This exactly. Like that's the place to tell me what your book is about, not slap on some names that I may or may not even know (and don't give a shit about) saying some vague bullshit and expect me to go 'bahh bahh' and just buy.
YEAH, especially if the book is PLASTIC WRAPPED AND YOU CAN'T OPEN IT TO READ THE SYNOPSIS SO YOU HAVE TO CHECK ON GOODREADS, AND THAT'S *IF* YOU HAVE INTERNET IN THE STORE. ...Although I don't see this complaint much online so maybe it's only in my country. This annoyed SO MUCH when I was new to reading as a hobby and would just browse bookstores instead of having a planned tbr or choosing recommendations from others.
Absolutely. I don't care that a bunch of people whose tastes may have little to no overlap with mine liked the book - I just want some indication of whether or not it's the sort of thing that might appeal to me.
It's even worse when the series has been cancelled :( . Both my SoC and Crooked Kingdom books have that... I have been contemplating getting other editions/copies just to get rid of the stickers.
My pet peeve with book covers is when they replace the cover art with a shot from a film adaptation... I absolutely refuse to buy them. I was gifted one once and after a few months of it sitting on my bookshelf I donated it and bought a different edition of the book.
So true! I once decided to buy an used book just because the new cover had the movie cover on it, not a sleeve mind you (which I also dislike), it was fully printed on the book itself lol
There are even specific book stickers that are easy to remove and don't leave a residue behind!!!! I need a shirt that has a picture of a book and says "Cool award, Bro. Could have been a sticker." 😂
I know we are talking about book covers. But also in my head I am just imagining it in reference to other awards, and you know what it works in a third-trolling, another third nostalgic, and remaining encouraging one to enjoy life with a child-like joy. Because stickers. So, "Cool award, Bro. Could have been a sticker."
I think the black part of penguin books is actually preserving the art piece intact without unnecessary things so it shines on its own. If they started putting the title/authors on top of the art that could mean deciding on fonts/colours that would stand out from the image and maybe it would affect the art. I do like Penguin's style, easy to identify on the shelves and to the point with hardly any blurb, just authors/titles and art. It works for specific books like penguin classics, I'd love science fiction collection in that style with retro covers, for example (50's, 60's style and stuff like that).
I totally agree with everything you said. I also hate when a book gets turned into a movie or series and they replace the original cover. Also not exactly a “on the cover” but about the covers, when they’re made in those cheap materials and they get ruined so easily (cover that literally loose color or worst because I’m reading the book, like I know I have very warm hands, but it’s so annoying).
I remember books used to have the first few pages/first chapter of the next book or another book by the author at the end of the book and I always thought that was great marketing. It makes you want to continue reading the book so you go out and get it. That's so much better than something on the book cover mentioning that there is a sequel.
I know Orbit likes to have ads for other books in their books. But that's the key word. *In*. They'll include a chapter sample of some other Orbit titles that have similar vibes to the main book and that doesn't bother me nearly as much.
As a dark academia girlie, I LOVE the Penguin Classic editions because of how uniform they look, but I do understand why there are people who wouldn't like it.
When there's text or a permanent "sticker" on the cover announcing something like "the tiktok sensation," "as seen on tiktok," or "popular tiktok author." Like, I'm not reading it because of that. I buy it for the synopsis. I read some popular stuff, but I don't even have tiktok, it's so annoying!
I hate it when they draw the people in the cover, I'm the one who is supposed to imagine them, now they ruined it. I do like when it's like just their backs though, like Eleanor & Park.
Agree with all of these! Also I hate seeing reviews on the front of books as well as the back. Bring back a synopsis of the book, please and thank you!
@04:16. That is a very old idea. I remember books in the 1950s, 60s and the 70s having a few pages at the end of the book which advertised other books produced by that publisher. Given that there was no social media, it was a sales ploy that made sense. I have books which belonged to my grandmother from the start of the 20th century which had the same. The practice died out in the 1980s, but seems to be back, though heaven only knows why! Putting the adverts on the cover itself is a rather "in your face" move.
Author blurbs are so meaningless anyway. Most of the time they haven't even read the book. And the blurbs themselves are often so superficial and just some buzzwords, not actually saying anything about the story, writing, or the author. Who cares!
the black chunks on the penguin books are to put the title on an already existing image easily without having to use thick or huge font. that way you don't have to pay artists to create custom covers, or need them to figure out a way to work a title/author name/whatever else into the image without obscuring it. you also end up avoiding the "giant blown up font covering the artwork so it looks like an ad" situation. another point is that it's a consistent and recognisable style, making "penguin classics" very easily identifiable as a brand.
Mine is like an half dust cover that show something like “new translation” or like for Percy Jackson “adaptation of the book” I’m just going to buy it and put it in the trash the quickest way.
The branded logos on books advertising the adaptation and when they Change The Cover of the book to the adaptation 😤it’s like publishers are saying you’re not allowed to imagine what these characters look like but as the actors we casted. Especially if the adaptation sucks. I let these books play out like a mind film in my head while reading.
I expect most authors have as much control over award placement as they do over the actual cover art. (None) I find broken up book titles most annoying when it makes it look like the title has more words than it actually does.
I have one book that I bought online where I thought it was a sticker on the front, but when I received the book, it's actually part of the cover: the special reduced price in a little sunburst. 😮💨
So I don’t buy physical books anymore and haven’t for many years, I’m all about kindle reading these days, but I still agree with many of your points even tho they don’t really affect me anymore… But one thing I really really hate that is being done with almost every kindle book I buy now. You used to just have the book title and author in the kindle list.. now it says “title : An epic emotional saga of blah blah blah” and you can’t even read all of those words half the time because my kindle seems to have a character limit for the title line.. really annoying, and totally unnecessary to see that every time I look at a list of books.. I’ve already bought it! Kicks my ocd for nice clean titles too, it just looks messy and they need to stop it please!
Same for me, I don't like the permanent sticker. And blurbs as well. Becouse I'm not a native english speaker, a big part of my books are the translated edition. By having english and traslated books, i notice some differents here. The traslated books tend to have less permanent sticker or blurbs on the cover. So I'm blessed in that part. But the translated edition have something that can bothers me a lot. They put the publishers logo on the front page. It's not always a dealbraker, in some cases I don't even realise it. But when the logo are not matched up with the rest of the cover, then we have a problem. I mean you have a beautiful atmospheric cover and then there is this random red dot with the symbol in it, or a coulored bar with the text in it. Also when the ad the most (not) helpful information "A novel" on the cover. Oh thank you for telling me, would never guess that. It's more okey if the specify the information more with genre or series, like a thriller novel, ect. Otherwise it's not needed
YES TO EVERYTHING! And thank you for being so passionate about your book hate. So many times in this video, I said "YES!" and "THANK YOU!", so I am with you 100%.
I know my reading slump has lasted too long when it took an entire video from Jesse for me to realize books no longer have stickers. (Also, due to reasons, I mostly read ebooks now, so that could have something to do with it)
One, great video. Two, you’re my favorite booktuber, first guy one i have seen, and your mentality of wanting your bookshelves to represent YOU really helped me stop feeling bad about a lot of people thinking you need to be up to date with all the new popular series i see on tiktok. Thank you and your channel.
i hate so many new releases having bight neon covers for the uk edition! it hurts my eyes and the us covers are like actual art... e.g. weyward that you held up and ours is bright blinding neon pink
I hate when the book cover is smaller and it has that second book cover underneath that is never actually art work or something cool but random blurbs or something. If they actually had artwork or something there, awesome great do it more often, but don't just do it for the blurbs
Stickers that you can't take off also when a book gets turned into a movie and they replaced the cover with the movie poster it drives me nuts or they switching the cover art mid-series
When the audiobook is 14/11 hours long but you wanna hurry up and finish the book within a day but get tired of reading and feel yourself going back into a book slump 😩
the thing that irritates me most is the covers that don’t fully cover the book. the six of crows books do this and it doesn’t really matter but still 😭
The only "extra" thing that I think is OK on a cover is awards--but those need to go on the back or on a flap inside. And anything else needs to be removable. Leave the cover as designed!
I agree it’s better to put ads at the end of the book, but stuff like kindle is actively clipping these things from the reading experience. A huge chunk of the people who buy a book will never see those back ads. So while it’s annoying I think it makes practical sense at least. Although there’s no reason it’s printed and not a sticker
I feel you on the cover, I just bought a gorgeous Dune 2 book, the cover is so beautiful, but it has a 'The sequel to this movie you saw' circle printed on it and why? just why
I nearly didn't buy a book because of those ugly bookclub not-stickers, i bought it the cheapest I could find it, that's the only way I could live with it. And I refuse to buy movie/tv show covers unless it's really cheap secondhand
Movie and tv tie-in covers where the original (and usually much nicer) cover is replaced by the movie/tv poster. Especially if the actors look different from the book characters, and if the adaptation is nothing like the book. I try to get books I know I want before the adaptation for this reason.
The one other thing I'd add is the new editions replacing the beautiful arts from the older editions with whatever minimalist slop is en vogue today. (I am especially furious about the Pratchett editions which ditched the glorious Josh Kirby/Paul Kidby covers)
My copy of The Stolen Heir by Holly Black has "Only at Walmart, exclusive content" printed directly on the cover. Complete with Walmart logo... I didn't even get it at Walmart.
i actually hate it so much when books have like the first chapter of the next book in the end like sir? quite frankly i do not care, ill come across that next book when i want to, you dont have to feed it to me another thing i hate is when there is nothing but blank space to indicate the next chapter. not a chapter 1 or a chapter name. just blank space
I have never seen a book cover that advertises other books on it. I do have a couple of ya books published by Hodderscape and they'll print those in the back of the book. Usually with a line like, "If you liked this, then check out these and there are like 2 to 3 other books they've published and I think that's fine. But to put it on the cover? That's so strange and I'm so glad I've never seen that before
The funny part about how much writing they put on book covers/backs is that a majority of people dont read that stuff. You may notice its there but my guess is most people just skip over it and look for the synopsis. Thats me anyway...Im just looking for the synopsis, the rest I skim over and barely register. I may look more closely after I decide Im interested but I will probably only read one or two author blurbs - anything more then that is too much. I like when they have discussion questions or an author q & a or a chapter from the next book at the end of a book - if I liked the book I like the extra info.
Yep - I don’t want anything but the book art in front. That’s it. Just make an award section put the books on that shelf. How do the people who make these gorgeous pieces for the book cover feel? Can you see them at work looking at their art, proud it has been chosen for a really good book millions are going to see and BAM stickers and words all over it.
Here's the thing. I don't care about stickers in general. If the sticker is easily peeled off, it's fine. They make stickers that can easily be peeled off. But for some reason, lots of publishers and retailers put stickers that are so freaking hard to get off. Just started rereading my copy of the Hunger Games that I bought in like 2012. It still has over half of the retail sticker and residue I could never get off. I hate the printed on stickers, especially ones that don't match the cover art. But tbh, I prefer a matching printed on sticker than am impossible to get off sticker. Because I will try to get it off and have a horrible mess on the cover forever. But if it's printed on, I don't try and take it off. But let's just stop doing stickers that can't be easily peeled off
Yes mate 😂 Good stuff. It's a shame international editions are starting to follow the American trend of bad covers, but it's a huge market, what can you do 🤷♂️
I'll take the Penguin books with black bar covers over them all being bright orange. Nothing says post-apocalyptic dystopian future like bright orange. (My parents' copy of The Chrysalids, by John Wyndham) Besides, with classics, unless you're dealing with recent translations, you generally have a lot of cover options.
The fake stickers is so true. Its so annoying. But another one is like when the covers of a series doesnt feel the same? One coulf have a matte finish but the second would be glossy or smooth. And then the rest of the series is back to the matte?? Like what? No. Author blurbs on the front of the cover. Please just add a blurb page inside with the awards and more. Most of the books already have extra pages that arent used.
mine is hidden series...I have bought number (x) in a series on accident with NO IDEA an embarrassing amount of times. Put the number somewhere! I don't have time to play detective on google in goodwill
I don't like it when the whole book cover is covered with the title or when it is filled with irrelevant stickers about awards or how many copies it sold. And the back of the cover used to serve for a sample text from the book or a short resume, not for reviews from newspapers that tell me absolutely nothing about the book. I will buy a book if I know what is it about, not just because someone else thinks it is good.
I have trypophobia so I cannot deal with books that look like there are small holes all over the cover. I can't even look at it. I don't even like typing this.
Loving the rants! More PLEASE📚 7:12 Ooo! Okay, so does anyone watch an episode of Late Night with John Oliver or a Dateline and image how the script would be formatted in their head? No? Just me… okay😞
omg jesse i hope you get to last night at the telegraph club soon!! if you ever do a "reading my subscribers recommendations" consider that my suggestion! :)
It’s not so much the cover, but the inside of a book. Let me explain. Every now and again, I’ll pick up a highly anticipated new hardcover, and because it’s $30+ they’ll put some sticky barcode tag thing (that sets off an alarm at the doors of the bookstore) INSIDE THE BOOK! Somewhere in the middle of some paragraph of the actual story. There’s no way to take it out without absolutely destroying the page it’s on. I’m like really!?
I've been reading more Stephen King lately, and I'm in a non-English speaking country, so getting the original English editions secondhand is very difficult. However, buying them new, it seems almost impossible to get editions that don't have movie or TV show tie in covers 😭 I see people in Canada and the US with all these cool Stephen King books, and all I can find are ugly covers that are literally a movie/TV show poster, or feature stills from the movie/show, or have 'NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE' printed on it, etc, etc. I DON'T CARE ABOUT THAT, I CARE ABOUT THE BOOK.
Ok so this isn't the cover technically... but when the spine isn't designed well and I can't tell what the title is from the authors name easily it bothers me so much! It makes browsing, especially in used bookstores or thriftstores, soooo much more difficult!
The era when we beg for book stickers has approached. I wonder. The person who decided these became cover prints… were they a book hater? Was it an “environmental / economical” choice? Aren’t book lovers running the book publishing world?! How did the board unanimously approve this permanent damage to the cover? I have all these unanswered questions!
Complaining about Penguin Classics covers? That's a new one for me; I love those covers. BUT that practice suggests a solution to your other pet peeve: publishers should ALL put big black blocks on each book cover, then fill them with awards notices and whatever other nonsense they want to push. That way the cover art can sit comfortably above the black void. Problem solved! My own pet peeve with books these days is different: it's precisely the growth of those "sneak peeks" (a really stupid term) at the end of books. We're getting to the point that the sneak peek seems to be taking up more and more pages inside the book, so that books often seem considerably bigger than they really are, because the publisher decided to stuff 50 pages of an ad for another book at the end. What most of the things you complain about have in common (but not Penguin Classics design, obviously) is that they show contempt for the reader. Publishers can't be bothered to just sell us a book we want; they have to turn it into a big ad for future sales, or an attempt to manipulate us into buying it through the most cheesy sales tactics. It makes me just want to pirate the damn book.
One of the things that just annoys me so much isn’t technically on the front cover, but the back cover where it’s just book reviews are plastered at the back. Like ok i get it, this auther loves it bUT WHERE IS THE SYNOPSIS?
Let me tell you what annoyed me. The Mortal Instruments has 15th anniversary edition AND THE ANGEL RUNE IS UPSIDE DOWN ON THE COVER AND INSIDE PAGES 💀 Now that’s lazy shit right there. Having said that, it looks stunning so of course I bought the first 3 books 😂
when the back of the book doesn't have a blurb but it has reviews
This exactly. Like that's the place to tell me what your book is about, not slap on some names that I may or may not even know (and don't give a shit about) saying some vague bullshit and expect me to go 'bahh bahh' and just buy.
YEAH, especially if the book is PLASTIC WRAPPED AND YOU CAN'T OPEN IT TO READ THE SYNOPSIS SO YOU HAVE TO CHECK ON GOODREADS, AND THAT'S *IF* YOU HAVE INTERNET IN THE STORE.
...Although I don't see this complaint much online so maybe it's only in my country.
This annoyed SO MUCH when I was new to reading as a hobby and would just browse bookstores instead of having a planned tbr or choosing recommendations from others.
Absolutely. I don't care that a bunch of people whose tastes may have little to no overlap with mine liked the book - I just want some indication of whether or not it's the sort of thing that might appeal to me.
I think you mean "doesn't have a synopsis", aka a summary of the plot. A blurb is a promotional text or quote from from example an author.
“Now a ______ original series” and then it’s the series tie-in cover… GIRL WE KNOW
It's even worse when the series has been cancelled :( . Both my SoC and Crooked Kingdom books have that... I have been contemplating getting other editions/copies just to get rid of the stickers.
@@Inez-2002 oh FR it’s so annoying
OH GOSH THE PRINTED STICKERS THAT I CANNOT TAKE OUT IRKS ME TO NO END
I'm folding clothes right now with so much determination, being like YES WHY DO THEY DO THAT?
My pet peeve with book covers is when they replace the cover art with a shot from a film adaptation... I absolutely refuse to buy them. I was gifted one once and after a few months of it sitting on my bookshelf I donated it and bought a different edition of the book.
So true! I once decided to buy an used book just because the new cover had the movie cover on it, not a sleeve mind you (which I also dislike), it was fully printed on the book itself lol
There are even specific book stickers that are easy to remove and don't leave a residue behind!!!!
I need a shirt that has a picture of a book and says "Cool award, Bro. Could have been a sticker." 😂
I know we are talking about book covers. But also in my head I am just imagining it in reference to other awards, and you know what it works in a third-trolling, another third nostalgic, and remaining encouraging one to enjoy life with a child-like joy. Because stickers. So, "Cool award, Bro. Could have been a sticker."
I think the black part of penguin books is actually preserving the art piece intact without unnecessary things so it shines on its own. If they started putting the title/authors on top of the art that could mean deciding on fonts/colours that would stand out from the image and maybe it would affect the art. I do like Penguin's style, easy to identify on the shelves and to the point with hardly any blurb, just authors/titles and art. It works for specific books like penguin classics, I'd love science fiction collection in that style with retro covers, for example (50's, 60's style and stuff like that).
And then whatever the art is it doesn't have to be stretched or super resized to fit so it looks more like what the artists created
@@deejackson8554 yes, exactly that, too!
I totally agree with everything you said. I also hate when a book gets turned into a movie or series and they replace the original cover. Also not exactly a “on the cover” but about the covers, when they’re made in those cheap materials and they get ruined so easily (cover that literally loose color or worst because I’m reading the book, like I know I have very warm hands, but it’s so annoying).
I remember books used to have the first few pages/first chapter of the next book or another book by the author at the end of the book and I always thought that was great marketing. It makes you want to continue reading the book so you go out and get it. That's so much better than something on the book cover mentioning that there is a sequel.
I don't mind the penguin classic designs... I hate book stickers but PRINTED ON THE BOOK IS SO MUCH WORSE
I agree completely but there’s a part of me that is relieved if it’s not a sticker so I don’t have to peel it off
When the book cover is shorter than the actual book!
I would rather have "now a motion picture" on the cover, than have a specific movie tie in cover.
I know Orbit likes to have ads for other books in their books. But that's the key word. *In*. They'll include a chapter sample of some other Orbit titles that have similar vibes to the main book and that doesn't bother me nearly as much.
My copy of Clockwork Princess has an embossed “sticker” for the City of Bones movie 😐
As a dark academia girlie, I LOVE the Penguin Classic editions because of how uniform they look, but I do understand why there are people who wouldn't like it.
book awards can go immediately inside book cover and/or on that first blank page just after the cover
Same! I saw a book at Walmart with a permanent sticker that said “Walmart Original”. Ugh.
When there's text or a permanent "sticker" on the cover announcing something like "the tiktok sensation," "as seen on tiktok," or "popular tiktok author." Like, I'm not reading it because of that. I buy it for the synopsis. I read some popular stuff, but I don't even have tiktok, it's so annoying!
I love pettythereader hours so much /pos
I hate it when they draw the people in the cover, I'm the one who is supposed to imagine them, now they ruined it. I do like when it's like just their backs though, like Eleanor & Park.
Agree with all of these! Also I hate seeing reviews on the front of books as well as the back. Bring back a synopsis of the book, please and thank you!
@04:16. That is a very old idea. I remember books in the 1950s, 60s and the 70s having a few pages at the end of the book which advertised other books produced by that publisher. Given that there was no social media, it was a sales ploy that made sense. I have books which belonged to my grandmother from the start of the 20th century which had the same. The practice died out in the 1980s, but seems to be back, though heaven only knows why! Putting the adverts on the cover itself is a rather "in your face" move.
author blurbs that are like 3 sentences long on the cover 🙄 pls put that on the back where i will continue to ignore it lol
THIS
Author blurbs are so meaningless anyway. Most of the time they haven't even read the book. And the blurbs themselves are often so superficial and just some buzzwords, not actually saying anything about the story, writing, or the author. Who cares!
I love the energy you’re giving in this video 😂
the black chunks on the penguin books are to put the title on an already existing image easily without having to use thick or huge font. that way you don't have to pay artists to create custom covers, or need them to figure out a way to work a title/author name/whatever else into the image without obscuring it. you also end up avoiding the "giant blown up font covering the artwork so it looks like an ad" situation. another point is that it's a consistent and recognisable style, making "penguin classics" very easily identifiable as a brand.
in short, it's all about money babeyyyy
Mine is like an half dust cover that show something like “new translation” or like for Percy Jackson “adaptation of the book” I’m just going to buy it and put it in the trash the quickest way.
The branded logos on books advertising the adaptation and when they Change The Cover of the book to the adaptation 😤it’s like publishers are saying you’re not allowed to imagine what these characters look like but as the actors we casted. Especially if the adaptation sucks.
I let these books play out like a mind film in my head while reading.
That's true I would prefer a removable sticker than having it printed permanently on the cover.
I expect most authors have as much control over award placement as they do over the actual cover art. (None)
I find broken up book titles most annoying when it makes it look like the title has more words than it actually does.
Sometimes your videos are so chaotic and other times, they're so calming...I love me some balance!
I have one book that I bought online where I thought it was a sticker on the front, but when I received the book, it's actually part of the cover: the special reduced price in a little sunburst. 😮💨
So I don’t buy physical books anymore and haven’t for many years, I’m all about kindle reading these days, but I still agree with many of your points even tho they don’t really affect me anymore…
But one thing I really really hate that is being done with almost every kindle book I buy now. You used to just have the book title and author in the kindle list.. now it says “title : An epic emotional saga of blah blah blah” and you can’t even read all of those words half the time because my kindle seems to have a character limit for the title line.. really annoying, and totally unnecessary to see that every time I look at a list of books.. I’ve already bought it! Kicks my ocd for nice clean titles too, it just looks messy and they need to stop it please!
Same for me, I don't like the permanent sticker. And blurbs as well.
Becouse I'm not a native english speaker, a big part of my books are the translated edition. By having english and traslated books, i notice some differents here. The traslated books tend to have less permanent sticker or blurbs on the cover. So I'm blessed in that part.
But the translated edition have something that can bothers me a lot. They put the publishers logo on the front page. It's not always a dealbraker, in some cases I don't even realise it. But when the logo are not matched up with the rest of the cover, then we have a problem. I mean you have a beautiful atmospheric cover and then there is this random red dot with the symbol in it, or a coulored bar with the text in it.
Also when the ad the most (not) helpful information "A novel" on the cover. Oh thank you for telling me, would never guess that. It's more okey if the specify the information more with genre or series, like a thriller novel, ect. Otherwise it's not needed
YES TO EVERYTHING! And thank you for being so passionate about your book hate. So many times in this video, I said "YES!" and "THANK YOU!", so I am with you 100%.
I know my reading slump has lasted too long when it took an entire video from Jesse for me to realize books no longer have stickers. (Also, due to reasons, I mostly read ebooks now, so that could have something to do with it)
Stickers on collectors editions especially. I bought Six of Crows and it had a sticker on the back cover, a really nice cover. I nearly cried.
I love this, you explain it all so well! I agree!! Except penguin classics those I love haha
One, great video.
Two, you’re my favorite booktuber, first guy one i have seen, and your mentality of wanting your bookshelves to represent YOU really helped me stop feeling bad about a lot of people thinking you need to be up to date with all the new popular series i see on tiktok.
Thank you and your channel.
"what does matter is it drives me crazy" I WAS SEEN
i hate so many new releases having bight neon covers for the uk edition! it hurts my eyes and the us covers are like actual art... e.g. weyward that you held up and ours is bright blinding neon pink
I hate when the book cover is smaller and it has that second book cover underneath that is never actually art work or something cool but random blurbs or something. If they actually had artwork or something there, awesome great do it more often, but don't just do it for the blurbs
the award placement on all my rage is so funny omgg right on the blurb??! 😭
Stickers that you can't take off also when a book gets turned into a movie and they replaced the cover with the movie poster it drives me nuts or they switching the cover art mid-series
I agree with you 100%
Not me using this video as a “do I have that book” challenge trying to find the things mentioned on my own books 😂
My only real pet peeve is when the covers get changed midway through the series (like Across the Universe trilogy). It just really ticks me off.
When the audiobook is 14/11 hours long but you wanna hurry up and finish the book within a day but get tired of reading and feel yourself going back into a book slump 😩
the thing that irritates me most is the covers that don’t fully cover the book. the six of crows books do this and it doesn’t really matter but still 😭
The only "extra" thing that I think is OK on a cover is awards--but those need to go on the back or on a flap inside.
And anything else needs to be removable.
Leave the cover as designed!
I agree it’s better to put ads at the end of the book, but stuff like kindle is actively clipping these things from the reading experience. A huge chunk of the people who buy a book will never see those back ads. So while it’s annoying I think it makes practical sense at least. Although there’s no reason it’s printed and not a sticker
I feel you on the cover, I just bought a gorgeous Dune 2 book, the cover is so beautiful, but it has a 'The sequel to this movie you saw' circle printed on it and why? just why
The book covers that are like illusions they just hurt my eyes
I nearly didn't buy a book because of those ugly bookclub not-stickers, i bought it the cheapest I could find it, that's the only way I could live with it. And I refuse to buy movie/tv show covers unless it's really cheap secondhand
Movie and tv tie-in covers where the original (and usually much nicer) cover is replaced by the movie/tv poster. Especially if the actors look different from the book characters, and if the adaptation is nothing like the book. I try to get books I know I want before the adaptation for this reason.
The one other thing I'd add is the new editions replacing the beautiful arts from the older editions with whatever minimalist slop is en vogue today. (I am especially furious about the Pratchett editions which ditched the glorious Josh Kirby/Paul Kidby covers)
i kinda like penguin classic design..
100% agree
My copy of The Stolen Heir by Holly Black has "Only at Walmart, exclusive content" printed directly on the cover. Complete with Walmart logo... I didn't even get it at Walmart.
i actually hate it so much when books have like the first chapter of the next book in the end like sir? quite frankly i do not care, ill come across that next book when i want to, you dont have to feed it to me
another thing i hate is when there is nothing but blank space to indicate the next chapter. not a chapter 1 or a chapter name. just blank space
I have never seen a book cover that advertises other books on it. I do have a couple of ya books published by Hodderscape and they'll print those in the back of the book. Usually with a line like, "If you liked this, then check out these and there are like 2 to 3 other books they've published and I think that's fine. But to put it on the cover? That's so strange and I'm so glad I've never seen that before
I agree with everything you say Jesse. Preach it brother.
The funny part about how much writing they put on book covers/backs is that a majority of people dont read that stuff. You may notice its there but my guess is most people just skip over it and look for the synopsis. Thats me anyway...Im just looking for the synopsis, the rest I skim over and barely register. I may look more closely after I decide Im interested but I will probably only read one or two author blurbs - anything more then that is too much.
I like when they have discussion questions or an author q & a or a chapter from the next book at the end of a book - if I liked the book I like the extra info.
OOOOH SPILL THE TEA BESTIE
Yep - I don’t want anything but the book art in front. That’s it. Just make an award section put the books on that shelf. How do the people who make these gorgeous pieces for the book cover feel? Can you see them at work looking at their art, proud it has been chosen for a really good book millions are going to see and BAM stickers and words all over it.
Here's the thing. I don't care about stickers in general. If the sticker is easily peeled off, it's fine. They make stickers that can easily be peeled off. But for some reason, lots of publishers and retailers put stickers that are so freaking hard to get off. Just started rereading my copy of the Hunger Games that I bought in like 2012. It still has over half of the retail sticker and residue I could never get off. I hate the printed on stickers, especially ones that don't match the cover art. But tbh, I prefer a matching printed on sticker than am impossible to get off sticker. Because I will try to get it off and have a horrible mess on the cover forever. But if it's printed on, I don't try and take it off. But let's just stop doing stickers that can't be easily peeled off
I hate that weird half page cover thing.
YES
Yes mate 😂 Good stuff. It's a shame international editions are starting to follow the American trend of bad covers, but it's a huge market, what can you do 🤷♂️
I'll take the Penguin books with black bar covers over them all being bright orange.
Nothing says post-apocalyptic dystopian future like bright orange. (My parents' copy of The Chrysalids, by John Wyndham)
Besides, with classics, unless you're dealing with recent translations, you generally have a lot of cover options.
I think you have to redesign the cover to accommodate awards. They take up so much real estate!
The fake stickers is so true. Its so annoying. But another one is like when the covers of a series doesnt feel the same? One coulf have a matte finish but the second would be glossy or smooth. And then the rest of the series is back to the matte?? Like what? No.
Author blurbs on the front of the cover. Please just add a blurb page inside with the awards and more. Most of the books already have extra pages that arent used.
mine is hidden series...I have bought number (x) in a series on accident with NO IDEA an embarrassing amount of times. Put the number somewhere! I don't have time to play detective on google in goodwill
I don't like it when the whole book cover is covered with the title or when it is filled with irrelevant stickers about awards or how many copies it sold. And the back of the cover used to serve for a sample text from the book or a short resume, not for reviews from newspapers that tell me absolutely nothing about the book. I will buy a book if I know what is it about, not just because someone else thinks it is good.
I have trypophobia so I cannot deal with books that look like there are small holes all over the cover. I can't even look at it. I don't even like typing this.
Loving the rants! More PLEASE📚
7:12 Ooo! Okay, so does anyone watch an episode of Late Night with John Oliver or a Dateline and image how the script would be formatted in their head? No? Just me… okay😞
Thank you for this! 😊❤
WE NEED STICKERS BACK ON BOOKS!
Yes to ALL!!!
omg jesse i hope you get to last night at the telegraph club soon!! if you ever do a "reading my subscribers recommendations" consider that my suggestion! :)
It’s not so much the cover, but the inside of a book. Let me explain. Every now and again, I’ll pick up a highly anticipated new hardcover, and because it’s $30+ they’ll put some sticky barcode tag thing (that sets off an alarm at the doors of the bookstore) INSIDE THE BOOK! Somewhere in the middle of some paragraph of the actual story. There’s no way to take it out without absolutely destroying the page it’s on. I’m like really!?
What are your most favorite book covers?
I've been reading more Stephen King lately, and I'm in a non-English speaking country, so getting the original English editions secondhand is very difficult. However, buying them new, it seems almost impossible to get editions that don't have movie or TV show tie in covers 😭 I see people in Canada and the US with all these cool Stephen King books, and all I can find are ugly covers that are literally a movie/TV show poster, or feature stills from the movie/show, or have 'NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE' printed on it, etc, etc. I DON'T CARE ABOUT THAT, I CARE ABOUT THE BOOK.
I especially HATE the now a movie/series stamps on the books... Like bro... Facebook already told me. Staaaaap
I didn't realize I hated these too until you said it 😂
I have one thing that I cont stand on any/every horror/thriller/suspense book Blood is printed onto the covuh
Ok so this isn't the cover technically... but when the spine isn't designed well and I can't tell what the title is from the authors name easily it bothers me so much! It makes browsing, especially in used bookstores or thriftstores, soooo much more difficult!
Short covers! Like where the cover is slightly shorter that the rest of the book! Drives me crazy!!
The era when we beg for book stickers has approached. I wonder. The person who decided these became cover prints… were they a book hater? Was it an “environmental / economical” choice? Aren’t book lovers running the book publishing world?! How did the board unanimously approve this permanent damage to the cover? I have all these unanswered questions!
When The paperback cover is smaller than the actual book....
Complaining about Penguin Classics covers? That's a new one for me; I love those covers. BUT that practice suggests a solution to your other pet peeve: publishers should ALL put big black blocks on each book cover, then fill them with awards notices and whatever other nonsense they want to push. That way the cover art can sit comfortably above the black void. Problem solved!
My own pet peeve with books these days is different: it's precisely the growth of those "sneak peeks" (a really stupid term) at the end of books. We're getting to the point that the sneak peek seems to be taking up more and more pages inside the book, so that books often seem considerably bigger than they really are, because the publisher decided to stuff 50 pages of an ad for another book at the end.
What most of the things you complain about have in common (but not Penguin Classics design, obviously) is that they show contempt for the reader. Publishers can't be bothered to just sell us a book we want; they have to turn it into a big ad for future sales, or an attempt to manipulate us into buying it through the most cheesy sales tactics. It makes me just want to pirate the damn book.
The new throne of glass covers make me rage every time I see them. I can’t explain it. I just really don’t like them 🙈
I agree with all of these!!
Last Night At The Telegraph Club is really good, you are going to love it.
Thank goodness I’m not the only one who is so bothered with the penguin black block 😭 also the printed-on-the-cover sticker NEEDS TO STOP.
I like the Penguin Classic covers 🫣
I pretty much agree on everything on this video,
also. BLURBS ON THE FRONT OF THE BOOK!! BLEH
One of the things that just annoys me so much isn’t technically on the front cover, but the back cover where it’s just book reviews are plastered at the back. Like ok i get it, this auther loves it bUT WHERE IS THE SYNOPSIS?
Stickers will forever be the death of me
Let me tell you what annoyed me. The Mortal Instruments has 15th anniversary edition AND THE ANGEL RUNE IS UPSIDE DOWN ON THE COVER AND INSIDE PAGES 💀 Now that’s lazy shit right there. Having said that, it looks stunning so of course I bought the first 3 books 😂
excessive cover quotes, printed stickers, adaptation covers... I HATE THEM