When did this regularly become a thing? It’s become so annoying venturing out of the non-fictional realm and having these books look just like the **** I normally have to read. It’s supposed to be “fun”
There's some old saying regarding this... Don't value the goods by the Baggy shorts or something... A principle that could be applied to books too, maybe
I'd suggest the dictionary but I just checked and mine came with little drawings in it. So be careful.
Okay okay, on topic, I actually prefer the opposite- the most neutral, least "fun" covers for me, for a few reason. JUst nicer to me, understated. And puts no preconceived notions in your mind, images of the universe the story exists in, or how some artist chooses to depict characters- The worst are when you get an otherwise good book printed after the movie comes out, and you can't unsee matt damon or tom cruise face as you're reading. And if I'm reading in public, I want it to at least be possible I'm reading something academic, not my usual flavor of the month NYT disposable thriller or magical sword of the fantasy land style escapism (I put on airs).
Publishing, like every other written word source of employment, has been destroyed by the internet. They can't afford to commission prestige artists like back in the old days. There was a reddit thread from several years back about someone who uploaded a photo to a photo nerd website who was contacted by a publisher and paid something like $100 to have their photo used by a publisher for a book cover. Back in the 60's and 70's artists were paid multiple hundreds (much more with inflation) and communicated with authors about what they wanted.
