AIBU to think that these are the ugliest book covers ever?

Fucking hell, OP - they are nightmare fuel! I was lucky enough to be given Agatha Christies whole collection with the original book covers... panicking now about what the last few are going to look like!

What a book looks like in the end is not important, it's what it conrains that matters. What's wrong with a book looking well-loved? It probably means it's really good!

@Matildatoldsuchdreadfullies
Can you describe the Nineteen-Eighty-Four book cover at all? We might be able to find it. MN is good for that. Incidentally, the book your username comes from still traumatises me to this very day!

As for the legendary torso of the Female Eunuch, I actually like it! I'm less keen of the cover of the sequel: the Whole Woman, though the book itself is a good read.

As for the Goulding book cover, it upset me because I was a young child at the time I saw it. It doesn't bother me so much now.

My son had a school copy of 1984 that had the most atrocious cover ever. Unfortunately, I’m beginning to think I imagined it, as image searching is proving fruitless.

I remember the Agatha Christie covers, I think they made the books seem more creepy than they actually are. And I love the disturbing Lord of the Flies cover because the book itself is disturbing.

@AutistGoth oh god yes, I remember that. 🙈

This book cover always used to upset me. My grandparents had to hide it behind other books when I visited.

can't bear deckled edges. They give me the shivers. Me too. I hate them.

I don't have many pet peeves when it comes to books, that's one of them, and film/tv adaptation covers are another.

I also can't touch scruffy stained library books that often have a weird smell about them. Makes me wonder what's been done to them by previous readers.

I'm a bit weird with book covers. If I'm trying to buy a copy of something I've read before then it has to have the cover of the version I read. I bought a 2nd hand copy of a book I'd loved as a child recently online. The cover was "wrong" so it went to the charity shop.
And of course a series has to match.
I'm trying to complete my Enid Blyton collection and it's proving quite difficult to find some books in the right 'cover format' especially as the ones I collected in the 90s were printed in the 70s/80s and bought at car boot sales.

And yes, i so agree with all the moans about non matching covers. And I will happily read kids' books but would always choose the covers aimed at kids.

My dad pointed out something else that bugs me a bit on a set of books I'd bought from TheBookPeople a few years, a very good value collection of 10 novels by Helen Dunmore. Only the publisher had put all the titles on the front covers and spines in the kind of fonts that they might use on chicklit, historical sagas etc. My father's a huge book snob and would find these fonts really offputting, but part of his comment is, I think, fairly clear - that he did know that Helen Dunmore was a fairly serious literary novelist and he thought this presentation of her work was a bit insulting. It's a bit sad if books by women are presented in a style that they think will make them seem - what? - more accessible, less threatening? to women. So many things publishers do that come across as treating us as stupid!

Earrings, I confess I didn't actually buy Re-Educated - I read a review copy through Netgalley. Thinking about it, I think I could knock out a reasonable and fair review of this quite well, and will try to do so in the next couple of days. I used to write lots of reviews and have been really lax about actually doing this recently.

I do recommend books I've read this way, and I quite often actually buy books as well when they come up on Kindle deals - this doesn't happen for everything but it is quite common as I think some publishers must negotiate the Kindle special offers on many of the same books that they offer for review through Netgalley.

She is obviously a very opinionated woman but she's quite good at self deprecation - if anything her book was much less smug than I thought it might be based on hearing her on the radio and other things I've read by her. I read a previous book by her, a novel, and didn't like it much whereas I think this is worth giving a go.

I hate it when the illustration on the book cover actually gives away the actual plot. There is a crime series that does just this - putting the murder weapon on the front for example when that is a key plot element. I also remember a young adult sci fi book showing the
main character on the front cover when what she looked like was a major twist in the plot.

^Irvine

My pick would be Irine Welsh's 'Porno'. I was going to upload a pic but I won't inflict it on the unsuspecting!

Also, when they did the Harry Potter in adult covers

Ugh, to this day this still annoys me. My collection is half and half as I asked my mum to pick up my preorders of the last 3 books as it was next to her office. Every time when asked by the shop if she wanted the kid or adult cover she said adult!

Also, I always try to get the illustrated rather than TV/film covers. Not sure why, and it's very snobby but I just feel really judgey about the TV/film covers even though it's the exact same book.

Also, when they did the Harry Potter in adult covers (ok, that makes it sound as though it's 'Harry does porn' but you know what I mean), I kept buying the children's version. a) It matched my others and b) Everyone knew what it was about, and that it was aimed at kids. If you don't want to read it, fine, don't. If you do, no-one is fooled by a black and white cover. It was hardly a secret series of books...

Also my copy of the Oliver Sachs book on migraines features a graphic illustration of a distorted stripy face - that makes my eyes go funny and like I’m going to have a migraine.

I hate it when the illustration on the book cover actually gives away the actual plot.

I can’t give a real example as I’d be passing on the pain - but e.g. if a thriller plot line turned out to feature secret twins - and there they are on the cover…

I couldn't finish this book because the cover felt icky. Sort of clammy?

Genuinely disturbing, especially Third Girl - very weird!!!

I not seen those covers before. My copies are quite mundane in comparison.

I love Agatha Christie and the covers are usually fantastic . Those ones are weird though- I’ve not seen them before.

I'm not sure how to explain it but I hate 'floppy' book covers. I want them quite, um, firm 🙈 but also I don't like when the spine is too thick & you can't properly fold back pages.