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!