Friday, December 28, 2007

Stickers!!

I am rather frustrated by something that I see more and more. This is the curse of stickers. Now I am not opposed to stickers in general, as a matter of fact, I love them. They can be shiny or fuzzy or politically incorrect or... you know what I mean. But there are some places such sticky backed items are not to go. And that is a book. On books or in them I see these random blemishes. And half of them have to do with movies.

Allow me to set the scene. You are calmly perusing a bookstore, secure in your literacy. Then you remember. Ah! I have ten dollars in my pocket and that book just came out in paperback. So you mosey on over to the section where said text is to be found and you pull it from the shelf, feeling its weight reassuringly in your hands. You turn it over to view the lovely cover art and ... BANG! KAPOW! NEON GLARE! Half of the title has been covered by a painfully fluorescent sticker announcing:

Soon to be a major motion picture, summer of...

Heart heavy, you purchase it and bring it to the solace of your home. After peering at the sticker for the entire ride home you are well aware that there is to be a movie in the summer of ... so you suppose it is time to scrape the offender from the surface. But when you try the label is obstinate and only half tears away to leave icky white refuse on your cover. You settle in to read the novel and enjoy it thoroughly, but are always faintly aware of that obscene mark on the front. Not like I've had any experience like that. Now tell me dear readers. Am I crazy (don't answer that Medeia)? Or does this bother you as well?

Scraping book covers,

Aella Siofra



6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I completely agree with you, Aella. And what about when you pick up a book that has a "64 million copies sold!!!" sticker on it? It's almost as though the book is trying to prove something to you... "Buy me because loads of other people love me!"... I mean really... Think about it, odds are if a book is that popular one of those 64 million book owners will have told us about it... We don't need stickers telling us what to read...

Anonymous said...

Oh and Aella, you should take my poll too... we can do a post on it when the poll closes... so, choose: Jacob or Edward?

Anonymous said...

yes, but stickers are better than when they actually print those things on the book.

i hate cover defacing of any kind, including obnoxious blurbs.

Bri said...

So sad... so sad. I totally agree. Stickers don't belong on books. Cover designers work so hard to make the books pretty and then they slap an ugly sticker all over their work. So sad... :(

Aislinn Ai said...

Or '20% OFF!!!' stickers! ARGH!

I hate it when they print those things on the cover announcing something... like 'EXTRA CONTENT!!'
What are they called? Bursts? Yes, that's it.
I HATE THOSE.

-- Aislinn Ai

Anonymous said...

like Specials!
permenently printed on the cover of my long-awaited paperback is a big pink circle telling me i can read the first chapter of Extras. i know! you don't need to tell me again!
it looks like Tally's wearing some kind of large circular pink earring. which Special Tally would probably never do...