When I go on holiday I love going into bookshops and finding different editions of books I’ve read. Sometimes I even buy them! (See the copy of Eleanor & Park I bought in Barcelona. It has SUCH LOVELY THICK PAGES aah.) And since I haven’t done much book design appreciation in a while, I thought I’d share with you some of my favourite non-UK book covers!
I realise that obviously ‘international’ is going to be different for everyone since we all live in different places, but in this context I’m going for editions that aren’t available where I live. For a comparison, the non-UK one is on the left and the UK one is on the right. 🙂
1. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell (Indonesian edition) I do absolutely adore the UK edition of Fangirl — I mean, hello, Noelle Stevenson — but I thought this one was super adorable! I love the sort of craft/home-y feel it has. And the texture is LOVELY. It’s a lot less slick than the UK (and US) ones, despite their now iconic pink/green colour schemes.
2. My True Love Gave to Me (US edition)
LOOK AT THIS. LOOK AT ALL THE TINY PEOPLE. I am endlessly upset that we didn’t get this in the UK. I mean, at least the winter and summer ones do go well together, but… IT’S NOT THE SAME. I wanted all the tiny people and nice illustrations. *cries*
3. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (Chinese edition)
MAN, the ink stains here. *shakes head* They are really killing me. Although The Hunger Games has gone through many redesigns, I thought this one was rather nice! But, er, I’ve been using Google Translate to tell me where each edition is from if the summary isn’t a language I recognise, and it has produced a truly stellar one here:
“When I woke up the other half of the bed was cold . I reached tackling sister Sakura warm body, but only a mattress covered with coarse single touch. She certainly has had a nightmare, climbed mom went to bed. of course she would have nightmares, today is the day of the draw.” Thus began the novel.
Don’t use Google Translate for your homework, peoples! 😛 Although it is interesting to see how Prim has been turned into Sakura. ANYWAYS. Back to the task at hand.
4. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by JK Rowling (Italian edition)
Many kudos to the colour scheme on this. The purple and the white glowing Patronus are seriously working for me. It actually sort of reminds me of the new Bllomsbury editions available? (Of course I didn’t buy the whole set, be quiet.)
Bonus: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Persian edition) …yes, I know. This is completely insane. Where to look? The weird very non-Harry 8 year old, the badly edited figures at the bottom, the scenes fading in and out of each other. I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT TO THINK.
5. The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger (Arabic edition)
I always feel like classics don’t get very good covers — often it tends to be super plain. Maybe that’s because everyone has a different idea of the story so they don’t want to spoil it? But anyway, that annoys me a lot. This one is absolutely lovely, though! Asdfjkl THE ILLUSTRATION. Holden’s face. That is impressive.
6. Radio Silence by Alice Oseman (US edition) I don’t mind the UK edition, but I don’t feel like it suits the book as well as the US one does. Faces tend to be a bit naff and the UK picture doesn’t suit Frances at all! SHE DOES NOT HAVE A NOSE PIERCING EVERYONE. It makes her seem way more supposedly ‘badass’ than she is. That’s not what this book is about. *huffs* I can’t complain too much, though, since the book hasn’t even come out in the US yet haha.
7. Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas (Spanish edition) I’m a VERY big fan of minimalism and monochrome. I’ve never loved the Throne of Glass covers, to be honest, but I actually think this one is awesome! (The catchline font could be changed. But otherwise awesome.)
So that concludes my book covers! If you fancy checking some different editions out, then I find the Goodreads list of different editions extremely useful. And yes, sometimes I do browse Goodreads covers for fun. DON’T LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT. 😉 A reminder: this is a scheduled posts, and I am currently away with no wifi. But I’m very keen to discuss the merits of various book covers when I return!
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