Judging a Book

"Don't judge a book by it's cover."

How many times have you heard that saying? For me, it's one time too many.

I was at W.H. Smith, one of two English bookstores in Paris, today. I probably spent about two hours there, because I am one of those people who haunts the store until I'm sure I've seen every book. I like to know my options and am especially fond of finding a good book I haven't heard of yet. 

Since we moved back to Paris a month ago, I have hardly stopped reading. I just bought the last book in the Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins today; I'm currently reading Brisingr, the third book in the Inheritance Cycle series by Christopher Paolini; and have read more than a few novels. It's like a feeding frenzy of books. I'm just devouring them systematically and loving every second of it.

Anyway, the point of this post is the fact that this phrase popped into my head while I was perusing the merchandise in the bookstore. I realized that I almost always judge books by their cover. In fact, it's pretty rare that I don't. Let's face it, though. How many books have you picked up recently with crappy covers and fantastic stories? Probably not too many.

I don't do this intentionally. An interesting cover tells me a lot about the story inside of it. If the cover is captivating, I at least have to pick it up and read the back. If the cover is boring or creepy, it's highly unlikely that I'll even bother with it. That is, unless I've heard a few great reviews. 

(Example: Looking for Alaska by John Green was a good book. It wasn't fantastic, but I liked it. The cover is extremely cheesy, though. I wouldn't have even bothered to read the back if I hadn't heard so many good reviews for it. Then again, I almost didn't read it because the back didn't convince me any more than the cover did. . .)

Moral of the story?: JUDGE EVERY BOOK BY IT'S COVER, KIDS.

Just kidding! Sometimes it's okay to judge a book by it's cover. The cover says a lot about what's inside of it. It's the same way with people. You can find out a lot about a person by the way they look and the clothes they wear. But don't be deceived! That's not all there is to the story and sometimes covers can be deceptive. Sometimes it's worth the plunge to find out maybe the cover wasn't so representative of the story after all. 

Basically, there is no moral to the story. This is just the rambling thoughts of a nineteen year old girl who's a little too introspective and reads way more than is probably healthy.