Chaos Reading discussion

One of the things I love the most about paper books are awesome covers. I love the really bad ones best of all.

Share your awesomely good or bad book covers here!

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The Fetch
Here's one of the very worst book covers I've ever seen. Ever. I love that I own this.



Not only is this red rubber guy vomiting himself into creation, but he appears to have surprised even his own nipples. It's the red-headed child I feel really sorry for though. As if he doesn't have enough to worry about, going to school in those red braces.

The site goodshowsir.com features bad scifi/fantasy book covers. Check out some of the comments on The Fetch, they're hilarious: http://www.goodshowsir.co.uk/2011/09/...
My favourite: "My liquorice is fabulous!"

That is truly disturbing. Do you plan to read it?

Probably not. I bought it at a charity book sale purely for the cover. Given the number of unread books on my shelves, I doubt I'll ever get desperate enough to read it.

Have you read any of Robert Holdstock's books? I have heard they're excellent - despite the covers!

No. Had to look him up, but since several friends gave Mythago Wood 5 stars, I added it.

Oh, well spotted. Lots of people I follow rated it well too.

That truly a disturbing cover. But I do Love It!

The Changeover: A Supernatural Romance by Margaret Mahy has some pretty cheesy covers that hide how awesome the book is. My cover is the first one listed. Very '80s.
and

The Pearl of the Soul of the World (Darkangel Trilogy #3)
by Meredith Ann Pierce has one of the most beautiful covers.


Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier is breathtaking. I found a puzzle of it at target.

Lauren - I love the 80s cover for The Changeover! I have a shelf full of similar style 80s covers..... I may never read the books, but I love those covers. :)

My favourite good covers at the moment are the ones for China Mieville's books. What you don't get from the pictures is the texture - they're almost rubbery, with tiny little breaks in the surface, showing the reflective silver underneath. I almost didn't want to read the books and wrinkle the brightly coloured spines!

I like the cover of milan kundera's the unbearable lughtness of being. It is simple and hand drawn.

When I was growing up though I used to find the covers of any R L Stine book pretty nice. Thankfully that choice has changed.

I love the RL Stine covers! I just wish they hadn't been slightly after my time. They came out when I was in high school, and it just wasn't cool at that age. I bought a Goosebumps folder, but was too scared to take it to school.

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How about some OOPS! bookcovers?

Look closely at where the 'M' is pointing in this one:

http://boingboing.net/2012/05/21/cree...

Just checked...it appears to have been published 8 years before the shootings. Just a weird coincidence, I guess.

OOPS! Is right! I bet they pulled the unsold ones off the shelves.

The there's the "Accidentally Highly Appropriately Titled" cover:

No GR link, but I posted the synopsis on the Apocalypse Whenever group a while back:

THE FRINGE (undated, but definitely 60s - Bill Ewington Books, Sydney, Australia)
The fantastic world of the future devastates mankind and leaves the dreaded Fringe that offers only starvation, madness and death. Demehr is a desert filled with fear of the secret police known as the Cosidi. Capture for him means slow hideous torture and death. For Demehr there is no escape from the Fringe.... except death.

There is no escape from The Fringe except death. I'm thinking..... she has teeth?

What makes a good book cover? I find when i browse the shelves, I pick up certain books by cover. Can't put my finger on why.

*boom boom tish*

Moving right along, I just came across this on my shelf. I'm guessing it's not a gentle coming-of-age romance..



http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12...

I really thought that eye was something else for a second.

I really hope we're thinking the same thing. This feels like some kind of Rorschach Test.

It's hard to know what the most disturbing element of this one is...


..the poorly executed mask, the model's teeth, the fact the author is endorsed by Glenn Beck or the fact that this book has just been optioned for film.

Ruby wrote: "*boom boom tish*

Moving right along, I just came across this on my shelf. I'm guessing it's not a gentle coming-of-age romance..
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12..."

Ah, the horror! Despite this dreadful cover, "Tiger, Tiger", aka "The Stars My Destination" is, in the opinion of many (including myself), one of the best science fiction novels ever. The cover has absolutely nothing at all to do with the book.

And I second that Robert Holdstock's "Mythago Wood" is very good. Maybe not as good as that cover, but still good. I think The Fetch may be making an appearance in my nightmares.

I just got this cool link to a bunch of book covers. What do you all think?

http://www.shortlist.com/entertainmen...

They're great! I have a few of them too. In fact there are a couple there that I paid more for because I wanted a particular cover :)

I think my favourite is this one:

Roll on payday. I NEED to buy a copy of this.....

It took me a really long time to realize that was a turtle.

Riona wrote: "It took me a really long time to realize that was a turtle."

... thank you, if not for your comment I'd srill be wondering!

Riona wrote: "It took me a really long time to realize that was a turtle."

Hehehe. Too many comments.....brain exploding....

It's really a bit phallic.

A lot phallic!

I enjoy this cover not because of the man and the yellow opening, but because of the lettering which seems to reflect the thoughtfulness(?) included in the book.

I have to say, the Goodreads Choice Awards POETRY category is the best category for cover design. Some very nice covers there!

http://www.goodreads.com/award/choice...