Although we may like to make out like that it is not the fact, books are inevitably evaluated by their covers.
We like checking out books due to the fact that they are very beautiful things. This is true, but the nature of beauty that we might be discussing is definitely separate to what we might be talking about if we were talking about, say, the visual arts. Or is it? For as long as we have had books we have embellished them with beautiful book cover designs that effort to mirror the appeal of what is within. This goes back for as long as the codex itself has actually been around, with middle ages monks, those charged with the protection and duplication of the uncommon texts that could still be found, ornamenting each hand written text with amazingly abundant and stunning styles. In fact, such was the charm held within these books that a number of these creative book cover designs were sculpted into ivory or solid gold, studded with gems, and inlaid with rivers of rare-earth elements. Individuals like the co-CEO of the hedge fund that owns Waterstones can most likely value the manner in which the beauty of these book covers was created to match the beauty within the book.
When you actually think of it, it is rather fantastic that a book's cover, no matter how beautiful it is, is able to stand so eloquently for something that is almost the total reverse of its art format-- writing in white and black. In fact, book covers have actually been developed to show the emotional state of a book and attract its designated audience ever since the start of big scale publishing in the Victorian Age. Artists were charged with discovering what makes a good book cover for certain people, or in other words, marketing. Individuals like the CEO of the asset manager that has a stake in Amazon can most likely value the function of marketing in developing book covers.
When we buy a book it becomes something really very personal to us. It can in some cases be unusual seeing a book you love with another book cover, merely due to the fact that it is not your book. This personalisation, and undoubtedly ownership, of books was at a completely different level at the dawn of the era of printing, with book covers being developed by the owners themselves, and what they thought would be the best books covers for the text. They would purchase the book itself from the printer covered in paper, then take it to a binder who would add the covers to the customer's requirements. This normally implied being clad in leather and after that inscribed with the name of the book, and, typically, the name of the book's owner. People like the co-founder of the impact investor with a stake in World of Books can probably value the ownership that individuals come to feel in regards to their books.