Book covers--Do they have a say in your book selection?

This is a guest post question/answer I participated in a while ago on iRandomBlogger: Random Thoughts that is run by my friend Patrick. Check it out! I wanted to post it here so you guys who didn't get a chance to read it, can read it now, if you want, you don't have to. Please read it? Comment? Thoughts?

Q: "Book covers--Do they have a say in your book selection?"

A: Short (but confusing) answer: Yes, and no.

Let's say I am browsing the store or Goodreads.com (to add to my to-read list) and I stumble upon a book whose cover looks like this:

or like this:

You can be sure I will be taking a look at the book's synopsis.

There are many factors that influence what book I am likely to pick up at a bookstore. The cover is one of them.The cover attracts my attention, so in a way it does have influence in my book selection. I did have one book that the cover was beautiful , but the book was frustrating to read and all together hard to finish. I saw a friend with said book, and they asked me what I though of it. When I told them that I didn't like it, they were surprised, they said it had such a pretty cover that it couldn't be that bad. Long story short, they didn't like it.

So yes the cover grabs my attention, but if the synopsis is not as attractive as the cover you can be sure I will not be reading it. In the case of the books with the covers above, I did like both (cover and summary) and ended up loving the books!

There are also the books that have non-extravagant covers, simple and nothing exotic about it.

Example:

The Hunger Games is one my favorite books ever. I will admit I hesitated at starting it because of the cover, it looked like a boys book and three years ago the only books I read where the girly kind. I want to slap my 13 year old self now, because this book was pretty much amazing. It wouldn't matter what kind of cover this book had, I would re-read it the same amount of times I have re-read it now.

There are many of amazing books out there with covers not as impressive as other books. The story inside the book is what matters, a beautiful cover is just a bonus.