I Judge Books By Their Covers: "Kitchens of the Great Midwest"

 Hello, my name is Lindsay, and I judge books by their covers.

Confession: I always judge books by their covers. A book's appearance -- from the artwork to the font to the colors to the texture to the weight and cut of the pages (I like the deckled-edged ones) -- is very important to me. And there are certain kinds of covers I like and certain ones I'd never pick up unless I was already planning to read the book. It's fascinating to see how covers change between editions -- hardcover and paperback, or U.S. and international -- and it's so fun to see who prefers what!

U.S. hardcover // U.K. hardcover

U.S. paperback // U.K. paperback

I loved this charming and unique book (review) and I loved the cover of the U.S. hardcover when I read it. But the paperback versions are about to come out and I thought it'd be a perfect time to do a cover battle!

This is a tough one for me because I like all the covers well enough. If you've been reading these posts, you know I like pops of color on cover art, especially eye-catching red, and these all have plenty of red.

I like the whimsy of the U.K. paperback with it's kitchen utensil constellations and what looks like gold foil font, but I miss the pepper element of the other covers. The U.S. paperback is a simple, less-is-more cover, which I like, but when the more-is-more covers are so gorgeous, it's hard not to favor those.

It's a difficult choice between the two hardcovers and I love them both. I really like how the U.S. cover features the main "ingredient" of each chapter and it's just so darn pretty. But... something about the pepper-filled U.K. cover just keeps drawing my eye away from the U.S. cover. The primary colors, the hand-drawn font and the wallpaper-like pepper background combine to make a beautiful cover that I would definitely pick up (but again, I totally love the U.S. cover too!).

Winner (by a hair): the U.K. hardcover