At Times I Am Downright Maniacal

Everyone knows the old warning. Don’t judge a book by its cover. It’s not about books, it’s about not judging people based on their appearance. That’s fine, that’s good advice. But it also gets people down on book covers, and that’s not really right.

Sometimes, just sometimes, you can judge a book by its cover. I learned this just yesterday as I stalked the aisles at my local book store. I was on the lookout for a book that hadn’t actually come out yet and was forced to find something else to read. I’m very faithful to my usual authors and don’t stray from their books, all of which I have read. That meant I would have to leave the store empty handed or pick something totally new. I wandered, aimlessly, and began that proverbial crime of book cover judgment.

I drifted past books covered with elaborate drawings depicting wizards fighting dragons amidst bursts of flame and swirling powers. I’m not a huge fan of straight up fantasy and nothing screams straight up fantasy like a scene one usually expects to be airbrushed onto the side of a van.

I did not even pause at the rack of covers sporting women, bosoms heaving, standing next to men with their shirts undone. I’m not a pre-menopausal mother of three so romance novels are not my fare. Though, to be honest, I may have paused a little. Come on! Heaving bosoms!

I circled the little display tables set up. Each had a theme- for dad, for grads, summer reading, etc. I don’t know which table I stopped at but I glanced down and a couple books looked back up at me. Each one was a slightly hazy photo of a girl, or a boy and a girl, or maybe two girls, faces cut off by the top of the book. They looked like little Abercrombie photos. Do I strike you as someone who would read “OMG Boyz R soooo cute,” the latest Gossip Girl book? Don’t say yes, you jerks, I’m not.

Then I ambled over to the “New Fiction” table. I was drawn almost immediately to a hardcover book in the middle of the table. A book, by authors I had never heard of, called “Time Spike” had just come in. Don’t judge a book by its cover? “Time Spike” features a conquistador being eaten by a tyrannosaurus rex outside the walls of a maximum security prison while a volcano smolders away in the background. I bought it.

So far it is just ok.

(Note: You can see the cover on Amazon)

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