The Day A Good Cover Made Me Buy A Bad Book

For most of last year, I was obsessed with buying new books. Not necessarily because I wanted to read them, but because there was usually something I could learn from them. I bought Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb just to see what all the fuss was about. I bought Star Wars: Republic Commando - Hard Contact by Karen Traviss to see why she was one of the most respected names in Star Wars. I even bought Starship Troopers to experience Heinlein for the first time in my life.

But there was one book in particular that I'm still trying to learn from. After several trips to Borders, there was always one book that absolutely stood out from the rest. I never knew why, but I knew that I had to look at it at least one time before I left the store, even if I was leaving with another book. I would just stare at it, wondering why this book had be so captivated.

That book was Across the Face of the World by Russell Kirkpatrick, and, eventually, I did buy it and it sits on my shelf to this day. But not because I liked it. I didn't care for it at all, actually. When I finally got around to actually reading the thing, I didn't really care for the story, the characters, or anything like that. I won't sit here and say it's the worst thing I've ever read, because it's not, but it wasn't something I liked.

But the cover...Jesus Christ, it's probably the best cover I've ever seen. Every time I see it, it instills a sense of wonder in me. I see that bright moon, that lonely landscape, and the riders casually heading off into the horizon...and I'm in awe already. Even as I type this, knowing full well what sub-standard story lies in wait beneath that cover, I still can't help but feel inspired. I just don't know why.

My sister always says that everything has something to teach us. And whenever I started ranting to her about a bad book, she would repeat that, to an author (like my almost-self), even bad books have something to teach me. Well, this book taught me: Yes, sometimes a great cover can sell a book, no matter what it is. R.A. Salvatore talked about this, saying that a good cover is absolutely imperative to a book, contrary to the opinion of his agent that covers don't matter very much. And he is absolutely right.

After I read The Crystal Shard, my idea of what the main characters looked like was forever altered by the cover. That's how Drizzt, Bruenor, and Wulfgar will always look like to me. It's the reason why I decided to buy the old first edition versions instead of the newer, Todd Lockwood-drawn masterpieces. Amazing, though they are, they are not what first made that impression.

This would all happen again with The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch, but that actually seems to be a good book so far. And Collision Course by William Shatner is another book that I bought on account of the cover, and it's still one of my favorite books. So, sometimes I get lucky.

But...yeah, it seems that the cover is very important. To me, at least. They have prompted me to buy good books and bad books alike; but, most importantly, bad books. And that's the magic of some book covers. They can cast a spell over us, even if the words beneath it do nothing of the sort.