should you judge a book by its cover?

[@frankiesshelf]

let's choose to live in a world where this is my first attempt at uploading this

[@TheSeaSwells]

3:43 “also they’re not gay, Kit is a woman… *rolls eyes* Whatever.” Your reaction to Kit and Keith’s straightness is so relatable lmao

[@frankiesshelf]

literally so lame

[@Twinkdoesdrag]

@@frankiesshelf fr

[@2206lauretta]

That was the moment I subscribed :D

[@juliaroth9739]

your genuine distress at the font of the pink house is taking me out

[@bari_bari_bari]

I'm a book cover designer (I didn't design any of the ones in the video, don't worry) and I could listen to you roast book covers all day haha. And I implore everyone, PLEASE judge books by their covers! If you can't tell if you'd like a book based on the cover I designed, then I did a bad job! When designing a cover, I try to convey (in order of importance): 1) target age/gender demographic, 2) genre, and 3) vibes. You should be able to look at a book cover and tell whether it's YA romantasy or a spy thriller for my grandpa. Personal taste aside, I think all of the book covers you talked about in this video actually work well considering those factors. The Pink Hotel looks like a chick-flick thriller movie poster. You're right that Stories After the Sun should probably be darker, but I do think it looks like a trippy short story collection for millennials. The My Armenian Friend cover looks kind of dated and goofy to people in their 20s like us, but a lot of the elderly male authors I work with would love it, so I think it works. And Jack of Spades just screams old lady mystery/thriller haha. Great video! I'm happy I found your channel!

[@frankiesshelf]

yes!! they definitely all convey exactly what they needed to

[@morganchrisjohnryan1266]

i fricking love your channel please make a hundred thousand videos for the rest of forever

[@faultyfisher]

omg haven’t finished the entire video but all these stories you’ve talked abt sound like the description of someone’s fever dreams. totally have not commented this before bc this is the first time this video has ever existed on the internet ever 😊

[@frankiesshelf]

i was so sad to lose the comments on the first one 😭 love u for this

[@faultyfisher]

@@frankiesshelf glad to be doing my part 🫡

[@pleasantmelody]

i live in ukraine so most of my physical copies of books are in ukrainian/russian and well … the cover design is usually hideous in them … idk what it is about eastern european graphic designers but they need to step up their game … the covers are usually either super minimalist (which is boring) or the design doesnt fit the book itself as if the designer didnt even bother reading it first, or theyre just incredibly ugly!!! i can never win.. so i learned to ignore this for the most part 囧

[@frankiesshelf]

one of the books i considered reading for this was ukrainian and it was so damn ugly i know exactly what you’re talking about

[@osiris676]

Recently, I bought a book titled "Bored Gay Werewolf" because I thought the title was hilarious and the cover was a fluorescent green with a wolf head design just stuck in the middle of it. I whole-heartedly thought that this was a terrible decision but "for once I will buy a book due to its comically ugly cover". I read it. IT WAS ACTUALLY SO GOOD 🐺📗💚 I will keep an eye out for when the second volume will be released. Who would have thought ? Haha

[@katierucki276]

I just looked it up on Goodreads and that is an interesting cover! The tongue sticking out of the wolf’s mouth was an odd choice haha I’m glad you liked it!

[@osiris676]

@@katierucki276 Oh God I had forgotten about the thongue 😂 Haha Yeah. I really wonder why they designed it this way because the character this picture is supposed to represent is actually pretty deep. His personnality and the choices he makes along the plot/story made me reconsider my own life and relationships with people around me.

[@kailyncorey8267]

I love that you go to your library, I love the cozy vibes, I love how you talk about the books :)

[@frankiesshelf]

I LOVE THE LIBRARY!!! i’m very lucky to have a really good one

[@WhitmoreReads]

I was so invested in your telling of the Pink Hotel, I had breakfast, inched my chair closer to the television and laughed so hard. Do more 🤣🤣

[@smamsasmasmsmasmasmasamsas]

started reading ‘this thing between us’ per your recommendation and i dont know what to do with myself!!! im devastated and shocked and in awe and… idek. thank u

[@frankiesshelf]

omg im so happy i got someone to read it !! i hope you enjoy it as much as i did

[@its_eel]

okay i couldn't stop laughing at the cover of my armenian friend

[@frankiesshelf]

it’s SO silly

[@AnahiAndJustin]

you’re honestly becoming my favorite booktuber

[@PsichoPirate]

Love your chanel! And your cat's paw at 10:50 is so cute. Please consider a "complicated characters list" or controversial "people are complicated" books. (I recommend "Story of a Scoundrel" by Julia Navarro).

[@frankiesshelf]

ooh that sounds fun!! i love complex morally grey characters

[@milesambrose6490]

You’re making me miss my childhood days where I also would just read whatever I had access too. I lived in a small town with a small library and an even smaller school library and an even smaller classroom library so I definitely was a beggars could not be choosers. Also I’m Armenian and immigrated when I was young so I would definitely pick up My Armenian Friend for the title alone despite its hideous cover (although definitely laugh at it lol), but I was so pleased to learn it was actually good too. Definitely gonna add it to my list :)

[@helentriestodothings628]

I love your commentary!!

[@frankiesshelf]

thank you!!

[@helentriestodothings628]

@@frankiesshelf you’re very welcome!!

[@swamppig666]

crying cause i grabbed the pink hotel from a little free library solely cause i liked the cover 😭 but once you started picking it apart i now see all the flaws and hate it

[@frankiesshelf]

LMAOO compared to the stuff that’s usually in a little free library it’s a beautiful cover

[@SxnsetRosy]

the scene i imagined as you were describing the masquerade ball in the pink pony (what i assume to be the climax) was absolute chaos. you were right there was some shit that went down. drunk guy, bleeding dangling ear, spoiled kids so detached from life, i feel bad for that laundry lady. it was so random that i snapped back to attention during that scene and went "wait what is happening?" 😭😭

[@deborahmroy]

The way you’re talking about the pink hotel cover art. I relate so much to this. 😂

[@mischa6966]

New fav booktuber 🙌

[@Mercurzzzz]

LOVE THIS CONTENT! Literally so entertaining I could watch thousands of these ♥♥♥

[@wierecht]

the vibe!!!!!!🤌🏻🤌🏻🤌🏻 i love it! so funnyyyyy

[@KareemOsama-z3l]

I just love this channel 💕 you're awesome!! Love your commentary on every book.

[@torchlab]

great video! loved your review of the joyce carol oates book - her short story collection The Assignation is really good but it’s also from the early part of her career. i feel like she’s been kinda phoning it in for the past couple decades

[@frankiesshelf]

i’ll definitely check it out!! i would love to see some good work from her because i did feel like she was a good storyteller. at FIFTY EIGHT novels some of them are bound to be terrible

[@sercemwksiazkach]

This video was hilarious 😂 what a fun experiment. This year I read "A Perfect Waiter" by Alain Claude Sulzer and it had the ugliest cover I picked up in a while. And yet it turned out to be a 5-star read for me. It's gay and tells a story of an old man who unexpectedly receives a letter from the love of his life who left him over 30 years ago. It was unexpectedly poignant, a deep exploration of running away from your struggles and burying your hurt beneath a routine. It reminded me of Giovanni's Room a bit - the intensity of the romance and the tightness of the space around them. I loved this book. I judge covers 99,99% of the time but this time I ignored it and found a fave lol

[@danimations1440]

I used to follow you on TikTok like five years ago when I had TikTok and I thought you were really cool and I liked the Impressionism wall and now (obviously) I’ve found your KZbin channel and I really enjoy the way you think and explain the things you believe

[@adelinarada]

Dude, as a graphic designer, I too understand your hate for the drop shadow effect.

[@delayzaziegler5227]

my favorite booktuber

[@akathereader]

I love your channel so much wtf 😭

[@leicean]

Yay!!! So glad we got to see the whole video 😂😊

[@bixiella7830]

nothing like choosing the fugliest book at the library that you've never heard of and it being amazing!

[@martymcflown3707]

The cover of My Armenian Friend really was giving that meme of the cat in a cowboy hat yodeling on the horizon.

[@onourpath]

You might check out Mammother by Zachary Schomburg. The cover is creepy and weird, but the story is super, deliciously creepy and amazing! 💚

[@frankiesshelf]

that looks so weird and unsettling i’m so into it !!

[@ariannefowler455]

The first 16:45 min of this video was wild. How am I supposed to recover from The Pink Hotel and continue the video? How?! 🤣My biggest takaway's: 1) I've clearly been way too generous with book cover fonts. No more. I will now judge brutally. If I have to get out a magnifying glass to analyze the edges, I will do it. 2) Your cat is everything.

[@Brina1996]

I read Daddy Love by Joyce Carol Oates and she does the same exact thing for the black characters in that one too! Personally I just didn’t like her writing style either, I’ll probably never read another one of her books 😭

[@imani877]

i thought it was gonna get more normal after the hotel one… i was WRONG. trying to describe all theses stories would send me into a spiral.

[@frankiesshelf]

it genuinely took so much brain power to keep track of all these ridiculous books

[@paiger]

I recently learned that authors have no control over the cover art for their books and it's always the publisher ... imagine the heartbreak of writing a whole book only to be given a hideous cover

[@vanilla_cream5198]

ngl i was hoping the hotel manager and keith would get together in the first book

[@kunpunko]

u are getting me into reading again thank u

[@isabelleharris6480]

“They’re not gay, whatever” haahha that’s my attitude whenever i find myself reading about cishet people lol

[@frankiesshelf]

i felt like i got scammed

[@fireatwilliam]

THANK YOU!!! FINALLY!!! IVE BEEN SAYING THIS🙏🙏

[@kreakrew]

my great grandparents had a photo that looks exactly like the cover of my armenian friend... this is so Silly

[@VI_QC]

I truly believe after the sun is what dreams feel like- 27:07 “then it goes back to the beach boy.. he turns into a shrimp” like huh 😭

[@elleg5737]

If something is listed as being on a longlisted - specifically the Booker international it means it was one of the 12 selected before they pick the final shortlist (6 books) and the the winner. To be eligible for the international Booker, the books have to have been translated into English - not be published in the U.K.

[@frankiesshelf]

i’m aware of that - i’m saying that this was not the longlist, it was just every eligible book and it DOES have to be published in the uk to be eligible but you’re right that the other requirement is that it’s translated to english

[@socorroai7232]

My armenian friend looks like one of those random books you find in the library that you've never heard of but it says Now a major motion picture on the bottom

[@cs0p]

i cant front i wanna take a bite of the JCO book cover it's so ugly sumptuous

[@frankiesshelf]

like a mouthful of styrofoam

[@Nagchampa765]

The pink hotel cover looks exactly like a trixie motel advertisement lol

[@myoldmanbaby]

Haha. You are amazing. I loved this. :)

[@roisind9355]

Is it bad I really like the Jack of Spades cover? Maybe get rid of the shadow but other than that…. It’s kinda pretty, maybe I need help

[@ChanelChapters]

You crack me up 😂

[@queeni8054]

fern, this was my first video. im obsessed.

[@sidbar11]

Interesting video idea!!!

[@treesspeaklatin8950]

You look like goob as a kid in meet the robinsons

[@Shelf_Improvement]

Large print is the best. Always opt for large print.

[@joodii99]

“The girl with the blue eyes” lol that’s how they cast her actually “we need a girl with blue eyes, what’s Alexandra Daddario up to these days?”

[@dxhyunjin]

Theory of after the sun: they’re all aliens

[@squizzybug]

one example of not judging a book by their cover at least for me was earthlings lol I thought that was ust gonna be a cute book

[@frankiesshelf]

earthlings is so deceiving omg it couldn’t be more different than the cover

[@ihaverabies]

jack of spades cover is giving saw and i love saw

[@IngeSometimes]

I think maybe because I work in publishing, I am intrigued by an ugly cover and will often pick it up. It's not always the case, but some authors can be very adamant about what their covers look like and will have the final say. It's unfortunate because one can miss out on an amazing book by its terrible cover.

[@paige9065]

everyone i know from reno loves gas station beef jerky and mcdonalds hashbrowns

[@Sierra222__]

When you post a new KZbin video I feel like the Holy Spirit has descended down upon me.

[@Adanonasad]

East of Eden mentioned = 👍

[@Juliana-Bub]

I'm subscribing because I also complain about typefaces. 😂

[@lydiahunger7036]

On the other hand you have really pretty covers and the inside is (shit) boring, all the same mary sue romantasy

[@Nina77722]

You’re so funny I love you so much

[@IdgieT]

i could watch a full video of you just talking shit about book covers

[@MrRosebeing]

No, no you shouldn't. Just putting it out there. There's an old saying that I think applies, but I can't quite remember it...Oh, yeah, it's "Don't judge a book by its cover, just read the darned thing". I'm paraphrasing, of course. I'm sorry you didn't enjoy what you read, other books are available.