Author Topic: More terrible book covers (Read 24773 times)

Chriddof · « **Reply #30 on:** November 25, 2018, 10:22:45 AM »

At first glance I honestly thought that was a book about Roswell.

MoonDust · « **Reply #31 on:** November 25, 2018, 10:26:05 AM »

Oh wow that is awful.

It looks like a VHS cover of a low budget UFO documentary from the 90s. That's immediately what I thought.

Edit: I had similar thoughts to Chriddof.

Glebe · « **Reply #32 on:** November 25, 2018, 04:04:56 PM »

Quote from: marquis_de_sad on November 23, 2018, 08:26:42 PM

From the band bios thread

Behold:

That's going to sit in a comfy chair and the words 'Armchair Thriller' will come up... on the, er, screen.

Maurice Yeatman · « **Reply #33 on:** January 08, 2019, 10:54:16 PM »

"We love your book, vicar, but we've had second thoughts about the cover if you don't mind. We need to attract younger buyers."

Maurice Yeatman · « **Reply #34 on:** January 12, 2019, 12:57:17 AM »

Here's Savile's foreword to the above, a kick in the teeth to anyone who believes he was a monster who didn't have hidden depths.

JifMoose · « **Reply #35 on:** March 08, 2019, 10:13:56 PM »

I've been getting a lot of books from the archive.org openlibrary. It's great, but for some reason I've fallen into a hole of computing books from the 90s - and my word are there some dodgy covers:

Want to iron your shirt for the portrait on the cover of your biography, Tim? Nah, I'm fine...

What will sell a book on the inventor of the first web browser? Piety!

MattD · « **Reply #36 on:** March 08, 2019, 11:19:07 PM »

Quote from: Rich Uncle Skeleton on November 08, 2018, 12:23:53 AM

Probably repeating someone word for word from the previous thread which I haven't read, but this one looks like it's setting out to test "don't judge a book by its cover" to the absolute limits. Who on earth could have possibly thought that was a good idea for both the standard and extended versions?

Still amazed at what is probably the best music book I’ve ever read that this cover passed quality control! It only took the best part of a decade for Lewisohn to write it, you’d have thought they’d have time to come up with something decent.

marquis_de_sad · « **Reply #37 on:** March 09, 2019, 07:44:24 AM »

Quote from: Rich Uncle Skeleton on November 08, 2018, 12:23:53 AM

Probably repeating someone word for word from the previous thread which I haven't read, but this one looks like it's setting out to test "don't judge a book by its cover" to the absolute limits. Who on earth could have possibly thought that was a good idea for both the standard and extended versions?

Quote from: MattD on March 08, 2019, 11:19:07 PM

Still amazed at what is probably the best music book I’ve ever read that this cover passed quality control! It only took the best part of a decade for Lewisohn to write it, you’d have thought they’d have time to come up with something decent.

It looks like it's just come up to the screen with a whooshing sound, where it's going to hang for a few seconds, pulsating, before it whooshes off again to make way for the new Atomic Kitten video on cd:uk.

Glebe · « **Reply #38 on:** March 10, 2019, 02:05:59 AM »

Quote from: JifMoose on March 08, 2019, 10:13:56 PM

gilbertharding · « **Reply #39 on:** April 03, 2019, 04:26:27 PM »

Apologies if this has been posted before. Let's face it, it's unlikely anyone from here would have seen this and not posted it...

marquis_de_sad · « **Reply #40 on:** April 03, 2019, 05:26:22 PM »

That is revolting.

Mister Six · « **Reply #41 on:** April 05, 2019, 09:07:00 PM »

James Bond's famous surrealist period.

Hey, Punk! · « **Reply #42 on:** April 06, 2019, 09:27:43 AM »

I'll have a dry martini, both shaken nor stirred.

marquis_de_sad · « **Reply #43 on:** April 06, 2019, 10:32:47 AM »

Ceci n'est pas une Aston Martin DB5

flotemysost · « **Reply #44 on:** April 06, 2019, 01:09:54 PM »

Bond's undiscovered prog album.

Not terrible, but the cover for Nicholas Hytner's memoir about the National Theatre struck me as a bit retro and 'budget'-looking for an edition that came out a couple of years ago:

The paperback's much nicer:

Hey, Punk! · « **Reply #45 on:** April 06, 2019, 01:22:11 PM »

Quote from: flotemysost on April 06, 2019, 01:09:54 PM

The paperback's much nicer:

The word riveting never sounds sincere to me.

Deyv · « **Reply #46 on:** April 06, 2019, 06:33:30 PM »

It's Alan Bennett, of course it's not sincere. He's taking the pith out of reality.

Famous Mortimer · « **Reply #47 on:** April 08, 2019, 11:14:32 PM »

Quote from: JifMoose on March 08, 2019, 10:13:56 PM

What will sell a book on the inventor of the first web browser? Piety!

Adam McKay hadn't let himself go yet.

gilbertharding · « **Reply #48 on:** April 09, 2019, 09:14:16 AM »

Quote from: gilbertharding on April 03, 2019, 04:26:27 PM

Apologies if this has been posted before. Let's face it, it's unlikely anyone from here would have seen this and not posted it...

Just noticed the Golden Eyeball floating in the sky.

icehaven · « **Reply #49 on:** April 09, 2019, 11:45:12 AM »

Was it a legal requirement to put tits on book covers in the 70s (as well as have them writing forewords)?

Spoon of Ploff · « **Reply #50 on:** April 11, 2019, 10:53:00 AM »

Saw this in m'local Waterstones 'other day:

Less an existential threat to a blinded humanity by mobile flesh eating plants, and more one man's upset at the state of his cannabis crop.

gilbertharding · « **Reply #51 on:** April 11, 2019, 02:31:33 PM »

It's a while since I read The Day of the Triffids - but from what I remember that cover is a fairly accurate representation of exactly how sad about it all blinded humanity was.

marquis_de_sad · « **Reply #52 on:** April 11, 2019, 02:33:05 PM »

Quote from: gilbertharding on April 11, 2019, 02:31:33 PM

It's a while since I read The Day of the Triffids - but from what I remember that cover is a fairly accurate representation of exactly how sad about it all blinded humanity was.

I think you must've read the La Redoute edition.

gilbertharding · « **Reply #53 on:** April 11, 2019, 03:00:13 PM »

A google image search for 'John Wyndham Books' and I'm wondering if he's ever been published with a cover which wasn't terrible.

Even the first edition Penguin paperback looks like The Revenge of Fotherington-Tomas.

Raskolnikov · « **Reply #54 on:** June 30, 2019, 11:11:45 PM »

This is, apparently, real

Johnny Yesno · « **Reply #55 on:** July 01, 2019, 01:52:46 AM »

Quote from: Raskolnikov on June 30, 2019, 11:11:45 PM

This is, apparently, real

Blimey, those illustrated platinum editions are really something. And there's loads of them. A sample:

bgmnts · « **Reply #56 on:** July 01, 2019, 01:55:49 AM »

What. The. Fuck.

buttgammon · « **Reply #57 on:** July 01, 2019, 09:38:17 AM »

Truly awful; they're even worse than the horrendous Wordsworth Classics editions.

The last one is the best, as it looks like the designer literally only read the first paragraph. Despite the disgusting cover, it's actually fairly popular among Wake scholars, because it's one of the few editions that has line numbers.

Raskolnikov · « **Reply #58 on:** July 01, 2019, 01:27:05 PM »

This is my favourite Wordsworth Classics cover, an alternative version where the painting transforms into a hipster.

Maurice Yeatman · « **Reply #59 on:** July 01, 2019, 11:47:04 PM »

Quote from: buttgammon on July 01, 2019, 09:38:17 AM

Truly awful; they're even worse than the horrendous Wordsworth Classics editions.

I can't believe the publisher left the apostrophe out of the title. Inexcusable.
First person to post that there isn't supposed to be an apostrophe is an absolute stinker with no friends!!! Hang on, they'll see this bit if they quote me.

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Author Topic: More terrible book covers (Read 24773 times)