Inspired by Pure Imagination Blog and Stacked.
Let’s be honest, nobody follows the age-old cliché that tells us not to judge a book by its covers. If you say you do, I am side-eying you. Book covers are the first thing that attracts any of us readers to a book. Before you pick up a book, the cover can essentially make or break a book. If I don’t like a cover design, I won’t pick it up. Lucky for us, publishing companies publish different cover designs, especially when a paperback book comes out. Sometimes we like it, sometimes we don’t. Let’s discuss these cover changes, shall we?
Today, we look at the cover of Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen!
To be honest, I don’t particular prefer one over the other because it’s pretty forgettable, but I do appreciate that Along for the Ride covers have a color theme. For the hardcover, it’s red and for the paperback, it’s turquoise.
Reasons why I like the hardcover:
- The red bicycle.
- The title font, especially the “for the” because it adds a nice flair to it.
Reasons why I don’t like the hardcover:
- It looks dated.
- It doesn’t look summer-y.
- It looks like it’s about the romance. Sure the romance is a big part of the book, but the story isn’t really about that.
- I have A LOT of questions about the way the characters are positioned. For instance, how is that bike staying upright when the girl is sitting on the handlebars and the guy is just resting his forearms on the bicycle seat? Wouldn’t the bike fall? And where is the guy’s other leg? Does somebody who lives by the beach really wear jeans and (what appears to be) a white polo?
Reasons why I like the paperback:
- Summer themed! You have a girl in a bikini top and shorts on a bike. There’s sand. SUMMER.
- The font for “Sarah Dessen.”
- The color! Turquoise is one of my favorite colors!
- The position of the girl is more believable.
Reasons why I don’t like the paperback:
- The font for Along for the Ride. Just no. It doesn’t compliment the font used for Sarah Dessen. It looks inferior.
- Where’s the water? It’s so far away in the distance that it makes the sand look like a barren field.
Which cover design do you prefer? Is there anything you would change in the covers?
(Note: I have yet to change the feature title because I’m still searching for the perfect name. :P.)
I generally like the paperback more for all the reasons you said. The one thing that I really hate in all Sarah Dessen books is that her name is written in huge letters and takes over the whole cover, when, in my opinion, the title should be the protagonist on the cover! She dooes that in almost every one of her books!
The new one is an improvement! I agree that the “along for the ride” font sucks though.
I definitely prefer the paperback (I prefer all the paperback redesigns, actually). The hardcover does look really dated. Did I like it at the time? Absolutely. But design trends change and I think if you’re trying to keep an audience and build it, you have to keep up with these changes. I think the paperback represents the book a lot better and it’s just more appealing to look at.
Along For The Ride was actually one of the better old Sarah Dessen covers so I’m (mostly) with you, I don’t really have a particular preference. In general, I do like the newer covers more than the old ones and I guess that kind of applies to this too. I think one of the reasons why I don’t like the old cover as much is because of the jeans the guy’s wearing. *snickers* I always imagine a cowboy hat on top of his head and cowboy boots. Haha. Overall though, I agree with Rachel that the paperback represents the book a lot better.
I agree with Annie that Along for the Ride was one of Dessen’s better covers as well as Lock and Key but then again they are her latest. I wasn’t too sure about the new covers but I get what you mean. It’s definitely summery and I like the colours. I think it’s definitely an improvement but that’s not always the case with cover changes. I really don’t like the new covers for Across the Universe…
I think the paperback is a huge improvement (for all the Sarah Dessen novels, actually). The hardcover is really dated by now and that’s a huge turn-off for me. Like, look at that guy’s jeans! It looks like I’m in the minority, but I like the font for ‘along for the ride’ too…
I like the redesign, but I wish the title of the book wasn’t so small. Also, for some reason, the lowercase font bothers me. Guess I’m too traditional! I like my proper nouns to be properly capitalized, LOL!
I definitely like the re-design better, but I agree with you that the title font was a bad choice. Haha I can’t believe I never noticed the awkward positioning on the first cover. WHERE IS HIS OTHER LEG??