November 27, 2011

Don't judge a book by its movie cover #2

The film was based on the best-selling book, and now the book is sold with images of the adaptation emblazoned on its the cover. It’s an endless cycle of one capitalizing on the success of the other.

Here are some examples of original book covers, and the replacement movie poster versions. What are your views? Does the movie poster demonstrate what the book is all about? Does the new art do the original story justice? 





7 comments:

  1. No...I have never seen a movie tie-in book cover that I thought improved on the original book art. I think movie tie-in book covers serve one purpose, to visually alert folks that this is the book a movie is based on, and hopefully sell more books. I don't think it's a bad plan...I like people to buy books. That's my opinion. It was fun to look at your examples.

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  2. Thanks Lori! I do think the comparisons are interesting, so I will continue to do a series of these posts every now and then. Once again, you make a great point - anything that motivates people to buy books should be encouraged!

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  3. Of the ones you've singled out, I've only seen Atonement. It was just o.k. But I am not sure that I feel like the poster image does an adequate job of depicting the story (although it's pretty) but then, the novel doesn't really either.

    Fun post, Danielle. =)

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  4. Yes Rissi, I agree - the original covers of the novels are fairly generic. It's likely that the movie covers would lead to more sales...

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  5. If it helps get more people reading I think should anything that works on the cover. I tend to try and pick up a copy with the original cover, I don't know why it just feels better. I think the cover of atonement is misleading. The book was a stunner but the movie was very so, so.
    Reading the book I really had a connection with the characters and had genuine concern for them. After reading the book the movie left me a little cold.
    I think they are in production on an adaptation of Saturday so if you have not read that it may be worth picking up before it gets released. It is worth it!
    Just found your blog this morning and I really enjoying it.

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  6. Hi Antonio, thanks for stopping by! Your blog is fantastic - you have quite a knack for making seemingly ordinary objects appear beautiful and interesting.

    I'm still fairly new to blogging, so I'm still surprised when people stumble by my little page - it's very exciting, and a lot of fun.

    I'm the same! For some reason, I always prefer to own the original book cover - it feels more authentic in a way...

    You have some interesting views on Atonement... I'm always looking for people who are interested in doing guest reviews - if you would like to write up something more detailed, which compares the book to film, let me know.

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  7. The only one were I prefer the before cover is the Secret Life of Bees.

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