Judging Books by Their Covers

I do judge books by their covers. Not in the figurative sense, but in the literal "wow, that book cover is solid brown with vomit-colored letters. It does not deserve a spot on my regal bookshelf back home" sense. I am not ashamed of this perceived superficiality and here's why: if a book were really worth its salt, wouldn't the publishers put some effort into making their books prettier? And even if the book is bad, the publishers would want to make the book appealing so suckers like me would pick it up and give it a shot. Plus, if a book is pretty on the outside, it will probably increase its likelihood that I will stick with it to read it until the end.

Maybe it is the artist in me, but I really do like things to be pretty, which is why I cringe every time textbook season comes. While most books achieve ugliness by being painfully plain, their offenses are not too blatant like my Statistics or my Accounting books. Please do not put a picture of a calculator on the cover and expect me to be giddy like a schoolgirl.

I really think textbook manufacturers should put a little more love into their textbook illustrations and cover design because those graphics set the mood for the whole class. Pretty book = excitement for class and general interest in the subject. Ugly book = I will not even bother paying attention or doing my reading if it means having to look at this thing. This ultimately leads to flunking class, then being having to drop out of high school or college, then for financial reasons, being forced to be the bearded lady at the travelling circus in order to pay the bills. Lesson of the day: make pretty books so people will buy them and also, if you make ugly books, there will be a spike in bearded ladies at the circus. Fun for some, not for all(i.e. the bearded ladies).