Book covers

Recently I was lucky enough to enjoy the hospitality of Bloomsbury Books to meet Mary Hoffman who was talking about her latest Stravaganza title, City of Secrets (still to be read - next on the list). Bloomsbury have taken the opportumity to reissue the 3 prvious titles with new covers, and this, the latest, as a paperback - no hardback. They do make a very attractive set - but I miss the originals - in particular City of Masks which I have always felt to be a stunning design. The afternoon led me to reflect on the importance that covers - and format - have in directing my choice of book. I make no secret of the importance that the book cover has in this for me - and as a reader, the hardback has an especial appeal. Often I find myself quite reluctant to pick up a book if I do not like the cover - Keith Gray is an author who is yet to be given a design that makes my fingers itch to pick up one of his books. Not even the new look he has been given for Ostrich Boys quite works, and the current trend for "spiky" designs has little attraction. Nor do I like covers in a single colour - or maybe I should qualify that by saying covers in which particularly lurid colours have been chosen, presumably in an attempt to catch the eye. I am thinking of the recent attempt to repackage the "classics" for a younger teen market. I would never have felt attracted to them even then. (Not that the original covers were particularly enticing - some books should always be packaged in brown paper - or as a Folio edition!). Dian Wynne Jones is another author I feel that still has to be presented well - but I want to read her so the cover is not such a barrier. It is just a bit offputting and slightly diminshes my initial pleasure. Books that have succeeded recently? Gatty's Tale (Crossley-Holland; Black Rabbit Summer (Brookes) and the Otori sequence (Hearn). Perhaps it is no coincidence these are also all hardback editions - as is Here lies Arthur (Reeve).Do others find covers have such an effect? And does this sometimes bring disappointment. I have recently read a couple of books which have not lived up to the promised of the cover design. Am I being too influenced?