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High Shelf Esteem

October 11, 2017

Books in the Nude…SFW, I Promise :)

Don’t worry — this post is safe for work! What I mean by “books in the nude” is simply hardback books without their dust jackets on.

I process a lot of children’s picture books at work (barcoding, labeling, covering, etc.), and in doing so, I see a lot of fun covers under the dust jacket. Sometimes they tell a little secret or add to the story. This got me wondering whether any adult books have fun “under” covers, so I headed to my home bookshelves and started undressing all my hardbacks.

Disappointingly, most adult books have plain old boring covers under their dust jackets. A few will have the publisher logo imprinted on it, others have the author’s initials, but even those are pretty rare. Out of my whole library, I only have five with anything on the cover worth noting and two of them are young adult. I guess it’s expensive to design cool covers???

In any case, I’m still glad I have a few to show for my book denuding. Here they are with jackets on and off:

Bats of the Republic, by Zachary Thomas Dodson
Bats and bats and bats! Plus contrasting front and back covers…me likey.

                    


Three Dark Crowns
, by Kendare Blake
I haven’t read this one yet, so I don’t know the meaning behind the three little icons here, but the design is nice and understated for a book all about sororicide.

 

           

Men Without Women, by Haruki Murakami
A subtle puzzle piece is better than nothing.

          


I’ll Give You the Sun
, by Jandy Nelson
And this cover does give us the sun! Or at least the beams (that are VERY hard to see in this photo).

          

The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern
A vintage look to it, which goes along with the story’s late 19th century time period. I dig it.

         

Do you know of any adult hardbacks with cool covers under their dust jackets? If so, share in the comments below!

Filed Under: Bookish Musings Kristen 2 Comments

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Comments

  1. Kate @ Parchment Girl says

    October 11, 2017 at 3:06 pm

    I only take the dust jackets off while I’m reading a book, so I haven’t even seen all the books I own in the nude. I do know that the Themis Files books (Sleeping Giants & Waking Gods) have amazing full-color covers that peek through cutouts in the dust jackets. I also really like the design of Everyman’s Classics. They look gorgeous with our without their dust jackets. There aren’t too many like that though!

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    • Kristen says

      October 11, 2017 at 7:08 pm

      I have Sleeping Giants on my Kindle (not particularly aesthetically pleasing), so I’ll have to take a look at its cover at the bookstore. Thanks for the tip!

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