Judge a book by its cover?

There sure are a lot of book jackets in the news this week (see an earlier post on the jacket for Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom).

In July, Bloomsbury UK will release seven new covers for the Harry Potter books in an effort to draw new readers; profits are down 35% at the company, in part because it’s been a year without a Potter release. Chief executive Nigel Newton envisions this project as “a new look for a new generation of readers who did not grow up with the Harry Potter series coming out book by book.” (As a side note, do you have a favorite Potter cover? This isn’t a very creative answer, but I will always love the Mary GrandPré editions.)

And yesterday, there was an interesting story in the New York Times about a problem with e-books: people can’t see the book jacket when you’re reading in a public place, which in the past has been free advertising for publishers (not to mention a means for self-expression). Here’s an excerpt:

“There’s something about having a beautiful book that looks intellectually weighty and yummy,” said Ms. Wiles [a reader interviewed for the story], who recalled that when she was rereading “Anna Karenina” recently, she liked that people could see the cover on the subway. “You feel kind of proud to be reading it.” With a Kindle or Nook, she said, “people would never know.”

As I mentioned in a Best of the Blogs post a couple weeks ago, some writers have taken to blogging about books spotted in public places. The blogger at The Subway Book Club actually makes her TBR list based on what she sees others reading.

When was the last time you read a book based on a cover you saw in a public place? The NYT article mentions Chris Cleave’s Little Bee as book with an appealing jacket—which is funny, since last week I picked it up in a bookstore because the cover is so striking.