# Book Covers That Made You Buy



## Vince W (Feb 1, 2021)

We all know we aren't supposed to judge books by their covers, but what book covers have grabbed you that made you purchase a book? A few years ago it was this cover of 1984 for me.





How could I pass this up?


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## .matthew. (Feb 1, 2021)

There's been a few including some I've suggested people read before but I'll avoid the repetition and give you...


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## Extollager (Feb 1, 2021)

Good idea for a thread, Vince!  Do you want to exclude books that we already had read, but of which we bought another copy for the sake of the art?  If not, I could include the Allen & Unwin single-volume paperback of *The Lord of the Rings*.


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## Stephen Palmer (Feb 1, 2021)

This.


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## Vince W (Feb 1, 2021)

Extollager said:


> Good idea for a thread, Vince!  Do you want to exclude books that we already had read, but of which we bought another copy for the sake of the art?  If not, I could include the Allen & Unwin single-volume paperback of *The Lord of the Rings*.
> View attachment 75391


I don't think it matters if you read before or ever. Or even if you liked it. If the cover grabbed you and you bought it, show it.


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## Extollager (Feb 1, 2021)

The original cover for Richard Rodriguez's _Hunger of Memory_ drew my attention when it was new, around 1981.  It was about growing up bilingual.  That was hardly the sort of thing I'd typically have paid attention to.  But I bought the book & liked it quite a lot.


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## Extollager (Feb 1, 2021)

I'd been a fan of Jim Steranko's art for Nick Fury and Captain America in Marvel comics.  In the early 1970s, he turned out paperback cover art.  Here's a specimen.  I certainly bought the book for the cover.  I never read it.


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## Extollager (Feb 1, 2021)

The cover art, the title, and the reference to Tolkien helped to sell me on this book by an author hitherto unknown to me -- circa 1969.


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## Extollager (Feb 1, 2021)

The design of the original Penguin Travel Library releases intrigued me and helped to make me a collector of the series.

(1) Penguin Travel Library and other literary travel books | Science Fiction & Fantasy forums (sffchronicles.com) 

I could have bought a copy of the first edition (hardcover) for less, but bought Barbara Greene's *Too Late to Turn Back* in the PTL.





My reading of Patrick Leigh Fermor was prompted by the PTL release:


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## Extollager (Feb 1, 2021)

I bought an Arkham House book by Algernon Blackwood largely because the cover so pleased me.


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## Extollager (Feb 1, 2021)

At age 14, I began my reading of ERB, as I recall, with *A Fighting Man of Mars*:


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## Extollager (Feb 1, 2021)

That's Edward Gorey's art on that Anchor paperback.  I'm not a Gorey fanatic, but I do like that one all right.


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## Extollager (Feb 1, 2021)

Another Gorey paperback cover.


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## Extollager (Feb 1, 2021)

The Tolkienian resonance of this Barbara Remington design drew me.


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## Robert Zwilling (Feb 1, 2021)

I never bought a book because of the cover.


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## Rodders (Feb 2, 2021)

I used to be a member of a SF book club in the nineties, so books such as Iain M. Banks's "Use of Weapons", (my first Banks) was probably bought based on the cover art. Revelation Space, too. 

Certain artists invoke an SF feeling and i think that Chris Foss's work is indelibly linked to SF. I'd buy books with his artwork on them. (Fortunately for me, a lot of Edmund Cooper's has a decent Foss cover.)


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## G.T. (Feb 2, 2021)

I bought this as soon as I saw the cover. Still love it.





Also, the various editions that had this format always appealed to me. Unfortunately, I don't think my favourite, Legend, was released with the same design.


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## Vince W (Feb 2, 2021)

Rodders said:


> I used to be a member of a SF book club in the nineties, so books such as Iain M. Banks's "Use of Weapons", (my first Banks) was probably bought based on the cover art. Revelation Space, too.
> 
> Certain artists invoke an SF feeling and i think that Chris Foss's work is indelibly linked to SF. I'd buy books with his artwork on them. (Fortunately for me, a lot of Edmund Cooper's has a decent Foss cover.)


I'm a big fan of Foss' work. John Berkey's cover's were great as well.


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## TWErvin2 (Feb 2, 2021)

Just caught my attention...mainly the tough guy in the tattered pink bathrobe...


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## alexvss (Feb 2, 2021)

TWErvin2 said:


> Just caught my attention...mainly the tough guy in the tattered pink bathrobe...
> View attachment 75435


That's... something else  It looks more like an Image Comics cover than a book cover (I googled and saw that it's independent so... figures.).

The Brazilian edition of William Gibson's The Peripheral:




FYI: the North-American one SUCKS.


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## Vince W (Feb 2, 2021)

alexvss said:


> That's... something else  It looks more like an Image Comics cover than a book cover (I googled and saw that it's independent so... figures.).
> 
> The Brazilian edition of William Gibson's The Peripheral:
> View attachment 75436
> ...


I like that one much better than mine.


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## CupofJoe (Feb 2, 2021)

The cover of David Gemmel's Legend when I saw it.




That said I was disappoint that it wasn't Druss on the cover.
This is a much better cover and how I imagined Druss as I read the tale.


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## Rodders (Feb 2, 2021)

I often wonder what happens to the original art that publishers commission? Are they destroyed? Most of it is digital now, but there must be thousands of older paintings in archive somewhere.


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## dask (Feb 3, 2021)




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## dask (Feb 3, 2021)




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## dask (Feb 3, 2021)




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## dask (Feb 3, 2021)




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## Rodders (Feb 3, 2021)

Some great covers there, Dask. 

I bought the entire Dune series on the basis of their covers all being from the same, huge image. Only read one. 

Conversely, they say don't judge a book by it's cover, but has anyone been really taken aback by how good an unknown, but beautifully wrapped book has been?


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## Stephen Palmer (Feb 3, 2021)

Love the psychedelic scientists cover!


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## Stephen Palmer (Feb 3, 2021)

Rodders said:


> Conversely, they say don't judge a book by it's cover, but has anyone been really taken aback by how good an unknown, but beautifully wrapped book has been?


There was something about the original Macmillan _Perdido Street Station_ cover that really intrigued me.
It was as brilliant as the cover suggested.


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## Toby Frost (Feb 3, 2021)

I don't think I've bought a novel on the basis of its cover, but I used to love the Chris Foss pictures on the Asimov books. Tolkien's pictures inside The Hobbit have always fascinated me. They've got a slightly surreal quality that reminds me of very old computer games.


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## Guttersnipe (Feb 4, 2021)

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgur...VHM0KHf69AbwQ9QEwCXoECAoQCA#spf=1612445179512[/URL]


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## Victoria Silverwolf (Feb 5, 2021)

I was intrigued by the beautiful cover art for this novel.  It was well worth reading, too, a combination of ghost story, historical fiction, and near future science fiction, about music.


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## Rodders (Feb 5, 2021)

I follow Joachim Boaz's blog on Wordpress and he always posts some wonderful covers. I have often wondered whether there is a SF book cover database as there is so much great art to discover. Many books get new covers when reissued.


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## Vince W (Feb 5, 2021)

Rodders said:


> I follow Joachim Boaz's blog on Wordpress and he always posts some wonderful covers. I have often wondered whether there is a SF book cover database as there is so much great art to discover. Many books get new covers when reissued.


And many of those reissued covers are terrible.


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## Robert Zwilling (Feb 5, 2021)

And many of those reissued covers are terrible. 

Most of the reprints for P.K. Dick paperbacks, other authors, and various mysteries, that I have purchased online in the last 5 years, only have the printed title on the cover.


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## AlexH (Feb 7, 2021)

Most recently from one of our own forum members - I found this cover very intriguing:





Though when I first saw it, I think I thought the figure was walking towards the shadow.


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## K. Riehl (Feb 21, 2021)

I went on to read and collect everything Wagner wrote. Even the limited hardcover editions.


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