Another factor could be price. If I need something to read this badly, I'll most likely look if one or the other of those I call my "time-killers" (essentially crime fiction) has got a new title in PB. Or again I will go with something in a collection (pretty much all the scandinavian crime fiction translation in French is safe enough to kill an afternoon, for instance).
Scandinavian crime fiction? Really?
As far as I'm concerned, the only thing worse than being without a book is being forced to read a bad book. I think I'd prefer to twindle my thumbs doing nothing a whole afternoon than reading crap.
Ah, but the good bit about reading crap is that you can then bitch and moan about this horribly bad book you came across, which had promised so much with its wonderful title/cover. Makes for conversation topics And reviews that write themselves.
The only thing title and cover art do for me is occasionally attract my attention on a book. When I wander in bookstores, which I do a lot, I will often pick up something with a really nice cover/layout (especially when it's American books, since those with decent to excellent cover art are the exception rather than the norm), or intriguing cover art. It's the same for intriguing titles (it's the title than attracted me first to "The Unbearable Lightness of Being", "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues" or "Do Androids dream of Electric Sheep?" or even "Otherland", while it's the cover that made me read the blurb of Stephenson's Cryptonomicon) . Then I'll either read the blurb or even a few pages. Most of the time I just make a note of the title and find more info about the book at home, or I look online at the bookstore. I can't really think of any book I picked at the library or bookstore just on cover art or title.
What is far more common for me is to overlook (or hesitate over a big deal) books I don't know about because of the moronic/cliché title or the really bad cover art. I've delayed for about ten years reading any post-Tolkien American fantasy because of their awful covers. I took raving personal recommendations for me to eventually buy TEOTW by Jordan for instance (which the first time I read it I thought was as bad as its cover was ugly, as a matter of fact).
Only the first time?
And yes, the WoT cover art really is spectacularly bad. It is a wonder anyone actually read the books.
*MySmiley*
structured procrastinator
structured procrastinator
Titles or covers?
18/06/2010 02:15:56 PM
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Nope
18/06/2010 03:29:54 PM
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Title if I had to choose, but unlikely I'd get an unheard-of book without a blurb. *NM*
18/06/2010 04:17:23 PM
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Why don't you people want to play?
18/06/2010 04:19:21 PM
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Okay, so the Martians come down and make you pick between McDonald's and Burger King.
18/06/2010 04:53:26 PM
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That is not a fair comparison
18/06/2010 04:54:33 PM
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Yes it is. And you didn't answer my question. Why won't you just play the game?
18/06/2010 10:57:24 PM
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18/06/2010 11:00:41 PM
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Stop spelling it wrong!
18/06/2010 11:15:29 PM
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really you just never pick up a book ans say "what the hell I will read this one"
18/06/2010 05:49:05 PM
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Very rarely, and only in the library if that.
18/06/2010 05:54:48 PM
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Maybe the scenario is hard to imagine but I have picked up some treasures by title alone.
18/06/2010 11:16:17 PM
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Re: Maybe the scenario is hard to imagine but I have picked up some treasures by title alone.
18/06/2010 11:17:52 PM
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No they don't. I have lost on several gambles. But I have had enough success that I keep trying.
18/06/2010 11:24:09 PM
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The Aardvark is Ready for War.
18/06/2010 11:25:59 PM
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Huh. I suppose, since I have to choose, I'd go for cover. At least it would look pretty.
18/06/2010 05:56:43 PM
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I was noticing when I went to the public book sale that I am a title person.
18/06/2010 07:56:13 PM
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Hmm, that's a toughy. It's really a toss of the dice; could go either way. I'd go with cover...
18/06/2010 08:08:00 PM
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Neither would be the determinant factor for me...
18/06/2010 08:20:37 PM
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Now that's a reply
18/06/2010 08:27:34 PM
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Re: Now that's a reply
18/06/2010 09:06:10 PM
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Re: Now that's a reply
18/06/2010 09:12:19 PM
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Why? *NM*
21/06/2010 05:19:20 PM
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Because
21/06/2010 05:20:26 PM
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Author of a vastly
21/06/2010 07:27:35 PM
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Covers are there to stop you from buying books, if they are ugly.
19/06/2010 05:34:22 AM
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Cover, I suppose. That's what grabbed me for Hyperion and Otherland. *NM*
19/06/2010 08:50:38 PM
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What about opening sentence or paragraph? Why isn't that an option? *NM*
20/06/2010 01:50:59 PM
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