(Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme brought to you by The Broke and the Bookish. Want to make your own list? Clicking the image will take you to this week’s post. Happy listing!)
I don’t think I’ve ever actually bought a book based solely on the cover art; I have much too little money and am way too picky a reader to buy indiscriminately. So technically this is a list of Books Whose Covers Were So Enticing that I Had to Pick Them Up.
1. Firelight (Sophie Jordan) – Very pretty cover, and an interesting premise. Too bad the story didn’t live up to the visuals.
2. Graveminder (Melissa Marr) – A ramshackle whiteboard building that reminds me vaguely of my grandparents’ church, plus a title like Graveminder? Who could not pick this up?
3. The Masqueraders (Georgette Heyer) – I’m a sucker for Regency novels. And this book surpassed what it promised.
4. Virginity Lost (Laura M. Carpenter) – I love reading about human sexuality and sexual behavior. The title and imagery made me look twice, and the summary made me buy it. Fascinating reading!
5. Mother Daughter Sister Bride (Joanne B. Eicher, Lisa Ling) – The cover first caught my eye because I’d just finished reading Memoirs of a Geisha. Some really beautiful photography, plus descriptions of womanhood and what it means to be a woman in different cultures.
6. Full Frontal Feminism (Jessica Valenti) – I love plays-on-words, and this definitely fits the category. Plus it’s about feminism, another topic about which I love to read.
7. Stiff (Mary Roach) – I saw this book at a Barnes and Noble soon after it was published, and showed it to my dad partly as a joke; seriously, who puts the title of their book on a toe tag? But then I skimmed the back, and was weirdly hooked. Little did I know that soon I would discover my bordering-on-obsessive love for Mary Roach’s books.
8. The World of the Dark Crystal (Brian Froud) – “The Dark Crystal” is a cult classic film (mainly for people my age and a little older) made by Jim Henson. He created an amazing world, and the puppets to go with it. This book is a behind-the-scenes look at everything about the world, including sketches of the characters, snippets of their languages, myths, and art, and all sorts of amazing stuff.
9. Lies My Teacher Told Me (James W. Loewen) – Imagine browsing through the history section of the bookstore and running across this title. Definitely worth reading!
10. The Eyre Affair (Jasper Fforde) – I had to do a double-take because of the wordplay, and once I read the jacket, I was hooked.
11. Twilight (Stephanie Meyer) – I know, absolutely ridiculous. But I saw this book at the store and was intrigued enough to read it. I loved it, and when I saw a signed copy at the Chicago Book Fair, I was terrified that it would cost a fortune (obviously any book I love that much would be loved by everyone, right?). But it was only $20. I like to think that I was on the Twilight bandwagon before anyone else thought she was cool. I’m such a hipster. 🙂
What books made it impossible for you to just walk on by?
I agree. Graveminder looks too intriguing and mysterious to pass up.
Southern Gothic is a pretty cool sub-genre. I’ve been really enjoying it lately.
Maybe I’m just morbid but though I haven’t read Stiff, I always thought the cover was awesome!
I think that cover is intriguing, no matter whether or not you’re morbid. The topic itself is at times a bit morbid (and always mind-boggling and ridiculous), but Roach is such a great writer. I would read a book about toothpaste if she wrote it.