I can’t feel you anymore, I can’t even touch the books you’ve read
Bob Dylan
I recently heard a local politician quip, “I’m not one to judge a book by its cover, but they put covers on books for a reason.” It’s a clever turn of phrase, and he has a point. Modern book covers are a marketing tool and are supposed to indicate, reflect, or symbolize something about the contents of the book. Therefore, the cover should have some meaning and some bearing with regard to the book itself.
Then again, covers can also be misleading, obscure, or perfectly uninformative. For instance, I am reading a 1995 novel by Richard Ford called Independence Day. The front cover, which is presumably all we mean when referring to judging covers, is dominated by a photo of a furled U.S. flag in front of a green lawn viewed through a rain-spotted screen. As striking as it is, the photo conveys little information.
Of course the cover also features words. Aside from the title and the author’s name across the middle, we learn, along the top, that the book was a “NATIONAL BESTSELLER.” We also learn that Ford is the “Author of The Sportswriter.” The cover neglects to tell us that this particular book is a sequel to said The Sportswriter, an odd omission. As it happens, I have never read The Sportswriter, so already I am at an assumptive loss reading Independence Day although I wouldn’t know that from the cover.
Out of the way in the upper right, a black circle with hard-to-read gold lettering informs the sharp-eyed reader that something or someone — the book? The author? — is the “WINNER of the PULITZER PRIZE.” That is a good piece of information, but I had to look it up to find that it refers to this novel itself and not an earlier book or the author himself.
Finally, way down in the bottom-right corner in white lettering against the dark foliage of a shrubbery in the background photo, there is this blurb from The New York Times: “Powerful…as gripping as it is affecting…, Ford has galvanized his reputation as one of his generation’s most eloquent voices.” If I weren’t so lazy, I might want to locate the original review to see what words those ellipses stand in for.
All of this information, the verbal and the nonverbal, reveals little of the content or even style of this book. I cannot even discern its genre — fiction, history, biography, etc.
So what do we really mean when we evoke the well-worn metaphor of judging a book by its cover? Well, the most obvious offense we wish to mitigate is committing a superficial rush to judgment. For instance, that novel I am reading, Independence Day, I probably would have rejected it based solely on the cover. Sorry, designer, but the image — colorful as it is — leaves me cold. I only picked up the book because a guy I just met recommended it, and it was a good recommendation.
So, aside from books themselves, what else do we judge based on their cover? Here are a few possibilities.
I like it when people look me in the eye when we speak, but I have encountered and even known plenty of people who just can’t look you in the eye for whatever reason. And there may be a host of reasons beyond their control. Yet some folks make it a point of high virtue and pride never to trust someone who won’t look them in the eye, thereby judging the person by their interpersonal superficialities.
Or, this. When I was a college dean, I once had to have a stern conversation with a professor who brutally called out some poor freshman in front of his classmates for wearing torn jeans to class. The professor tried to pass it off as though he were giving the kid some advice about what to expect in the working world, but he was just being a prick, judging a student by his jeans.
And what is it with shoppers rejecting a nice piece of fruit because of some slight (and edible) blemish? I have done it myself, and shame on me for judging an apple by its skin.
Instead, imagine getting to know a person before rejecting them for something as trivial as not making what you deem proper eye contact. There are plenty of legitimate reasons for not trusting people. Eye contact is a poor one. If you get to know the person, you may learn that they must constantly compensate for a condition they cannot control. That, in fact, they are persistent, brave, and strong. Oh, and trustworthy.
Or what if that professor, rather than choosing to humiliate the young student he is charged with teaching, bothered to find out more about the student? He would have learned that the student was just a sensitive young man trying to figure out where and how he fits in. His torn jeans were his way of expressing himself in the moment and not the result of him being too stupid or morally reprobate to wear proper pants.
The thing is, that student was still finding his way in college and did not need this BS. Unfortunately for that professor, by not learning more about his student, he did not recognize that this young man was no passive sufferer. The student, in fact, had the temerity and wherewithal to report his professor’s mean-spiritedness. Rather than the cowering victim the professor expected, that student stood up to a more powerful bully, ratty jeans and all, and contributed to the hastening of that professor’s long overdue retirement.
What if I just bought that apple and then took a bite? I might even find that blemish was the sweetest part of the fruit.
Judging the Cover
Perhaps perversely, book covers being as limited as they are, I have always enjoyed inspecting the cover after finishing the book to see if I understand the intent of the design. Certainly some book covers are almost literal in depicting a scene or motif that appears inside. Others are completely mysterious or just have a picture of the author or the title on a colorful background. But many, maybe most, are somewhat in between, inspired by the content but not particularly revealing or, dare I say, inspiring.
So by judging a cover by it’s book I hope to glean some insight about the book that I have just finished, and sometimes I am actually successful. I also almost always can surmise something about the way the book has been marketed.
In other words, we can learn a great deal more about the world if we not only not refrain from judging books by their covers but also get into the habit of judging covers by their books. By coming to understand the reality of the outside after familiarizing ourselves with the inside, we may learn a bit more about what lies within while almost certainly gaining insight into how we and others approach and interpret surfaces. As the politician said, “they put covers on books for a reason.” And such awareness of our own and others’ perceptions can be invaluable, much more valuable than just judging a book by its cover.
How often do you base your assessments on superficialities? Do you ever seek to judge a cover by its book?
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