Woman Reading

How many out there go through a state of euphoria when purchasing a new book?  I know that when I actually buy a beautiful book in print, particularly hardback, there's this period of time when I just hold it, admire it, stroke it.  I put it on my shelf then step back and smile at how well it gets along with its shelf-mates.  At that point I again remove it from the shelf just to flip again through those glorious pages.  If it's a series with previous books I take all of them down together and line them up on a table to admire and even take a picture of, either to send to Facebook/Instagram, or to send a friend to gloat or squee over.

an example

Ah... so pretty...

Anyway, this is a ritual for me.  It is because of that very important ritual that I like the covers of my books to be unmarred.  I want pristine books, at LEAST when purchasing them!  

So, imagine my reaction when I have Rick Riordan's new House of Hades picked up for me from Target (not quite as expensive as Barnes & Noble) and this is what I see!

Do you see it?!  That offensive little red and white sticker!  And my copy had TWO, the one seen in the image AND a 20% off sticker.  Okay folks, stickers are the devil.  I work in a fulfillment warehouse for publishers and those little gross offenders are our nightmare.  The hours spent peeling them off books from returns, and the residue that's left on them... sometimes cartons of books are destroyed just because we can't get those stubborn f*ckers off.  So, from a work perspective, they're terrible.  From a personal standpoint, long before I began working where I work, they were always my biggest pet peeve when I purchased a book.  The very first thing I do, and I mean the very first, is walk out the bookshop door and peel those suckers off and throw them away.  They are atrocities.  And even worse, the times they won't come off!  When you're sitting there scraping with a fingernail and the book is smudged and gunky and you can feel the frustration boiling up inside you.  Why oh why, stores, what would possess you to put stickers directly on a beautiful book like that??

So, a note from me to you, NO stickers.  Not on the covers to advertise some sale, or the cost... especially at B&N when the cost is the same as the cover price!  What's the point?!   No stickers.  Not even the magnetic little strip or square inside to protect from theft.  Figure something else, sucka!  It's not like a skirt at a retail shop and you have some handy little tool to easily remove it.  Coming from a bibliophile, it is blasphemy!  I promise.

So that there's no confusion, let me list out my main book gripes for easy reference.  

A Book Buyers Gripes

1. STICKERS! for all the reasons listed above.

2. Why isn't there a way to replace a dust jacket?  I know extra dust jackets exist out there.  We store them here for our publishers, and on occasion mail them out.  So, why is it when I call they act like I'm an idiot.  I can't be the only one with torn or missing dust jackets.  I can't imagine that there aren't others out there who would love a way to replace them.  If I'm alone on this one, please let me know, lol.  The gorgeous images aren't printed onto the book, they're printed onto the dust jacket, thus are just as important to me.

3. Changing the graphics of a series in the middle!  That's just cruel.  For those publishers out there who don't know, there are a lot of us in the world who don't just buy books to read them.  The beautiful covers and sequence of images on them are also the reason why we buy them and display them in our homes.  So, it is more than annoying when you've been collecting a series and halfway through the concept of the covers completely change.  What are we supposed to do?  Re-buy the entire series again??  Yeah, you'd like that wouldn't you!  At least not from this lady; consider it a form of protestation.  

Picture me scowling

4. Do not re-release a book just to capitalize on a movie by changing the cover of the book to actors.  If a fan wants to read City of Bones, trust me she'll find it even without Lily Collins and Jamie Bower Campbell on the dang cover.  (And do NOT put a damn sticker on it!)

5. And lastly, after this I'm done, I have always wanted to find prints of my favorite book covers (from favorite books of course, I'm not a poser) to frame and hang on my walls as artwork.  I would think that publishers would have thought of this years ago, selling prints.  It seems like a moneymaker.  I know you can find some out there, like To Kill a Mockingbird or The Great Gatsby, but how about newer books.  Ones like these:

Unless someone can point me to some place I've never been ever to find, this concept doesn't exist.  (I believe you actually can buy print work from A Monster Calls, however I want the actual cover, with the words.)

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(deep breath)

Whew... that was cathartic.  I feel much better now.  This has been stewing around in my head since I sat and picked the stickers off my new Percy Jackson book, and I feel a ton lighter after getting it off my chest.  So thank you to any who listened.  

(If anyone would like to add any, feel free to let me know and I'll add them to a list.  It's a constantly moving target, which I am happy to adjust.)