Top 5 Wednesday – My Favourite Types of Covers

“Top 5 Wednesday” is a weekly meme currently hosted on Goodreads by Sam of Thoughts on Tomes in which you list your top 5 for the week’s chosen topic. This week’s topic is “favourite covers” but it felt a little too general, and then I saw that Acqua from Acquadimore Books did a post on the types of covers she doesn’t like. So I thought I’d talk about the five kinds of things I love seeing on covers.

 

Airships

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My obsession with airships started when I was in my early teens with the Final Fantasy games, which then branched off into my obsession with steampunk in general. So nothing gets me going like seeing one (or multiple ones *swoon*) plastered over the cover of a book. If I could be reborn in a steampunk world, I’d want to pursue a career as an airship engineer (no, not the captain; I wouldn’t trust myself to lead us anywhere other than the fiery arms of death).

 

Corvids Birds in Flight

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Fantasy is as obsessed with crows and ravens as it is with using “Blood” and “Assassin” in its titles, so it’s only natural that we’d see them in so many covers. I see that as a good thing because I love those beady little critters. They’re ridiculously clever and they teach you to treat all living things with respect because, otherwise, they’ll dive-bomb you (and your dog) to hell and back.

You may notice that The Ninth Rain bucks the trend by showing not a corvid, but–*gasp*–an eagle on the cover. The nerve! Clearly the black sheep of the family.

 

Black, Red, and White

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Say what you will about Twilight series, but the covers are a brilliant display of simplicity and colour contrast and I used to salivate over that apple. There’s no sexier colour combination to me than these three.

 

White Space

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Who says white is boring? Sometimes a white background is louder and more impactful than a busy, colourful one, as it allows allows the objects on the cover to “pop”. It’s again, super sexy–but in the opposite spectrum.

 

Celestial

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There’s a reason why humans have stared up at the night sky for so many millennia dreaming of things greater than ourselves. I love star-gazing–it fills me with calm and wonder and just a bit of loneliness (but the good kind)–so it’s no surprise that I’m drawn to covers with celestial themes.

These types of covers never fail to be awe-inspiring, whether you imagine yourself as a spaceship captain chasing starlight or just a person on Earth gazing up into the possibilities of what might be, could be, will be. The three above covers are my favourite examples this year.

 

flourish

A special shoutout to “wolf” covers which I also love but couldn’t find enough examples of! What are some things you like seeing on book covers?

44 thoughts on “Top 5 Wednesday – My Favourite Types of Covers”

  6. acquadimore says:
    Reply

    I love all of these too – especially the celestial ones, Fire Dance looks so pretty and unlike every other cover I know. The Last Song Before Night one was also beautiful, but this one is even better (…and I need to read them)
    And airships! I like them too, because steampunk. I didn’t know any of the books you used as examples but airships are part of the reason I love the cover of The Black God’s Drums so much.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Kathy @ Pages Below the Vaulted Sky says:
      Reply

      I could look at the Fire Dance cover all day and not even notice the time passing by. It just sucks you right in. Like a black hole. And I should really read The Black God’s Drums sometime! I don’t think I’ve read a single steampunk book so far this year, which is crazy, so that’s something I need to remedy. 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

  7. auroralibrialis says:
    Reply

    I love this! So many pretty covers to stare at 😍 My favorite types of covers are celestial, florals and really beautifully illustrated ones, like the ones we see a lot of in middle grade. I find airships so aesthetic, but sadly I’m not that into steampunk. So it’s cover lust only!

    Like

  13. Ally Writes Things says:
    Reply

    omg I agree with so many of these! Airships are so good and always suck me in! Airborn is one of my favourites ever, mainly because of the airship theme! And I love the birds theme as well! This was such an interesting take on the theme this week, I love it!

    Liked by 1 person

  14. Gerry@TheBookNookUK says:
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    Good twist on the theme, I likes it!

    I also like ravens/ crows, celestial themes & white space. I think you’re right… white space makes images pop and black allows for good colour contrast.

    Now I want to find a book called The Bloodraven Assassin because that would tick all naming requirements 😛

    Liked by 1 person

  16. Captain's Quarters says:
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    If ye love ravens and such then ye may like the non-fiction book called the ravenmaster. It is about the ravens at the Tower of London. I haven’t read it yet but it sounds fun so I thought I would give ye a heads up. Nice cover choices by the way. I be partial to ships of any kind. Arrr!
    x The Captain

    Liked by 1 person

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  22. Kristina says:
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    Ohh Celestal and white backgrounds is one of mines too !!
    mhh- I don’t have too many I can think of right off the bat, but I do love thoses covers where you have small doodles or writings all around, i’m thinking of “A totally awkward love story” by Tom Ellen & Lucy Ivision. The pink one with handwritten words all around the front cover among little hearts and various boy and girl “images” (?).

    I love your take of this top 5’s topic xx

    Liked by 1 person

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