i judge books by their covers

about once a month, usually on a quiet cloudy afternoon, i spend an excessive amount of time wandering around my favorite local bookstore, book soup. I am there for so long that the employees probably think I am casing the joint. There’s just something about being able to pick up a book, flip through the pages, read the first line and run your hands over the cover… it’s one of my favorite ways to pass a lazy day and one of the reasons i have not embraced the digital book craze.  
years ago, after reading the fourth or fifth version of a book that could have easily passed as 'bridget jones's sisters diary', where the female character has a crap job, a bossy boss, a one sided affair, and a flamboyant gay best friend i decided to swear off all chick lit.  i came up with my own set of tools for weeding through these piles of cookie cutter characters and plots; if a book cover has a martini glass, wedding dress, shopping bag, baby bottle or bikini, i pass.  unless i am stuck at an airport gift shop on a 8 hour layover i will stick to these rules because nine times out of ten these covers are the wrappings for chic lit.  


book covers should be original, graphic, beautiful and inspire you to pick them up. they should catch your eye and peak your interest and insist that you take them home and find out what lies beneath. literary cheap first dates. 


here are just a few of my favorite covers - all of which succeeded in coming home with me. 

i judge wines by their labels too, but that's for another day.