I have to be honest — I don’t really like topics about cover art very much, and I especially found this one tricky. I don’t mind it so much when topics come up about the most beautiful or most appealing covers, although I don’t really judge my books by their artwork either. In this case, I honestly had no idea what the topic meant. It seemed like an odd blend of a fictional world I would love to live in, but when looking for options, I found myself just looking for the covers that just attracted my attention visually, whether or not I actually wanted to be in that world.
I often find the Top 5 Wednesday topics very challenging because some of them are so out of the box. Part of the fun is that they make me think about books a different way, but it’s also a challenge for me since I can interpret them very literally. I always want to make sure I’m getting it “right” or at least what the topic was meant to be asking, even though I know that they are very open for interpretation. It was definitely hard for me to find covers that fulfilled this one! I originally intended to only choose books that I had already read, but found that my TBR list had much more interesting options.
As a side note — this topic really made me aware of just how many books there are that have beaches on their cover art! I’m sure that would be great for anyone doing this topic who loves the beach. Unfortunately, I hate beaches (for a variety of reasons), and although some of those covers were beautiful, I couldn’t see myself wanting to live there on a practical level. This is why I say I take the topics too literally sometimes.
Top 5 Wednesday is a meme created by Gingerreadslainey on Youtube, and is now hosted by Sam at ThoughtsOnTomes. The official GoodReads group with the weekly topics can be found here.
1) The House at Riverton by Kate Morton
I have not read this book or any other of Kate Morton’s books, although I have several of them on my TBR. I chose this book because the cover art was stunning. Even though you can’t see the house itself, the image on the cover hints at a beautiful, elaborate home. It’s the kind of house I might dream of one day living in, but probably actually would not like very much if I actually had to live there. I don’t mind bigger houses, but sometimes they seem a bit silly unless there are a lot of people living there.
2) The Last Letter from Your Lover by Jojo Moyes
This is a cover that seems a little more realistic in a sense. The cover art depicts some of London, England with an old-fashioned feel to it. I have not read this book yet either, but it is set in two time periods — 1960, and 2003. If I had to guess, I would assume the cover art is from the 1960 storyline, but I’m not sure how much London has changed since then. I actually think I would prefer the cover art without the couple in bottom corner, but it still looks like a beautiful setting.
3) The Forgotten Book by Mechthild Glaser
This book has not even been released yet, but I’m already loving the cover art. According to Goodreads, this book is due out in January 2018. Because Goodreads is being extremely glitchy today, I’ve been having trouble figuring out whether this book is in any way connected to The Book Jumper by the same author, which has an equally beautiful cover. Either of these would actually be book covers that I would like to live in, and both seem to involve literally living in books. I think it would be amazing to be able to enter books and live in them, at least sometimes. Some of the worlds created in books are pretty scary!
4) The Night That Changed Everything by Laura Tait and Jimmy Rice
I honestly can’t figure out what it is about this cover that makes me think I would like to live in it, but it was one of the few that really strongly jumped out at me and that I kept coming back to. I originally excluded it because I couldn’t see how to “live” in it, but the more covers I looked at, the more this one appealed to me. I think it helps that the colours on the cover are all basically my favourites, and I absolutely love the design. Actually, if I remember correctly, the cover art was the first thing that caught my attention about this book in general and made me decide to add it to my TBR (well, after checking the synopsis at least).
5) The List by Patricia Forde
This cover reminds me quite a bit of Peter Pan, and the plot reminds me of Ella Minnow Pea. This is a middle grade book due out later this month, but it was another book where the cover art first caught my attention. I love the emphasis on the moon and the starry sky, but even the village across the bottom seems like it could be an interesting place to live. The buildings are all a little different and kind of cartoonish. Looking at the plot summary, which involves restrictions on speech and language, it is definitely not a world I would like to live in, but the cover makes it seem so peaceful!
Abyssal Librarian 