This week’s Weekly Geek Challenge is to judge a book by it’s cover. Becky suggests,
Pick a book–any book, really–and search out multiple book cover images for that book. They could span a decade or two (or more)…Or they could span several countries. Which cover is your favorite? Which one is your least favorite? Which one best ‘captures’ what the book is about?
One book that I’ve seen a ton of different covers for is one of my favorites — The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman. There have been a lot of covers for this book, but I’m just going to look at four of them that I remember seeing when I was out and about in bookstores.
 1) This is the cover of the mass market paperback that I originally purchased when I was in eighth grade. Sorry the picture is so blurry — I couldn’t find many pictures of it online! This is still one of my favorite covers because I love how detailed the picture of the alethiometer is. |
 2) One day when I was perusing a used bookstore, I found British paperback editions of both The Golden Compass (called Northern Lights in England) and The Subtle Knife. Since I am the kind if person that has to have series that match, I ordered the British paperback of The Amber Spyglass and had it shipped to me from England. Yes, it was sort of expensive, but yes, it was totally worth it! |
 3) Sometime after that, they did a new printing of the book with this cover. I like this one the least of all the covers, I think. I love Iorek, but I think having the compass on the cover is a better visual. |
 4) And finally, they recently did a boxed set with covers that look more adult, at least to me. I’m not sure if they were trying to target an older audience than might pick up cover #3, but these are pretty cool too. |
I think #1 or #2 is my favorite, what do you think?
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I’m so used to the 3rd cover, that I like it best. (That’s the copy we have.)
the third cover is great. I love that one.
I think the cover I had featured the movie tie-in. The last one works best for me.
I have the first one and I must say I like it better than the other covers 🙂
I actually like #3 best partly because it doesn’t have the compass on it. I prefer to keep that image in my imagination or remember it from the movie.
bermudaonion: I think we all get used to a certain cover and that’s the one we like best.
sagustcox: That’s my least favorite, weird!
Care: I think there was a movie cover, I just couldn’t find one. I think the last cover makes the book look like an adult thriller or something (I think it’s the big font and stuff)
Lightheaded: Me too 🙂
Angela: That’s a good point, I guess I always liked the cover with the compass on it because I like imagining what the pictures all mean.