I Know You Judge a Book By Its Cover.

    

   

     Ever since I was a small child it has been drilled into me that you must never judge anything on appearance alone; places, people and most importantly of all – books. No matter what picture happens to be on the front or what title is written down the spine – you must never judge a book by its cover.

   

         However, as much as this phrase had been force fed to me over the years, I still haven’t quite absorbed it. As I walk through Waterstones on a lazy Sunday afternoon my eyes fly restlessly around the room, searching for a place to land. I skim over the dull looking books sporting grey or black dust jackets, barely giving them a second glance before I move on. I finally settle on a bright red book decorated with white sparrows that stands in a crowd of navy and dark purple – ‘Ketchup Clouds’ by Annabel Pitcher. I read the blurb with a smile; it is exactly the kind of book I want to buy. I am guilty, but I enjoy it immensely.

   

         This is almost always my tactic when book shopping and it has not failed me yet. Unless a friend has particularly recommended something, I will not pick up a book that doesn’t catch my eye. I have betrayed the golden rule of reading. But I am not sorry. When you think about it, there is no other way to shop for books. When in a bookshop you are faced with the mammoth task of deciding which book you will buy out of the hundreds in the room. Yes, you could pick each book up and read them one by one until you find the few that you like, but that could take hours for only one section of the shop.

     

       You can’t pick up everything, so how do you decide what to focus your attention on without looking at the cover of the book? You don’t. The most efficient way to find something you like is to search for the colours you like. We pick up the bright ones because they are the ones with the most obvious advertising. And as much as you may not want to hear it – the system works.  

  

          I have found, during my many Waterstones adventures, that the authors of the kind of books I fall in love with are also the authors who print books with bright, eye-catching covers. Now, this may just as easily be because the books I tend to buy are the ones with colourful covers. All I know is that my favourite bookshelf is a violently beautiful mess of reds and oranges and blues.

           However, despite my tendency towards book cover racism, I still remain open to just about everything. Though when buying books I’m more likely to pick up the books with a spine of neon yellow, this is because they are the most obvious. I still remain opinion-less about all books until I have read them – I just get a little bit more excited for the pretty ones. I firmly believe that the colour of the cover does not affect the quality of the content inside.

     

       I don’t think there is anything wrong with being charmed by illustration or vibrancy. We as humans are practically programmed to enjoy pretty things from the get-go. That does not exclude books. So what if I would prefer to buy the bright blue copy of ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ as opposed to the movie edition?! That doesn’t mean that my enjoyment of the story differs between the two styles. All it means is that I might just quite enjoy the colour blue. Is that really so bad?

  

          I know this is not a popular opinion. I understand why we must never use this theory on people, but why not judge books by their covers?  We all have preferences and interests. Even the most self-righteous readers are prone to ‘accidentally’ forgetting to consider the beige book in the top corner of the shelf. We all do it without even thinking. Really, we’re all a little bit book-cover-racist.  And I say that that is okay.

            

Rainbow List of Must-Reads: Green - How To Be a Woman

This is the Rainbow List of Must-Reads: Where I review a different one of my favourite books each week! Fourth on our list we have a green book with a green cover:

How to Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran

    

        I’ve finally worked out what I want to be when I get older. When I grow up I want to be Caitlin Moran. She is my idol; the woman is wonderfully witty with a wicked sense of humour; she’s met countless of my favourite musicians and celebrities; she had this brilliant outlook on life; and she is the author of my current favourite book – ‘How to Be a Woman’

   

         Having read everything Waterstones’ Teen Fiction section had to offer, I was wandering round the shop in search of something to fill my empty holiday hours with. I’m generally reluctant to pick up fiction from the main adult section as in previous experiences the books I have picked up have been heavy, complicated or rife with sex scenes, but after a good twenty minutes of dragging my family around every section in the shop I realise that if I don’t pick something soon they would physically remove me from the building with no book with whatsoever.

  

         Taking Caitlin Moran’s ‘How to be a Woman’ off of the shelves I was a little bit apprehensive. I don’t usually read non-fiction, it’s never been something I really enjoyed, but as I rushed for time I remembered all the people who had recommended the book to me and decided that it was going to have to do.

  

          I opened the book as soon as I got home and within the first few chapters had fallen head-over-heels in love with it. I’ll admit menstruation and pubic hair aren’t usually the kind of topics that float my boat, but when Caitlin Moran spoke of her own experiences with them I found myself actually laughing out loud at the wonderful honesty.  She somehow manages to speak about them without making the reader feel uncomfortable. Moran is rude – but she isn’t disgusting.

  

          The theme of the book is feminism and woman’s issues. Usually a heavy topic tackled by the more fierce women and in a slightly aggressive tone, Moran manages to use light-hearted chat and humour to teach us women that really we should all call ourselves feminists – whether we like it or not. Moran teaches us that feminism isn’t really anything to do with man-hating or aggression – as is the stereotype – but more just basic common sense. In fact, Moran was so persuasive in her argument that I suddenly found myself standing on a chair yelling ‘I AM A FEMINIST!’ at my poor mum as if in a Moran-induced trance.

           Her charming way of taking the piss out of everything managed to change my mind on quite a few things actually. I will admit that I used to be slightly wary of Lady Gaga and her extravagant outfits, but after reading about Moran’s time in a sex club with the lady in question, I was playing ‘Bad Romance’ on repeat and googling pictures of the infamous meat dress.

I have even drawn a picture of the woman in question

The book is brilliant; I loved every bit of it. I honestly cannot fault it. There’s something quite relatable about Caitlin Moran. She’s impossibly cool and she’s led this amazing life talking to amazing people, but when reading the book you kind of feel like she’s just down the road and you could pop round for a cup of tea. She just seems so genuine.

The book uncovered this womanly pride in me that I never really knew was there. After reading ‘How to Be a Woman’ a woman seemed the very best thing that one could possibly be. Feminism no longer seemed like the angry, un-attractive thing that its stereotype once presented it as. With Caitlin Moran, if you’re a feminist, you pretty damn kickass!

Caitlin Moran is the kind of author I want to be my best friend for life and her book, ‘How to Be a Woman’ gave me this new kind of self-confidence I never really knew I was missing. There were really no other comparable candidates for this spot on the list.

You can find out more about Caitlin Moran here!

You can read the other reviews in the Rainbow List of Must-Reads here: Red, Orange, Yellow