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September 15, 2025 29 mins

We've all heard the saying "don't judge a book by its cover" - but does anyone actually abide by it? On this episode, Nicole, Drew, and Killian discuss different styles of cover art, book decoration, and design, how these affect whether or not a reader will pick up a book, and if they are influenced by book covers in their own reading.

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
- [Nicole] Hey there.
Welcome to the DistractedLibrarians podcast.
We are your friendlyneighborhood bookworms
with a penchant forall things pop culture.
- [Drew] Picture thisas our digital campfire
where we dive into our latest obsessions,
analyze our favorite distractions,
and rediscover the joy of reading.
- [Killian] Whether you're amedia enthusiast, a book lover,

(00:21):
or just need a break from the daily grind,
you've come to the right spot.
- [Amanda] So kick back, relax,
and get delightfully distracted with us.
- [Nicole] Hey everybody, on this episode
of The Distracted Librarians,
we are going to be talking about
judging books by their covers.
My name is Nicole,
- [Killian] I'm Killian.

(00:41):
- [Drew] And I'm Drew.
- [Nicole] So the sayingis don't judge a book
by its cover, but Ithink we all do it right?
- [Killian] Absolutely.
- [Drew] And the industrydepends on us doing so.
- [Nicole] Exactly, exactly.
It seems like there arelots of different types
of book covers, right?
- [Killian] For sure.

(01:01):
- [Nicole] So we have book covers
that are really attractive or aesthetic.
They have like a certain vibe
and then we have likeinformative book covers
and sometimes we'll see those kind
of all over the place too, right.
How can a cover draw us into make us wanna read them?

(01:23):
What do you guys think?
What brings you into wanting to read it?
- [Drew] So for me it is a similar style
to what I've already read.
I think that cover design is sort
of at its peak when it'sreminiscent of other things,
it all ties into the marketing of it.

(01:43):
So if I, you know, read a book that has
the illustrated romance cover and has,
you know, the two people facing each other
at the coffee table
and, you know, lights inthe background, whatever.
And then I see anotherbook that's similar to
that three months later I'mat least gonna pick it up

(02:03):
and see what it's aboutif I liked the first book.
- [Nicole] Okay.
- [Killian] Yeah, I think a lot of times
you start getting these book cover
trends because they're playing into,
oh, we want people to associate this book
with this prior book orthis prior style of book.
But I will say I am a person who,

(02:23):
if something is remarkably different
from everything around it,I will take a look at it.
- [Nicole] Mm hmm- [Killian] Because
it will stand out on ashelf on its own anyway.
And so I wanna see, okay,
what is this book that is
so intentionally setting itself apart

(02:45):
from the genre it's in orthe section that it lives in?
And it's always interesting to see kind of
what those books are andthen think about, like,
why the cover is a little different.
- [Nicole] Sure. I lovea good book display.
- [Drew] Yeah.- [Nicole] I don't know.
That's just the thing whenI go into a bookstore,

(03:05):
if the display is like perfect for me,
I'm gonna be spendingsome time over there.
- [Drew] Oh yeah.
- [Nicole] You will notbe able to drag me away.
And I sometimes, I don'teven know exactly why,
but I love colorful things.
I love covers that look witchy,
covers that have lots of plants on them
or something spookybecause I'm the spooky one.

(03:28):
So typically if it looks like, you know,
a horror movie coveror something like that,
I'm gonna be pulling myself over there.
- [Killian] I think that'sfunny you mentioned that
because I am very much the,
if it looks like it's vaguelycould be set in a world
that you would play inD&D, I will pick it up.

(03:48):
- [Nicole] There you go.
- [Killian] I will atleast give it a shot.
- [Nicole] Yeah.
- [Killian] And this ishow I've ended up with
so many books on my shelfthat I haven't read yet.
- [Nicole] Nice.- [Killian] Or that I have.
- [Drew] That does tendto be the biggest problem
is when I'm browsing I'll find things.
- [Nicole] Oh yeah.- [Drew] But then I've taken it home
with no, like, attachment to to it

(04:10):
and then I have to likeput it on my shelf very
strategically so I still see the cover
and it keeps like flashing in my mind.
- [Nicole] So it doesn'tjust end up in a pile.
- [Drew] Oh, yeah.- [Nicole] Of things to read.
- [Killian] And that's the thing
is the point of the book covers,
I don't know that it'snecessarily to get you
to read the book, it's toget you to buy the book.
- [Nicole] Yeah.Or at least pick it up.

(04:31):
- [Killian] Yeah.- [Nicole] Maybe
because then once you pick it up,
they've got their tenterhooks in you.
- [Killian] Yeah, andobviously like publishers
are gonna want you to read the book
because then you talk about it
and word of mouth and all of that.
Maybe you post a review, etcetera,
but I mean the big thingis they want your money.
And so I think that's the thing

(04:52):
is we all have these things
that we're drawn to in book covers
and it's kind of matchingwhat is going to appeal
to a person who is going toread that book and enjoy it.
- [Nicole] Sure.- [Killian] Or at least
like the concept of thatbook enough to buy it.
- [Nicole] Definitely.
Well, how often do you think it's accurate

(05:15):
that like an attractive book cover means
that it's a good book for you, personally?
- [Drew] I honestly don'tknow that I've ever like
thought about it at theend point of the process.
- [Nicole] Sure.- [Killian] Same. Sure.
- [Drew] Like by the timeI've finished a book,
I'm thinking about so much of the book

(05:37):
that the reason I pickedit up in the first place
is the furthest thing from my mind.
- [Nicole] Okay, so thecover no longer matters
at that point.
Okay.
- [Killian] Yeah, and Ithink that's where like,
don't judge a book byits cover because, yeah,
the contents of it, once you read it,
is going to takeprecedence no matter what.
You just gotta get there first.
And unfortunately way weget there is the cover, so.

(05:59):
- [Nicole] Yeah, definitely.
Well, I think it's interesting
how cover styles have changed over time.
I very distinctly recallseeing like the paper book
or paperback romances thatmy aunt used to have that,
I mean they would like come in the mail
or she would just go tothe store and and get them.

(06:20):
They were monthly
subscriptions- [Killian] Really cheap Harlequin ones.
- [Nicole] The really cheap ones and-
- [Drew] Fabio and his 14 abs.
- [Nicole] Typically, theywould have like, you know,
some scantily clad man and some woman
with heaving bosom, andso on, and so forth.
And I always thought thatthose were like kind of funny.
I thought they were funny.
I mean, as a kid.- [Killian] Yeah, for sure.
- [Nicole] I'm justlooking at this cover like,

(06:40):
good god, what is that andwhy do you wanna read this?
But like as an adult, okay fine.
Like he's hot or whatever,that could be a good book.
- [Drew] And you can still get those.
- [Nicole] You can still get them
and they still look like that?
- [Drew] Yep.- [Nicole] Really?
- [Drew] So romance is an interesting one
because it's sort of splitinto its factions now.
- [Nicole] Okay.

(07:01):
- [Drew] Where like the mass market
paperback romances still exist.
The Jayne Ann Krentz of theworld, the Stephanie Perkins,
that aspect, all of the dukeand like regency romances.
The covers will stilllook exactly like that.
- [Nicole] Okay.- [Drew] But then
you get the, I don'twant to say contemporary
because some of themcan still be historical,

(07:22):
but like the the modern day romance style.
- [Nicole] Okay.- [Drew] That's gonna be, you know,
a little bit more graphicwith the sex in it,
a little more like"relatable", quote unquote.
And those are marketedcompletely differently.
- [Nicole] Okay.- [Drew] Where there's
sort of just a schism between them.
- [Nicole] Sure.- [Drew] To the point where
Barnes & Noble doesn't even shelve them

(07:44):
in the same place.
- [Nicole] Oh!
- [Killian] Yeah, theydo have two separate
romance sections now, don't they?
Yeah, I forgot about that.
- [Nicole] Oh, wow. Okay.- [Killian] This tells you
about my shopping habits.
- [Nicole] And I knowthat romance books now
typically their covers are, you know,
they're not in the throesof passion on the cover.
- [Drew] Right.- [Nicole] It's typically
like you had said, you know,
people sitting down for coffee

(08:05):
or, you know, they're walking on the beach
with their dog or something,
you know what I mean?- [Drew] Yeah.
- [Nicole] Like it's just alittle bit more realistic.
But the illustrationsare more graphic, right?
- [Killian] I think they tend to be going
for more relatabilityin a lot of those now.
And you get that like cartoony style

(08:28):
that, you know, is soprevalent and so discussed.
- [Nicole] I mean I mightnot be as embarrassed
to pick up a newer romance
as I would've beenpicking up a bodice ripper
from before because likegeez, what is going on here?
(hosts laughing)
Okay, well let's see.

(08:49):
Oh, styles.
- [Killian] Yeah, Ithink the cartoon style
that we see romances we talked about.
But there's also a big thing lately
and it's interesting howI see this across genres
with like the fancy typography
or there's a very, like,
graphic design-y background,

(09:10):
but it's the most of the cover is taken up
by the title or the title and the author.
And those are always interesting
because sometimes if they'vegot that interesting graphic
to it, it'll give you a hintat what the book's about.
But a lot of times I'm just like-

(09:30):
- [Nicole] How does this relate- [Killian] I see words.
- [Nicole] Yeah.- [Killian] What is the book?
- [Nicole] Totally.
- [Killian] And all I have to go on
is what it's shelved near.
- [Nicole] Yeah, well and Killian,
you were talking a littlebit about like these sort
of goodreads lists based on covers.
Tell me more about that.
- [Killian] So..- [Nicole] I wanna know about this.

(09:51):
- [Killian] So there is a trendthat I've been well aware of
for a long time because it'sactually was an older trend
among a lot of YA for a while.
A lot of YA historical
but also getting into some historical
of headless women on the cover of books.
And so I was like okay,was this just a thing

(10:12):
that I am remembering or isthis a thing that happened?
So I started googling it
and up pops this list on Goodreads
that is headless women.
- Oh my gosh.- And it is a list of books
where the cover is all, it's you know,
just the torso or it's cut off
maybe partway through the head
or the head is covered by something
or it's turned away so youcan't see the person's face,

(10:32):
and there were 623 books on it.
- [Nicole] Wow.
- [Drew] There's also alibrary display that we did
three or four months agothat was women walking away.
- [Nicole] Yes.
- [Killian] A big thingin historical fiction.
- [Nicole] Yes, yes. Oh my goodness.
And I know that some libraries in the past
have done like this reallycute kind of social media thing

(10:55):
where they'll take a bookcover and a staff member
and they'll kind of like-
what is it called?- [Drew] Bookface Friday.
- [Nicole] Bookface Friday- [Killian] We used to do that.
- [Nicole] Yeah, we usedto do that at the library.
And there are other libraries that do it
and sometimes it's such a cute way to kind
of show off a book but using the cover
and another human being to kind
of recreate the way this cover looks.
- [Killian] Lining those up is so hard.

(11:17):
- [Nicole] Yes.
- [Killian] Like and sometimes
you just can't get the proportions right
in spite of trying likedifferent distances away
from the book and differentdistances away from the camera.
It's just really, really hard.
But yeah, you can dothat a lot with the ones
that are like just a torso
or you can do it with theones that are fully like

(11:37):
half a face-- [Nicole] Half a face, yeah.
- [Killian] Or something like that.- [Nicole] Totally.
- [Killian] And matchup,and those are always
when they're done well they're so good.
- [Nicole] They're really cool.
- [Killian] And sometimeswhen they're not done well
they're just hilarious.
- [Nicole] Yes, definitely.
Well, I find it funnythat they have this list
on Goodreads becauseespecially for librarians
and booksellers, likewe're constantly looking

(11:58):
for the next good display.
- [Drew] Right.- [Nicole] So having a resource
like that where we can get a list
of all of the books that have the torso.
- [Killian] Yeah.- [Nicole] Then we can just
throw a display together really quick
and put something up and people are like,
"Oh my gosh you're so smart!", so.
- [Killian] I will say Ithink a display of, like,
'cause to counter thatheadless woman trend,

(12:22):
there's also a lot of books
that are just like fully a person's face.
One of my favorite books is like that
and I do think a displaythat's just all books like
that would be mildly terrifying.
- [Nicole] Probably, yes.
- [Drew] When I was themedia intern at the library
and we did DVD displays,
my first full year there I took DVD covers

(12:46):
that were like zoomed in on people's faces
and put fake mustaches onthem for No Shave November.
(hosts laugh)
- [Nicole] I love everything about this.
- [Drew] It was.- [Nicole] Why weren't we-
- [Killian] I want reusable googly eyes
that we can put on 'em.
- [Nicole] Oh, yes!- [Drew] Yes!
- [Nicole] Oh my gosh, that's too funny.
- [Drew] Honestly, Imight do that this year.

(13:06):
- [Killian] Please.- [Nicole] You should.
- [Killian] There areso many fun googly eyes.
I just got googly eyesfor the guessing jar
that dates this recording, sorry.
But there's like multicolored ones
but there are dragon eye ones.
- [Nicole] And they're massive.
- [Killian] They're so cool.- [Nicole] Yes.
- [Killian] There's different sizes.
There's smaller ones too.- [Nicole] Oh, really?
- [Killian] They're so fun.- [Nicole] Okay.
- [Killian] I want them.

(13:27):
- [Nicole] Alright, back to topic.
(hosts laugh)
Hardcover versus paperback covers
because sometimes they change them, right?
- [Drew] Sometimes theychange them drastically.
- [Nicole] Yeah, likeit's completely different
than anything.
Especially if like thepaperback is, you know,
like it's a reissue 30 years later,
like "Dune" they completelyredid the covers for those

(13:51):
and made them a little more modern
so people still want to read them, but.
- [Drew] There's onethat I always think of,
I didn't bring a print out of this
'cause I didn't think of it in prep,
but it was the "ViolinConspiracy" by Brendan Slocumb
where when the hardcover was put out
it's this like ruddy redcover with a violin on it

(14:12):
and like half the faceof a guy staring out
and it's this like ominous thing
and it fit the vibe ofthe book really well.
We read it for my book club.
- [Nicole] Okay.- [Drew] And then
the paperback came out and it'slike a glowing yellow cover
with like an artsy colorful violin on it
and nothing else, and-

(14:33):
- [Nicole] It doesn't have the vibe.
- [Drew] It doesn't have the vibe.- [Nicole] Yeah. Hmm. Interesting.
- [Killian] I'm trying to remember
'cause I know there are some books
that I've seen them docovers and it's completely,
like you wouldn't even thinkit's in the same genre anymore.
- [Nicole] Yeah.
- [Killian] And I cannotfor the life of me.
- [Nicole] Well, somethingthat happens in youth

(14:55):
a lot is that, you know, weget the movie adaptation cover,
which I can tell you honestly,like, okay that's fine.
It's gonna sit on our shelf
and it might be interestingto somebody for about a year,
but then let's just go backto what the regular cover was
because after thatthey're gonna look at it

(15:16):
and they're gonna say, oh yeah,
well, I didn't like that movie.
Why would I wanna read that?
The book could be perfectly good
- [Drew] Audience, Iwill need you to Google
largest eye roll in history
to understand what Killiandid when this was brought up.
- [Killian] I despise...
- [Nicole] Movie adaptations?
- [Killian] Movie tie in covers.- [Nicole] Yes.
- [Killian] And I have forever, basically,

(15:36):
even when I was younger
and they would make a bookthat I liked into a movie
or something, I was like,I just want the book cover.
Like I want the book cover
but now I have even moreof a problem with it
because of Wicked.
Because that book and that movie
are so completely different in vibe,

(15:59):
in audience and everything.
And sticking the movie cover on the book
makes people think that it
is like the movie.- [Nicole] Exactly, the movie, yeah.
- [Killian] And it's not.
Like that should never have been done.
And I know I haven't hadit happen directly to me,
but I know I've seen librarians talk about

(16:20):
how they'll have people come in
and their kid will see the movie cover,
they've seen the movie, theysee Ariana Grande on the cover
and they're like, I wanna read this.
Please vet the books.
- [Nicole] Yeah.- [Killian] If they have an adaptation
cover on them.
Because that one is the most misleading,
the most misleading that I can think of

(16:42):
off the top of my head.
And it is,
like I said,
I despise media tie-in
covers and-- Yeah. (laughs)
- [Killian] It's just such a good example
of part of the reason,
but also I just like bookcovers as their own art.
- [Nicole] Yeah, for sure.
I mean that happens with classics.
You know, somebody came along

(17:03):
and decided that they were gonna do
the Golden Compass series on film, right,
and that happened and itwas fine and whatever,
but that book was.- [Drew] Was it?
- [Nicole] Well, it wasn't a great movie
but again, so that kind of like taints
the way that people think about that book.
The book was around a long time
before somebody decidedto make that into a movie.

(17:24):
And so like is a kid goingto look at that cover
and say, oh my gosh I wanna read that.
No, because the movie sucked.
So like are we losing anaudience member there?
Like I get it and there is a purpose
and I'm sure people that do marketing
and stuff are just like, yeah,it's the best thing ever.
But it isn't always for us

(17:45):
'cause we're keeping thesebooks sometimes for 20 years.
Do we really want the cover
of the movie on our shelf for 20 years?
- [Killian] And I even,because before the Wicked movie
they did the Wicked Musicaltie in cover for the book
and no, my copy of Wickedis the original Wicked Cover

(18:06):
because no media tie in.
- [Nicole] Yeah, yeah, yeah.- [Killian] Like it's,
and now that's just what people associate
with Wicked is the musical cover.
- [Nicole] Sure.Yeah.
- [Killian] And people are like,
what do you mean therewas a cover before that?
Okay, well I tried, but.
- [Nicole] Okay, so let'stalk about special editions
'cause I know that you guys have feelings

(18:28):
about special editions or limited runs.
Let's talk about those a little bit.
Do you guys like sprayed edges?
- [Drew] So, Killian and I.
- [Killian] We're gonnahave to do a blog post
for this episode and we'regonna have to show our shelves.
- [Drew] I know.
So Killian and I both sortof leaned into the books

(18:51):
as decoration aesthetic for our homes.
- [Nicole] Okay, which I love.
- [Drew] Which is great.
- [Killian] It's beautiful, it's stunning.
I do not regret that, however.
- [Drew] It's caused some problems.
- [Nicole] Okay.- [Drew] In that
any book becomes justifiable to purchase
because it will fit the vibe.

(19:11):
- [Nicole] Okay.- [Drew] And that's how
we end up with four copies
of "Wolf Song" for me,
five copies of Legends & Lattes for her.
- [Nicole] Okay.- [Drew] Entire shelves
of FairyLoot special editions,
- [Killian] Which is mostof mine are FairyLoot,
Rainbow Crate, OwlCrate, Illumicrate.
I'm like, I'm missing one of the
subscriptions I've had at some point.
- [Nicole] Which explain those

(19:32):
to our audience members please.
- [Killian] These are allbook subscription boxes
that I have at least at one time
or another subscribed to
and regularly received monthly books from.
- [Drew] And they do verydecorative versions of the books.
- [Nicole] Okay.- [Drew] So they'll
redesign the covers, they'll put,
you know, gold leaf or gold foil on it.

(19:54):
- [Nicole] Okay.
- [Drew] Do really intricatesprayed edges sometimes
oftentimes they'll be art
and papers of characters and scenes.
- [Nicole] Wow.- [Killian] It's like even the hard case
is special and-- [Nicole] Okay.
- [Killian] Sometimes thatis in and of itself printed
with artwork of scenes or characters.
- [Nicole] Okay.- [Killian] But sometimes
it's just, you know,inlaid with gold foiling
and it's really elaboratelydecorated works of art,

(20:17):
Truly works of art.
A lot of them come either signed
or digitally signed by the authors
and I love a good signed book.
- [Nicole] Who doesn't- [Killian] but they are truly beautiful.
- But the problem is youget these subscriptions
and they are a monthly thing
and some of them limit thenumber of times you can skip.

(20:42):
So and a lot of them don't tell you
what the books are beforehand.
- [Nicole] Oh, that's what
I was gonna ask.- And-
- [Nicole] Like do you know ahead of time?
- [Killian] They will drophints, things like that.
And you can definitely find blogs
that will list like what everything
that they could figure out was.
- [Nicole] Okay.- [Killian] So do I
go through every month
and check what my subscriptions are
so I can skip things where needed?

(21:03):
Yes. Yes, I do.
But there are a lot of books that would
I have bought it if it wasn't, you know,
a FairyLoot book that I was out of skips
at the time or I was like,
well it doesn't sound bad
and I would like to keepmy skip for, you know,
a book that I really don't want.

(21:25):
So I have a lot of booksthat where I used to know,
have a lot of books that Iknew every single one of them.
And like if you named abook in my collection,
I could tell you where it was.
I can't do that.
- [Nicole] Okay.- [Killian] With my FairyLoot books.
- [Drew] And it's gottento the point with those
I canceled my FairyLootbecause I started realizing,
oh there are so many of these books
that I'm never going to read.
- [Niole] Oh.- [Drew] And That's cool.

(21:46):
I like them as art.- [Nicole] Sure.
- [Drew] But I don'tneed to be on this like
recurring basis for it.
So my FairyLoot shelves at home
have the sprayed edges facing out.
- [Nicole] Oh okay.- [Drew] Because they're there
for decoration.
- [Nicole] Yeah.- [Drew] You know,
I don't really care what the book is.
- [Nicole] Oh, okay.- [Drew] And a lot of mine are out,

(22:06):
are sprayed edge out as well.
Whether they're booksI'm interested in or not,
the edges are pretty.
- [Nicole] Cool.
- [Killian] They're just pretty.
- [Nicole] Well, and we'reseeing a little bit more of
that in like regular publishing too
where, you know, like"Impossible Creatures",
which was a book that I have talked about
in a previous podcast episode came

(22:29):
with red sprayed edgesthat just looks really cool
with the cover and we'reseeing more of that.
Even paperbacks, I saw paperbacks
that had sprayed edges and it was like
look at at you!- [Killian] Really, really frequent.
Whether it's a, like, Barnes & Noble
will often have an exclusive edition
and so sometimes it's the Barnes & Noble

(22:49):
exclusive sprayed edge,but other times it's just
that's how they'republishing it first and-
- [Nicole] Yeah.
- [Killian] I have mixedfeelings about them on
paperbacks just becausepaperbacks are so easy to beat up.
- [Nicole] Yeah, but grantedif they're just gonna live
on somebody's shelf as a decoration.
- [Nicole & Drew] Yeah. Yes- [Nicole] Then maybe it's okay
to have it as paperback.

(23:10):
- [Drew] It certainly showsthat it has the backing
of the whole marketing engine
of the publishing house behind them.
- [Nicole] Yeah.- [Drew] That they want you
to stop at the shelves and look at this.
- [Nicole] Right.- [Drew] And they're doing that
with the decorative covers
and with all of the embellishments
And just trying to give three

(23:31):
or four books a year per publishing house,
that sort of leg up.
- [Nicole] Yeah. Cool. Very cool.
Alright, well let's talkabout some of the covers
that we brought with us today.
- [Drew] Yeah.- [Nicole] All right, cool.
I kind of brought a smattering of things.
What do you guys have?

(23:51):
- [Drew] I have a collection.
I don't plan on talkingabout all of them, but.
- [Nicole] Okay.- [Killian] I have a few.
- [Nicole] Okay, cool.
I just wanna talk aboutthere's this paper back
that was on the new shelf in adult
and then I had walked pastit 'cause it was cover out.
And I was like, what is that?
And the title is "Greenteeth"by Molly O'Neill.

(24:15):
And I passed it by and I moved on,
but then one of mycoworkers was reading it
and she was like, look,you've gotta read this.
And she just slammed itdown on the desk next
to me and I was like, you know what?
I was already looking at it.
There was something about itthat I enjoyed about the cover
and I started reading it andit's freaking, it's so good.
I absolutely loved everything about it,

(24:37):
but didn't realize until halfwaythrough reading this book
that if you look reallyclosely at the cover,
there is like a spooky bit.
So, like, it's got a lot of plants
and it looks like it's aquatic, watery,
like lilies and stuff like that.
And you can see the letters of the title
and, you know, of coursethe author's name,

(24:59):
but if you look closelyyou can see the character,
and she is a Jenny Greenteeth
and she's got very sharp,creepy teeth and creepy eyes,
but she's just in thewater behind everything.
And I was like, oh my God,I love this even more now.
Like there was part ofit that drew me to it
to begin with and Ididn't even see all of it

(25:20):
until I got through a littlebit through this book.
So beautifully done. Absolutely loved it.
- [Killian] Okay, so when Iwas talking about typography
with like graphic stuff around it,
I kept looking at thatcover across the table
because like that's exactlywhat I'm talking about.
- [Nicole] All you see is the letters.
- [Killian] And then I didn't like,
and I could see the plants.
I was like, "this is cool". Okay, cool.
And then you mentioned the creepy bit

(25:41):
and you picked it up, and I saw it,
and my jaw dropped and I'm like,
I didn't even noticethat for everything else.
- [Nicole] Exactly.- [Killian] So yeah.
Wild.- [Nicole] Well done, well done.
- [Drew] Yep, unsurprisingly,
because I'm gonna talk about it again.
My favorite book series, GreenCreek Series by T.J. Klune.
I brought all four covers in here.
Those are dioramas that like an artist

(26:05):
put together and then took a picture
- [Nicole] Oh, really? No way.- [Killian] Wow.
- [Drew] Like there arebehind the scenes bits of it.
- [Nicole] I gotta get-- [Drew] Being made.
- [Nicole] Let me see this.- [Drew] And like everything
has layers to it and it's so intricate.
Like you-- [Nicole] Oh.
- [Drew] You can only buy the prints
from the artist for $125 a pop.
Like that is

(26:26):
how detailed they are.
- [Nicole] I can see like the texture,
and it looks like it's fabric and paper.
- [Drew] They're allmixed media materials.
- [Nicole] That's amazing.- [Drew] And then taken
pictures of them.- [Nicole] Again, did not notice.
- [Drew] Yep.- [Nicole] Because all I saw
was typically this from far away,
but that is really wonderful.
Nice. Awesome. Very cool.

(26:48):
- [Killian] I mentioned a book earlier,
I think I mentioned itor did I just mention it
When we were talking, I don't know,
(hosts laugh)
but I know I've talked about
"Siren Queen" on the podcast before.
One of my favorite books.
And it is a book that I picked up purely
because of the cover.
I had not heard of this bookor this author or anything.
And then Drew and I wereactually at a Barnes & Noble

(27:11):
and I went, oh my gosh, this cover.
And it is an up close photograph.
You've seen this.- [Drew] I have seen this.
- [Killian] It is an up close photograph
and it is just so beautifully composed
with this woman's face.
Very dark lipstick, somesmoke drifting and the hair.

(27:31):
And this whole book is set inthe golden age of Hollywood
and it very much fits that vibe.
And I don't know the booklike looked into my soul
and said, you need to take me home.
And I said, okay.- [Nicole] Heck yeah.
- [Killian] So here we are.- [Nicole] Not gonna argue
with you there.
That's awesome but cool. Ilove it. It's really beautiful.

(27:52):
- [Killian] Yeah, it's so good.
- [Nicole] Alright, well I wouldlike to invite our audience
to email us and let us know.
- [Drew] Please.- [Nicole] If you have any
thing you'd like to addto our conversation,
any favorite book covers,
or any time that you have seen a book

(28:12):
and you're like, what on Earthis going on with this thing?
You can email us and let us know
and we will talk about it on the air.
- [Killian] Send us cool book covers,
send us or weird book covers
- [Nicole] Absolutely.
- [Killian] And everything in between.
- [Nicole] Totally.And that's all for now.
We will see you next time.
Thank you for joining us for this episode
of Distracted Librarians.

(28:32):
- [Drew] Many thanks to BCTVfor their support in recording,
editing, and releasing this podcast.
And to the friends of the library
for sponsoring closedcaptioning on every episode.
- [Killian] If you have anyquestions or suggestions,
feel free to reach out tous at distracted@btpl.org.
- [Amanda] Until then,keep those pages turning
and those screens lighting up.

(28:53):
We'll catch you in the next episode.
- [Emily] The views and opinions expressed
in the Distracted Librarians podcast
do not necessarily reflect those
of Bloomfield Township, BloomfieldTownship Public Library,
Bloomfield Community Television,
the Birmingham Area Cable Board,
or its producers or production staff.
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