I've been reading a mad number of romances by a Kristan Higgins. I'm not usually one for romances (for purely romance's sake) but these are actually pretty good. Whenever I've picked up one of my mom's before I'd always hit one spot where I'd have to role my eyes and tell the main girl to get a life. So far, that's only happened twice (one was for half the book, so mainly I just skipped over the parts where a 30 year old woman was acting like a 14 year old girl--once that part was ignored, the rest of the book wasn't half bad). Anyway, that's not really the point of this post.
I HATE it when the cover of a book isn't proper to the story. I mean, come on--don't the artists read the books? Or maybe even meet with the author to know what to do for the cover?!? For instance, the book I'm reading now has a girl sitting on the guys lap while in a rocking chair with a dog at their feet. Fine. The chair has a big part of this book. The problem? A: the chair isn't described as painted white in the book. In fact, it's described as "honey-colored tiger maple"--very distinctive. And B: the dog is supposed to be a husky mutt--a gray and white husky mutt, not the red irish setter or whatever they stuck on the cover. Really?!?
Now, I don't always complain about inaccurate book covers. For example, the Dresden Files. I mean, the guy very rarely wears a hat, and when he does, it's a baseball cap. But, oftentimes on the cover of a book (actually, I want to say that the first time we see Dresden himself on the cover is like 7 books into the series) he's wearing what I guess is called a fedora. I think it works perfectly. I guess it's because when you read the first few books Dresden doesn't come across as that...I don't know...dark, or ruggedly handsome, or whatever. I always picture him as a nerdy looking guy--tall, skinny, funny looking face. The hat helps enforce the idea that he's not supposed to be that bad to look at. I think the hat works to give a visualization of the man who Dresden really is--without it he might look a lot more average...does that even make sense? Either way, the hat does a lot for the character, even if it's entirely fiction to the book-verse. I mean, I saw a fan picture of Dresden and Sue and he's not wearing the hat--he'd look a lot more bad-ass with the hat, and given the nature of the picture, that's saying something.
Edit: whoops...my bad. However, my dog skills are pretty good. That is an irish setter on the cover and she belongs to the guy. But then, where's her dog?!? And the rocking chair is still the wrong color.
I HATE it when the cover of a book isn't proper to the story. I mean, come on--don't the artists read the books? Or maybe even meet with the author to know what to do for the cover?!? For instance, the book I'm reading now has a girl sitting on the guys lap while in a rocking chair with a dog at their feet. Fine. The chair has a big part of this book. The problem? A: the chair isn't described as painted white in the book. In fact, it's described as "honey-colored tiger maple"--very distinctive. And B: the dog is supposed to be a husky mutt--a gray and white husky mutt, not the red irish setter or whatever they stuck on the cover. Really?!?
Now, I don't always complain about inaccurate book covers. For example, the Dresden Files. I mean, the guy very rarely wears a hat, and when he does, it's a baseball cap. But, oftentimes on the cover of a book (actually, I want to say that the first time we see Dresden himself on the cover is like 7 books into the series) he's wearing what I guess is called a fedora. I think it works perfectly. I guess it's because when you read the first few books Dresden doesn't come across as that...I don't know...dark, or ruggedly handsome, or whatever. I always picture him as a nerdy looking guy--tall, skinny, funny looking face. The hat helps enforce the idea that he's not supposed to be that bad to look at. I think the hat works to give a visualization of the man who Dresden really is--without it he might look a lot more average...does that even make sense? Either way, the hat does a lot for the character, even if it's entirely fiction to the book-verse. I mean, I saw a fan picture of Dresden and Sue and he's not wearing the hat--he'd look a lot more bad-ass with the hat, and given the nature of the picture, that's saying something.
Edit: whoops...my bad. However, my dog skills are pretty good. That is an irish setter on the cover and she belongs to the guy. But then, where's her dog?!? And the rocking chair is still the wrong color.
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