It’s Ok to Judge a Book By Its Cover (It’s Impossible Not To)

Reading a book begins before a book is ever read, and of course the cover images are the most integral part of that process. Reading a book begins before a book is ever read, and of course the cover images are the most integral part of that process. Not only is “never judge a book by its cover” a cliché, it is one that lacks seriousness. “More than a boundary or a sealed border,” writes theorist Gerard Gennett in Paratexts: Thresholds of Interpretation, elements such as book covers are a “threshold.” A history of literature could be written by analyzing book cover trends.