Do you judge books by their covers?

Can be novels, manga, webtoons, etc. I do. I can recall not wanting to read "Level Up, By Only Eating!" because the guy in the cover, presumably the protag, looks lame. I also tend to form an instant negative impression of books where the cover features a shota surrounded by an assortment of anime female archetypes. And a few other cover-types which I cannot brook. It's often not even about the quality of the cover art; it's the subtle clues, the insight the cover gives on the series' focus or ambience (tho, admittedly, they can sometimes be misleading). Are you guys the same?

 

Cover and title. We are spoiled by the sheer number of choices that we have. It's honestly impossible to filter out web novels without doing this though. Although for me it's more often the title rather than the cover.

But if I find a novel through a recommendation, I'll usually give it a go even if I don't even like the summary.

 

Yes.

 

Usually no but if the synopsis is serius af like '500 year old demon cultivator returns and blah blah blah' but if the cover has a young dude with multiple women in it then for me it's usually a pass but if it was recommended maybe I'll try it. Same with the title.

 

I care a lot about the cover for some reason, If I don't really like the cover or maybe it just doesn't vibe with me it takes me a long time to even consider putting it in my reading list, no matter how many good reviews it has I'll still am gonna be reluctant ~ i don't understand it tbh~

 

yes. In manga it shows the mangaka's skill, in ln's it's either how generic or good it is. Also there's the synopsis and title.

 

I only judge hentai manga covers

 

Obviously, a good cover will be an instant eye attraction that makes you more likely to want to read the synopsis and then compare those two bits of info with the tags and genres.

It's also why I have so many damn korean novels in my interested sections, their covers just speak to me and create a good mental image of the MC's. That and the fact I'm hesitant to truly start reading them in fear of them ending up eternally unfinished due to DMCA by the companies.

 

Yes. All the time.

 

Usually I focus more on the title and sypnosis.

 

Sometimes, but titles are usually more of a giveaway. And for these, it's mostly a matter of these elements raising red flags than anything. It's pretty straightforward with a lot of Japanese isekai novels: if the cover is festooned with a mass of vacuous anime waifus or the title is a million words long, it's not going to be a book that's worth checking out. There's very little information to be gleaned from more neutral covers so these won't factor into my decision for the most part.

That said, I'm always on the lookout for books with good female characters so any cover with a woman in good looking armor is a lot more likely to pique my interest. (In this case the armor being good looking is much more important than the woman being good looking )

 

A cover might help me find something I will find interesting, It can also be covering up a mess. They are both a blessing and a curse for attention grabbing. I'll try some of them but I don't have all the time in the world. So a cover might help me pick something up amongst a crowd of similar looking ones along with a title.

 

An interesting book cover holds your attention to grab that book.
An interesting title makes you turn the book to read the synopsis on the back cover (if it's a printed book).
An interesting synopsis is what pushes you to flip the page and start reading the book.

Well despite all those criteria, you still need to read the whole pages to actually love a book

 

With novels, the covers don’t put me off, they can only be a positive influence for the most part... With manga, it’s prolly a very influential aspect coz it usually showcases the best of the creators art. With webtoons, tho I just click on the latest chaps to get a read on the level of art without actually reading anything.

 

Honestly, it is quite possible that nh doujins with actual covers (as opposed to random page for cover) are probably more likely to make me click it but I cannot say the same for tl'd novels

 

With physical books i only bought the ones that looked good to me on top of the story. But i also wouldn't like second-hand books or library ones, so it's not entirely judging the book, but it's also not overlooking the effort and thought goes into a cover.

 

For me it goes something like this
1 cover art gets me interested in Reading what the title is
2 Title gets me interested in Reading what the synopsis is
3 synopsis actually gets me interested in reading the story

all three are very important but ultimately my decision is based on what the synopsis is

 

I don't want to admit but I sometimes do the same. I always say to myself "don't judge a book by its cover" whether it's a person or book. but sometimes I just unconsciously judge it with cover (both book and person). there are many examples of manga or novel that I downloaded and kept ignoring unconsciously and only to find out later that the said book is actually crazy good.

 

Yes, but in novels not so much because they are the same to me

 

The only reason book covers exist is so people can judge them. Imagine if there were no book covers and every book just had a blank cover that was brown with only the title in Times New Roman. Imagine is manga, magazines, comics with no covers.....it would be horrible.