The Discussion Post – Beautiful Books

If any publisher wants an almost sure-fire way of getting me to buy a second copy or third of one of my favourite books all they need to do is release it with a beautiful cover and I’ll be there in the book shop almost begging them to take my money.

Examples of this weakness or dedication include flying all the way to New York City, spotting copies of The Secret Garden and The Little Princess in the gift shop at the main branch of the New York Public Library, that I just had to have. I could easy have walked away with about half of the special Barnes & Nobel editions of several classics – they were so cheap! – if it wasn’t for the fact my luggage allowance for the trans Atlantic plane ride home really wouldn’t have covered it.

I really want to re-read His Dark Materials before the new set of books comes out. My copies are all still in my old bedroom 600 miles away, which means I’ll probably end up buying new copies – But then do I get this pretty combined collection – or the lovely 20th anniversary editions…

Does anyone else struggle with this urge to buy another copy of a book you already own just because you spot a beautiful new version? Or have you been tempted to buy a book just because you know it will look really pretty on your shelf even if you know nothing about it, or have no intention of actually reading it, and if it had any other cover you wouldn’t have even considered picking up? My local Waterstones has a couple of sets of shelves dedicated to beautiful books – I’m not sure if this is in every branch or just something they’ve decided to do – but I have to try to avoid it at least on some visits or my shelves would be full of them!

I also love picking up a new hardback book and finding a gorgeous cover hidden under the dust jacket, although it doesn’t happen as often as I’d like and I’ve not got any examples to share in my flat – If you’ve got any feel free to share below!

On a related note does it bother anyone else when a publisher changes the cover design halfway through a series? I love to have a series all lined up together on my bookshelf – For example my Harry Potter books look great together, I know since the series was completed there’s been a number of different versions printed (and I’ve been tempted by some of the box sets) but at least they kept the original style right the way through to the publication of Deathly Hallows. One of my earliest examples of this sudden style change was the Fearless book series by Francine Pascal I read when I was younger, the last one was published in 2004, that’s how long this has bugged me lol! There are 36 books in the main series, the first 32 (32!) were published by Simon & Schuster, the last 4 were only published with the original US style cover

Honestly I think this is probably my biggest book bugbear; nothing irritates me more than having half a series in one style and either having to buy the books I already own again, or having to put up with the fact they don’t all match. What are your thoughts on it? Maybe I’m just a little too obsessive about it?

Sorry for boring you all with this image heavy post! Please feel free to share any of your own beautiful books, dust-jacket hidden treasures, or mid-series style swaps that irritated you!