Top Ten Tuesday: Typographic book covers #toptentuesday #thepowerofwords

Posted on by BonnieReadsAndWrites

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish and is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each week a new theme is suggested for bloggers to participate in. Create your own Top Ten list that fits that topic – putting your unique spin on it if you want. Everyone is welcome to join but please link back to The Artsy Reader Girl in your own Top Ten Tuesday post.

TOP TEN TYPOGRAPHIC BOOK COVERS: Covers that are all or mostly all words.

These are in no particular order, and I haven’t read all of them.

Fredrik Backman’s choice of putting large words over scenic backgrounds works well.

A large title, vibrant colors, and a caricature make this cover appealing. Both the author’s name and title are prominently displayed.

I don’t think we can get a better example than this.

The Dune series is another great example. The book title is prominently displayed, and the background transports us to the story.

This is a murder mystery, and the main character is Julia Child’s best friend. It is made up to look like the cover of Julia’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.”

Prominent letters with art inside of them. The author is so famous, of course, that his name alone could sell the book.

Prominent words with a simple sketch.

This is not only incredibly intriguing but gives us an association with the book.

Very simple lettering with basic colors really draws you in. A book review becomes a part of the cover design. (As a reviewer, I approve!)

What do you think of typographic covers in general? Do any other spring to mind for you?

Published by BonnieReadsAndWrites

I love to read and write book reviews in my free time. I review advance review copies of books on Netgalley for various publishers. I am also a reviewer for Historical Novels Review Magazine, the magazine of the Historical Novel Society. I review books from publishers of all size, large to small. I have a special place in my heart for indie authors. I will sometimes post a little writing that I might dabble in occasionally. I also am lucky enough to live in the Smoky Mountains, so I'll be sharing photos of the beauty around me from time to time.

41 thoughts on “Top Ten Tuesday: Typographic book covers #toptentuesday #thepowerofwords”

  3. Hi Bonnie!

    I love all your books and I’ve read quite a few of them. That cover for Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close has to be my favorite. I also have Eat, Pray, Love and I know Debbie has Dune as well.

    An Object of Beauty is a great choice! The art of mastering French Murder seems like a great read, I will have to take a closer look.

    Have a great Tuesday!

    Elza Reads

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  4. I read Bear Town at the weekend and it is phenomenal, I loved it – it’s coming second in my top 10 books of the year – right behind Lessons in Chemistry!

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  6. This was an interesting post, Bonnie. I never thought about covers this way. I think I prefer covers with images, but some of these were beautiful and clever (like Martin’s and Gilbert’s). My favorites by far are the Dune covers. So visual and vibrant! Those made me say, “Ooooh.” Lol.

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  21. I didn’t include Eat Pray Love on my list because I focused only on cozies, but that was the first book I thought of with this challenge. 🙂

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  22. I love good typography on book covers. Sometimes a plain text design can be boring but sometimes the designer can do amazing things with just text. I’ve seen so many examples this week and it has been fascinating. Love the cover of Dune especially, even though I didn’t like the book. (Makes no difference to cover love!)

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