Happy Friday, bookish friends! For this week’s bonus content post, I decided to introduce a new series entitled, “Bookish Pet Peeves,” and have opted to start by sharing things that drive me a little nuts about the physical appearance of books. Before we jump into this thing, here’s a little disclaimer: In no way does the appearance of a book dictate the quality of the words inside nor would I not read a book because I don’t like the way it looks. Now that all that business is taken care of, let’s get into it!
1) The Cover Being Just a Zoomed-In Face
As always, there are exceptions to every rule (aka The Shatter Me series covers which are so beautiful!), but for the most part, there’s just something about these kinds of covers that irk me to no end. When I see them, I just think, “okay, cool, a face. But what exactly does ONE ZOOMED-IN FACE tell me about this book???” More times than not, it has absolutely nothing to do with the words inside, so why would that cover have even been an option on the table when they were making printing decisions? This is the question that will forever haunt my dreams.
2) Price Tags/Sale Stickers
Imagine: You’re in a bookstore, browsing around for a new read. You pick up a good lookin’ book, flip it over to read the synopsis, and BOOM — there’s a sticker RIGHT IN THE DAGGUM MIDDLE of it. Or maybe you’re a bookstagrammer and you loved a book you recently read. Naturally, you want to talk about it on your page, but when you go to take a picture of the it, there’s a sticker on the front. If you’re like me, you try to rip it off, but it doesn’t come off in one piece, and now it looks worse than it did before. Ughh… tragic! While I love a good deal, it will be a good day when the sticker method of labeling sale prices on books ceases to exist!
3) Mid-Series Cover Changes
An excellent marketing ploy publishing houses use against all the readers who can’t stand to have mismatched books in the same series? Absolutely, because they know fools like me are going to put all the books in the series with the new covers in my little Amazon cart, even if I already own the books in their original covers! Is this approach annoying as HECK to the consumer? 100 PERCENT, and basically forces me to spend money that I totally don’t have (#brokecollegestudentlife) because I can’t stand mismatched covers. You’re killin’ me here, publishers!
4) Different Book Heights… In the Same Series
*Insert “change my mind” meme here* because there is literally NO REASON this needs to be a thing! Every time I look at my bookshelves, I always notice the height difference in books that are in the same series, and it drives me slightly bonkers, especially when it’s the second book in a trilogy — my OCD just can’t handle it!
5) Film-Adapted Book Covers
I know many of you feel as strongly as I do about this one. It’s not that I don’t enjoy book-to-movie adaptations (sometimes…). It’s just that some things are better left untouched, and, like other booklovers, I think that literature should be remembered for being awesome FIRST, not after a great movie adaptation of it comes out. This being said, there is a small part of me that loves these covers because they encourage non-readers to pick some really great books up, so there is a tiny plus to this pet peeve!
6) Uneven Page Edges
I’ll be the first to admit that often times, books with this feature are STUNNING! But as I’m flipping through reading, these kinds of pages end up sticking together, and occasionally I’ve been spoiled (BOO) because I skipped a page without realizing it until too late. I also don’t really like that this feature makes the books look unfinished and rather distressed. When I pay full price for a physical copy of a book, I want it to look new rather than like my cat got a hold of it (sorry, not sorry not the analogy, friends).
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