Saturday, September 25, 2010

What's in a cover?

Hi folks, did anyone miss me when I was gone? In case you weren't aware of it, and you probably were not, I have been in England for the last 12 days visiting my parents. I had a lot of fun, but as always, as much fun as it is to be away, it's nice to be home.

One of the things I did while I was away was visit a few book shops for a look around. I couldn't buy any books though, as the luggage allowance on my flight was really small, and as we are all aware, books are really heavy. It was very interesting to see what was on the YA shelves, although it was a bit of a challenge, because when I asked where the YA books were, all I got was blank looks - 'oh, do you mean 'older teens'?', was the response I usually got. Most of the books that I saw were the same as we see in Canada, but in general the area devoted to YA was much, much smaller than what we see here. But the big difference is the covers and two sets in particular come to mind. Now, I don't know about you, but I absolutely love the covers for the 'Hunger Games' trilogy over here, but tell me, what do you think of these?




They are a bit blah aren't they? They don't have nearly the same impact as our North American covers. I know Christinabean and I have talked before about covers, but sometimes the differences really surprise me. Does anyone know why they change the covers when they change countries?

Now, what do you think about these covers for Michael Grant's 'Gone' series?






When you see them they just burst off the shelf and the edges of the books are coloured to match the print on the cover, which is almost neon. Aren't they just amazing. (Although I have just realized that they don't look as effective on the screen as they do when you actually see them.) It was really difficult for me not to buy these, but it would have cost me at least another $20 for excess baggage if I had, and they were already more expensive than here. I wonder how much it would cost to have them shipped from Amazon UK?
I'd love to hear what you think about the covers. Which ones would you buy if you had the choice?

2 comments:

  1. Hi this is Ivy!

    I'd probably pick the Gone, Hunger, and Lies series. Because you're right, covers matter, people don't always think they're doing it, but the majority of the time they judge a book by its cover, they look for things that jump at them, and I too, think the Gone series does that!

    And shipping from UK wise...roughly speaking...about 5 pounds plus shipping and handling is about 20 bucks.

    Hope this helped!

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  2. Thanks Ivy, I think I'm just going to have to put them on my wishlist at Bookmooch - I think they'll be worth the wait. Have you read them? They were so good.

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