By the Cover

There is an old saying that goes: "You can't tell a book by its cover"; well, let's take a closer look. Here are four books I have handy:

1. Beckett Baseball Card Price Guide Number 18
2. Adolf Hitler - by John Toland
3. Still Cove Journal - by Gladys Taber
4. And More by Andy Rooney - by Andrew A. Rooney

Number 1 is self explanatory. Number 2 ... that's a definitive biography of Adolf Hitler. Number 3 requires a look at the front and back of the dust jacket. There's a sketch of a cozy house on the front, and picture of an old woman and her cat on the back. What do you know, it's an old woman's journal written about her life in a secluded little home on Cape Cod. Number 4 is a collection of essays adapted from Andy Rooney's newspaper columns. I think you should be able to tell a book by its cover - and you can ... if the cover is done well.

I didn't choose these books to prove a point; they just happened to be books I've read recently. From where I sit, I can also see: Family Circle Christmas, Simple French Cookery, Seed-Starters Handbook - they're all easy to judge by their covers. I reckon they're easy to judge because they are all non-fiction. A work of non-fiction is designed to convey new information to its readers. People who design covers for non-fiction books want to be sure you know exactly what you are getting. They want you to know that the information inside is what you are looking for. To convince you to buy their books, they do the best they can to ensure those covers are easy to judge. How many copies of Beckett's would sell if - between the covers - it actually contained "The Perfect Sphere - A History of Ball Bearing Production in the United States"? Maybe one?

With fiction, it's a whole different ballgame. Good fiction tries to teach you something about yourself by presenting you with personalities and situations you're already familiar with. If the cover reveals too much about the plot, you won't waste your time reading the book. Maybe that's why I don't read much fiction; it's kind of deceptive by nature. Adolf Hitler didn't like fiction ... and neither did Andy Rooney. I don't mean to imply that Andy Rooney was anything like Adolf Hitler. Rooney worked as a war corespondent attached to the US Army in the fight against Nazi Germany - I'd guess he despised Hitler as much as the next guy.