I CAN Judge a Book By Its Cover...(or at least will.)

I think everyone grew up hearing that phrase.

"You can't judge a book by its cover!"

And while I fully understand the metaphor that school marm was trying to get across about not making assumptions about people based on their appearances (or something), the literal meaning really doesn't make sense to me.

In fact, I know that a book's cover makes a very serious impact on what I expect of a book and how I perceive the book as I'm reading it. This is the reason I'm bringing this up:

Found here.

This is the 50th Anniversary cover for To Kill a Mockingbird. This is badass.

I had to read To Kill a Mockingbird when I was in high school. The school copy I had looked like this.

And honestly? I was not enthralled. This cover says to me, "Someone thinks this is a great book, so they published thousands of cheap copies so that English teachers could assign it without kids having to go through the trouble of buying it. "

And those were my thoughts going into reading To Kill A Mockingbird, which is, in fact, considered one of the greatest books of all time. Fortunately, I thought the book was pretty good, even though every time I glimpsed the cover in my backpack or felt the cheap, glossy cover between my fingers I felt ripped off.

And let's be honest, this cover does little to reflect the depths of the book's material, though it certainly tries, doesn't it? As if the picture wasn't generic and literal enough, they had to slap on a cheesy log-line at the top. Don't know about you, but there ain't nothing about the words "the Human Dignity That Unites Us All" that makes me want to read this. That's certainly what the book is about, but that in turn is a little insulting to the book, wouldn't you say? As if the themes of To Kill a Mockingbird are so simple that they can be so concisely summarized on the front cover.

The new cover on the other hand? Intriguing. Enticing. There's a narrative going on right away, with just enough references to the actual story to get the reader's mind rolling. This cover also sets the ambiance, giving the reader some clue of the atmospheric, sometimes even creepy story they're about to open. It's the kind of cover that makes someone like me pause, pick it up, read the back cover, and flip through the pages, wondering how exactly the author is going to follow up on this one.

So can you judge a book (an actual book, y'all) by its cover? Certainly. Should you? Maybe. Do I? Definitely.

But I'm a shallow bitch, so don't listen to me.