Judging a book by its cover

I passed by a Barnes and Noble bookstore today, and I decided to stop in. It’s one of my favorite places, even though I wish they had a standardized system of organizing stuff, so I don’t wind up going through the entire store looking for what I want…

Anyway, since I am writing a fantasy YA novel, I go to the fantasy YA section every time I get to a bookstore to check what’s out there. As I was browsing from side to side, I noticed a few things: I am really shallow about books.

I realized that there are things about a book’s appearance that turn me off in a way that prevents me from even attempting to peek at the book’s description. I noticed the following things that turn me off:

• If the book looks too “girlie,” too much glitter and pink.
• If the book is thicker than 1.5 inches (unless it’s tiny)
• If the book is unusually tall
• If the cover looks too childish
• If the book is too black and shiny and covered with vampire-looking youngsters.

I know… the last one is a bit too specific… but probably the truest.

Of course, this only applies to titles that I don’t know, written by authors I never heard of. If it’s a Stephen King book, I don’t care if the cover has a monkey in a tutu. I am buying it…

My point was that I do judge a book by its covers, and I don’t think that I’ll ever stop. I think it’s a self-defense mechanism that prevents me from buying every book that exists out there, at least in the genres that I prefer.

So, I was curious, does anyone else feel the same? Do you get turned off by a book’s cover and appearance that you don’t even try to see what it is about?

Cheers,

Iulian