I almost 100% of the time judge a book by its covers. I hate the saying “don’t judge a book by it’s cover” I think it came from a time less thought was put into a cover when it was just a blank hardback because now covers are part of the reading experience.

There are millions of books in the world and thousands at every book store I cannot possible read the synopsis of every book and then decide what I want to read. I look for a cover that intrigued me, I’ll read the synopsis/look up reviews but it honestly is a huge tell for me.

If the cover is lack luster in my experience the book has been too, now don’t get me wrong some books have great covers but are still not great but I’ve tried before to push past my dislike for the cover before bc someone recommended it to me or it’s really popular but it’s always the same.

Covers are more than just pictures IMO they should (in theory) showcase the whole vibe that the book is going for. Take for example my most recent read Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, looking at the cover it’s interesting it looks retro and the wave is beautiful, now once you’ve read the book that cover makes 100% sense and like wow it’s such a good cover for the novel.

Idk how people choose books when shopping if not at least to some degree judging the covers if that’s you how the world do you do it?