Judging Books By Their Covers

To me, when it comes to book covers, less is more. I think book covers often detract from the book itself, rather than adding to it, or adequately reflecting it. I've been known to throw book jackets away (Divergent, most recently) preferring the simple hard back to the flashy outside. (I often have a similar feeling when it comes to people, but that's another discussion.)  If it were up to me, most book covers would look something like this:

No loud colors, no distracting images of angsty teenagers gazing into the distance, nothing to give you false impressions of what's inside.

It's rare that I like any pictures or images at all on books, but if one must be present, something simple and alluring like this would be awesome:

And something like this would be horrendous. Had this been the cover of my first Huck Funn book, I never would have read it, as I would have immediately assumed that Twain's target audience was 6-year-old boys.

Some book covers are awesome, even with an image. This one I think perfectly captures the mystery, terror, and grotesque intrigue of Dracula:And this one is disturbing and fabulous, just like the book:

And this is another one that I really like. Dominoes are an unexpected, yet somehow perfect fit for both the story of The Book Thief and WWII in general. Plus, it reflects a key scene in the novel. Well done.

Sometimes I think one image doesn't quite do the novel justice, but a slew of images might. Here are a bunch of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone covers from around the world. I'm not sure any single image is perfect, but altogether it kind of works...

So what got me thinking about book covers? Well, to be honest, this did:That, my friends, is the newly released cover to Penguin's Deluxe edition of the classic Wuthering Heights. I am torn. I really like Heathcliffe, but I can't get past the nightmare-before-christmas feeling I get when I look at the whole jacket. The gothic thing is cool, I guess... I'm just not sure it's capturing the novel very well. Maybe they're just trying to attract a new young crowd of readers? What do you think?

This got me wondering about what other covers have been attached to Wuthering Heights. Here are a few a quick Google search found, sorted from worst to best:

Worst. Too Nancy Drew for my taste.

Too Twilight.Too boring.Getting better, but this still feels too boring.Okay, getting better...Me likey...Lovely. Strange and hypnotizing and dangerous and irresistible all at the same time.

So anyway, those are my thoughts this Thursday afternoon. What kind of book covers do you like/dislike? Do you like the cover of your favorite book as much as you like what's inside? Why(not)?

(Here are other covers of the newly released Penguin Deluxe editions of classics. I kind of love the Scarlet Letter one, but am not sure Jane Austen would have liked the new Pride and Prejudice cover...)