This week’s Weekly Geeks assignment is: Judge a Book By Its Cover!
This week it’s all about judging books by their covers! 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?
Without further ado…
As anyone who knows me understands, I have a major fascination/obsession with the Twilight series. Stephenie Meyer’s tale about the forbidden love of a teenage girl and a vampire has been a wild success throughout the world. Her original cover, the one which caught my eye before I knew anything about the series is as follows:
Like I said, the book is extremely popular throughout the world. Courtesy of Stephenie’s website, here are some of the book covers from different countries…
From the Germany, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic:
From Russia, Indonesia, and Korea:
So, which one is my favorite? I am partial to the original cover, just because the starkness of the black and white against the red apple is so iconic. It is beautiful in its simplicity and really is the reason why I started reading the series in the first place. I like what the Netherlands’ version did to the apple. However, one of the beautiful things about the original is that the message/symbolism is obvious but not in a pushy way. I feel that the bite out the apple all but hits the readers over the head with its message. It is rather like a big red arrow pointing to the main theme of the book stating “Look at me!! Here I am!!”
As for which one(s) is my least favorite, it has to be a toss-up between the Russian version and the Indonesian version. I mean, Bella does NOT have blue eyes, nor does she have blonde hair – so why show that on the cover? I think they missed something in the translation.
As for which one captures the book, again I have to go with Stephenie’s original cover. Forbidden love = forbidden fruit. Perfect hands = vampire. Yeah, it covers everything without being overly obvious, as I already mentioned. Have I mentioned how much I love this cover?
I have not read it as yet!< HREF="http://readingandmorereading.blogspot.com/2009/02/covered-in-weekly-geeks.html" REL="nofollow">Covered!<>
I like the Czech and the Indonesia ones. Very interesting. I’m a fan of the series as well and enjoyed this post!
Great collection! I like no 1, 3, 4 and 5 for various reasons, but it is difficult to imagine it´s the same book 😀
Thanks, everyone! It is interesting to see how different cultures interpret the book through their cover, isn’t it? Ms Ulat Buku – you may definitely put it up on your blog. I actually got it from an application on Facebook. There were so many more I could post, but I thought I would scare people away! 😉
Oh, I like that last cover. She looks to me so much more like Bella to me than the girl in the movie.
ha ha OMG! I LOVE Twilight too! I still like the first book best but the Indonesian version is not bad either. By the way, love the Twilight badge on your blog. Can I post it up on my blog too or is it something you created specifically for your own use?
They are all interesting covers. They show such different concepts of the book
Wow- they are all interesting covers. But they do seem to change the flavor of the book. Thanks.
I really like the fourth, the Czech cover.