Thursday, March 27, 2008

Booking through Thursday - Cover-up


While acknowledging that we can’t judge books by their covers, how much does the design of a book affect your reading enjoyment? Hardcover vs. softcover? Trade paperback vs. mass market paperback? Font? Illustrations? Etc.?
I think it really depends on the type of book. Overall, I don't like it when they font is tiny tiny. Some mass market paperbacks do that. I don't know what the standard font size is, but that's fine with me. I don't usually notice the difference in fonts themselves, so the font type doesn't bother me either. Although, I admit that when some books give views from different people and break those up into chapters, they also change the font. I do love that.
The size of the book doesn't usually have an affect on my either. Trade paper is my favorite, but I don't have problems reading hardback or mass market paperback.
As for Illustrations - depends on if it is relevant to the story. I love illustrations in children's books and some young adult books. Some adult books work great with illustrations but others aren't needed.

2 comments:

Literary Feline said...

I hadn't thought about the shift in font style in a book, but I agree with you that it works quite well in helping separate out the different viewpoints reflected.

Dane Bramage said...

An interesting truth about books and covers. Yet we can't read an entire book before we decide we want to read it can we? Cover design is an important factor I think in choosing a book. Font styles are part of that overall design.

Still I think covers on fiction play a bigger role than covers on non-fiction. Unless the author is a hottie like Ann Coulter.