Favourite book covers

[Nekodatta]

I know, I know, they say "don't judge a book by its cover", but I still like to do it sometimes because some book covers are works of art of their own, and they are so pretty. (When they simply aren't slapping whatever live action adaption picture of the main cast on it to make it recognizable)
Some cover are minimalistic simply emphasizing the title, some are striking, some are busy and colourful to get your attention.... some book covers have little references to what happens in the book, some straight up spoiler major plot points in more or less direct ways.
What are some of your favourites? Or most iconic that stuck with you? Why?
I'm starting to read japanese books in my language learning journey and I have to stop myself from wishlisting everything I come across because damn so many covers are straight up gorgeous and I would simply love to display them on my bookshelf physically or read what it's about. I find it interesting how many of them use an anime style, even if they are not all based on anime/manga/light novels but classified as actual novels.
The only way I can describe them is "breathy".

The following one is called "The story of a cat trying to protect books" and I just love the cover:

With a book that looks like that, with that title, how do you *not* want to know what's up with it??
I'll try to think of some other favourite books of mine.

 

[Goolix]

This is such a great idea! I feel like there's a lot of great graphic design going on in book covers.

I've always liked this one a lot; the hook/eighth note double image works great as a visual image for a catchy "hook."

This one is also really clever and cute. I like the way the umbrella shields the text from rain.

These are, by the by, both great books on their subject matter!

The following one is called "The story of a cat trying to protect books" and I just love the cover:

Aaaah so cool! It really makes you wanna know what the book is about!

 

[zion of arcadia]

The Dinosaur Knights by Victor Milán

The dubious honor of the coolest cover for the worst book I've ever read. Seriously, don't read it. Anything you can imagine from the cover will be better than the book.


A Winter's Promise by Christelle Dabos

Fun, inventive YA fantasy. Would recommend.


Sweetdark by Savannah Brown

Poetry collection. One of my favorite abstract covers.


Record of a Night Too Brief by Hiromi Kawakami

Weird, trippy cover for a weird, trippy book. I like it.


One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

One of my favorite books I read in high school. Still holds up.


The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights by John Steinbeck

I'm a sucker for a nice pastiche of illustrated manuscripts.


Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake

Peake was a brilliant writer and brilliant illustrator. A fantastical gothic tale.


Kingdoms of Elfin by Sylvia Townsend Warner

(Sorry, struggled to find a good picture of the cover. Not sure I did it justice.) A very cool cover for a very cool, underrated book. Sylvia Townsend Warner rules and more people should read her stuff.


The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury

Such an evocative title and cover for some really solid short stories.

I could probably post more. Maybe later if people are interested.

 

[love]

Gotta pay respects to the classics

I don't remember the covers of a lot of the books I have read, since usually I am reading digitally. We'll see if I remember something later.

 

[Nekodatta]

The fact that a book with Dinosaur Knights sucks makes me sad... But also kinda want to check it out.
Just took these pictures, I'm a big fan of the original german covers of the Inkheart trilogy. Really unique and striking designs, with references in the little scenes depicted on the cover that you won't get until you reach that specific scene in the book.
(I should reread them, I read them once as a teen but it would be interesting to revisit them...)

 

[Goolix]

A Winter's Promise by Christelle Dabos

Fun, inventive YA fantasy. Would recommend.

I read a few books from this series recently (in my search for INTP protagonists ) and it was indeed fun inventive YA fantasy! The covers are so whimsical, too.

Just took these pictures, I'm a big fan of the original german covers of the Inkheart trilogy. Really unique and striking designs, with references in the little scenes depicted on the cover that you won't get until you reach that specific scene in the book.
(I should reread them, I read them once as a teen but it would be interesting to revisit them...)

Cornelia Funke!! "Dragon Rider" was my jam when I was in elementary and utterly obsessed with dragons. I think I read the first Inkheart book but I never finished the series. Might be fun to revisit them~

 

[IFBench]

Attack of the Smart Pies, one of my favorite books from when I was a young kid.

 

[NebulaDreams]

This made me buy the short story collection and it was well worth it, even if it traumatised me afterwards.

A book I've yet to read but has caught my eye for a while; the integration of typography and illustration is perfect.

Perfectly encapsulates the cosy vibes and the quietly profound themes of the book and looks really distinctive compared to a lot of sci-fi covers that are just 'bleh' to me.

 

[tomatorade]

Me likey. Jumped out to me immediately when browsing. The book itself also has a lot of Innes' pen drawings of around Toronto which is very cool, it's a little artbook as well as a novel.

Also shoutout to Shel Silverstein, this one always stuck out to me.

 

[windskull]

The following one is called "The story of a cat trying to protect books" and I just love the cover:

I have the English translation of this book! I like this cover better but the English one is also pretty good.

I'd have to look for some more covers but for right now I want to give a shout out to the polish warrior cats covers. Here's a couple

 

[Nekodatta]

I'd have to look for some more covers but for right now I want to give a shout out to the polish warrior cats covers. Here's a couple

Auuugh omg I'm in love with this one, so stylish.
Speaking of artstyles I absolutely love, the covers done by Vofan of the Monogatari series are amazing.
No nonsense cover, just the title, part and author. They were some of the very first light novels I've read (there's nothing "light" about them, they use kinda verbose and complicated language and are really long, honestly I've got no idea what makes people decide it's a light novel or not lol), and they kinda set the standard really high lol

 

[CuteBunnyGirl]

Am I allowed to post covers of books i haven't actually read?

 

[Nekodatta]

Am I allowed to post covers of books i haven't actually read?

Sure, I also haven't yet read the second book I posted

 

[K_S]

Some old favorites...





I'm a fan of the stark setting heavy stuff that c.s. friedmans artist uses. Theres also a lot of symbolism in said setting once you read it.

As for Sir. Terry Pratchet's ' Maurice, ' the starkness with the nods to the Language of Rats peppered in gives it some nice layering to the dramatic scene with SPIDER.

 

[Mirage]

Ooooooh what a cool thread idea

One of my all time favorite book covers is from Savvy, a book I read a lot as a kid. The cover alone sold me on it at the book fair haha. I'll link a pic below:

I'll be back with some more later

 

[Goolix]

I haven't read this book yet but I really like the cover!