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This week’s musing asks…
I read an article, this past week, about book covers, and the difference between print & digital covers; about how the digital covers have almost disappeared entirely, while publishers decide to just skip right to the content.
What do you think about this? Do you think the book cover is “dead”? Do you care whether the “covers” on digital books exist or not?
If you have the time, read the article and then share your thoughts!
My answer...
This is a hard one - I love, love, love book covers. Since I'm primarily an e-reader now, I don't see the covers that often. I do miss that, but OTOH, I love my e-readers for various reasons. I do wish they were able to give us covers for all ebooks - for those who don't have an e-reader - sometimes you just get a square gray box with the title on it. Other times you get the regular cover (or a revised one). I wish they'd do away with the gray box and just have covers. They are postage size covers when you are looking at the shelves of your library, but when you open the book it's a full size cover (under the 7 inches that a screen is).
I do love seeing the shelves and having all the covers right there.
OTOH, it's kind of nice when reading romances and using an ereader nobody can see what you're reading. Some of those romance covers are pretty awful for both print and digital. LOL
Back to the original question, are book covers "dead"? I don't think so. Just like I don't think print books are dead. I, as well as many others, might have gone over to the digital world but not everyone has. I love that there are choices for all people out there whether it's print books or ebooks or even mystery or science fiction. With everyone having different likes and dislikes, I don't think print books will go away which means the cover isn't "dead".
As for my preference about covers - I prefer the digital books with covers. It certainly won't stop me from reading a book, though. If it sounds like a good story, I'll read it. Doesn't really matter about the cover as far as that goes. I felt the same way with print books, too.
Still, a pretty cover is nice to see (some of the cozies I read have the best covers).
So, what do you think about book covers? "Dead" or very much "Alive"?