had high hopes for the latter, and it just wasn't as great as Fallen. But Switched was so bad. When I started reading I liked it, but when I finished the first part it just got worse and worse. Beautiful covers can definitely be misleading!

Let me know in the comments what covers you love/like/dislike!

What's your favorite?

The most frequently asked, but difficult to answer, question about books is: "What's your favorite?"
I never really like this question, because I never have a real answer to it and I don't like to say: "there so many great books, so I can't choose". So my answer changes almost every day. But there are some books/series which I think are spectacular:




His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
There are some books everybody should've read and this is one of them. I haven't met a person yet who could honestly say about this book that they didn't like it. And for me it's impossible to imagine. You have to like this book. First of all, because it can be read by everyone from every age. The story has so many layers, so not everyone will read the same story. And that's what I love most about this book.










The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
This is the book I'm still most impressed by. I can't say exactly why, but it just amazes me. Audrey Niffenegger made a complex work about time traveling. For me, it has all the facets I could want in a book: it makes me cry and laugh. It has romance and suspense. It's my personal favorite, but I don't think everyone will like it.

Stravaganza #1

Stravaganza by Mary Hoffman
Of all the series I'm currently reading this is the best. This is already a beautiful year, because the next book will be published, City of Swords. And I can't wait. Every two years there's a new book and every time the same things happens: I run (almost literary) to the bookstore, buy it, read it, love it and then I have to wait another two years for the next book to come out. The books can be read separately, because in every book there is another principal character. In the Netherlands it's a series that isn't really popular, but it should be!




So, what's your favorite?