Do you have any favourite editions?

[jack]

The previous post stands not-withstanding my tendency to be attached to the first cover I see a book in. This applies most to classics which I learned to love in old penguin monocolour covers off my parents, and I expect to see no differently.

But others as well. Watership down is always associated with my parents' particular copy, where the seriousness of the brown rabbit surrounded by flowery grass is underscored by the wornness of the cover. Anything cute doesn't cut it for me.

You can generally go to something abstract -- preferably dark and snazzy and serious -- from a picture, but trying to put a picture of characters I've only ever pictures invariably falls flat for me.

I don't blame publishers for this -- I already love your book, please do attract new readers! I'm just explaining how I feel. For Ender's Game, maybe I do blame.

Comments

[sonicdrift.livejournal.com]

Me? Get attached to a book? Order one from the states so it matches the rest of the set? Cry when someone breaks the spine? Never.

[rochvelleth.livejournal.com]

Yes, I do! When I first started reading Sharpe books, it wasn't long until I found copies of some of the novels in a particular format in the library (the ones with shiny bits you can run your fingers over). Eventually, when Tiger came out, I got a paperback version of my own, and I've always treasured it (also because it's signed by BC!). But now Sharpe books have a different kind of cover, and I don't like it *as much*, because it hasn't got as much shiny (though there is a bit of shiny). But on my Tiger the shiny bits are extensive.

My Life on Mars series 1 box set has exactly the same effect, so you can run your fingers over Gene Hunt, as it were :)