Why do book covers matter in today’s information overload?

“Don’t judge a book by its cover” - a classic idiom that’s still relevant today. 

In its pure meaning, you don’t want to judge the value of a book from its appearance. The most important part of a book is its content.

Today? That idiom is still important, but it gets buried with new behaviors.

Have you purchased a book because it has a befitting cover? Maybe, but it’s rare.

Few exceptions to this rule: Renowned authors that whenever you see their name in a bookstore’s bookshelves, their work speaks for itself. This is the seldom part.

I purchased many books because of their covers. I know this is a trap because there are book designers hired by publishers or the authors to help them sell their books. Why wouldn’t they? The soul-crushing writing process and long-winding publication of a book will go to waste if it has zero sales.

The trap is if you only buy books because they have eye-catching and interesting book covers, you’re on a spending-spree. It’s a never-ending cycle of expenses.

If you’re like me who has this flaw, your bookshelf will keep piling up, and you can’t finish those books in a year or two because it piled up like an office cabinet full of papers.

The non-fiction category is full of traps. We’re only talking about book covers here, not the actual content of the book. If we talk about the content of a non-fiction book, oh my word, I have an upcoming post for you, but let’s go back to the topic.

Okay, so is it bad to buy books based on their covers? It depends.

I mentioned new behaviors, and seeing the growth of book buying throughout the decade means books are still relevant for information consumption.

Even the rise of the internet, where blogs, social media, and other media outlets that provide content for free can’t ignore the fact that books are the foundational source of information.

What are these new buying behavior?

Consider the fact that most parts of the world can access the internet. This means we have an endless source of information.

Most of the information we see or read is noise, useless, and deceptive.

It’s funny to realize that when we still have no access to the internet, we only rely on the written medium to consume information. Most of this information has more quality than we see browsing the internet.

The internet has made the world more connected, and it comes with drawbacks, like most inventions.

Especially with the rise of social media platforms, where we can communicate with other people without the slow process of the analog world and its nonrestrictive access, we are more connected in the online world.

But we’re experiencing its consequences: getting bombarded with information noise.

This is when we experience information overload.

The demand for information consumption is little while the supply is endless.

This phenomenon has affected the physical world because most of the time we’re processing information at a fast-paced.

We don’t want to waste our time reading information that’s useless for our needs.

So we glance over hundreds or thousands of headlines, posters, book covers, and other things that could capture our attention.

Once something grabbed our attention, we will look further.

Therefore, book covers are important. This is also why book cover designers exist.

A well-designed book cover can capture our attention, and it could lead us to read the blurb on the inside or the back of the cover.

In other words, book covers can capture the ephemeral and finite attention of people.

Book covers not only protect the content of the book but also sell it.

Today, books are one of the many sources of quality information.

If you like to learn foundational skills that could propel you into your life without getting distracted, books are the safer choice than browsing the internet.

I know there are bland and fluff books that regurgitate the ideas from other book. This is endemic in business-related books. Just thinking about the business books I purchased makes me scratch my head with disappointment. Thankfully, I got out of this habit.

Here’s the thing, if you notice that pattern, you can pause your non-fiction reading and read some fiction books.

There are magnificent fiction books out there waiting to be unfurled.

Here’s how I have been buying books recently:

It’s straightforward decision-making that involves light research. I have got to tell you, if people researched first before aimlessly buying a bunch of them, people would save lots of time and money. Do your research first!

My book buying in the past had little to no research, like reading the author’s biography and their other works, and reading blurbs and reviews. So I spend more, and I waste my time reading uninteresting stuff.

Once I had the desire to know the ins-and-outs of an idea, I would go straight to a search engine to know what books are available.

From this point, there are a lot of distractions while I’m browsing the internet, so I needed to see some book covers that caught my attention in a snap.

That’s the importance of having a book cover—grabbing your attention super-fast.

If a book doesn’t add up to your information overload bar, then you got to further research that book because you might not know that’s the book you’re looking for.

I’m now more mindful about buying books.

The non-fiction category (rampant in business-related books) is still good, but I would need to do proper research before buying them.

For the fiction category, I would read the plot of the book, then if it’s interesting to me, I would buy it. Fiction books have this mysterious feeling that invites you to open them and be enchanted with their story.

Have a mindful book reading and book buying day!