Friday, July 1, 2011

I'm Back, and Look What I Found...

Look, look! Pretty German covers!


I always think it's so interesting and fun to see how publishers in different countries choose to change the covers of books. I snapped a few photos (I would have more, but the rest of my family was begging me to get on with it) to post. These are from a bookstore in Basel (or is it Basle? I saw it spelled both ways) in Switzerland.

First, we have The Hunger Games in German. I really really like these covers. They are definitely in competition with the American covers. And the blood dripping off the leaves on the first is so creepy but so great. Plus I love the translation.
The Hunger Games
Direct Translation: The Tributes of Panem
I'd seen these two covers on Kristin Cashore's website, but I loved seeing them in person.
Graceling
Fire


I actually saw tons of Cornelia Funke in multiple bookstores. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure she writes all her books in German first, and then translates them into the English versions.
Inkheart & Inkspell
There are so many versions of Harry Potter covers out there, and I'd never actually seen these. It's kind of strange to think that these are the covers people are used to in Switzerland. All the characters look so weird to me because I've been visualizing the GrandPre illustrations for so long.
Harry Potter 1-6

Harry Potter 1-6 Box Set

The Tales of Beedle the Bard

Harry Potter 7
The newest Artemis Fowl. Not quite how I envisioned it, but oh well.
Artemis Fowl: The Atlantis Complex
German Edition
I read this just before I left, so it was lots of fun to see it while I was there. The cover is pretty much the same as the American one, though.
The Warlock (The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel)
Again, more Cornelia Funke. I really like this one in English.
Dragon Rider
The Bartimaeus books. It's cool that they have matching covers, but again, I guess I have a bias toward what I'm used to.
The Bartimeus Books
The German/ Swiss publishers of Matched did a beautiful job with this cover. Of all the ones I saw, this is the one I really wanted to buy a copy of and take home with me.
Matched

A whole shelf of Matched!
And I also found English Books, but with German covers.




(Couldn't find a copy of Catching Fire, sorry!)



So, thoughts on all the different covers?

It's great to be back. Until later,

3 comments:

eaglescry said...

I love seeing other countries' covers to different books; especially ones I've read and love. It's cool to see the ones for the Hunger Games. They're pretty, but they're all kind of the same. Graceling's cool. When I first looked at the cover for Graceling here, I really just classified it as another teen fantasy novel, but it's not!!! It's so good!!! Do you know what "die" means? Cuz it shows up in a lot of the titles. Harry Potter just looks weird. Too weird. Weirder even than the ones in Spanish. Some of those are cool but in the one for the 7th one, Harry looks like a duck. Sad. Anyway, I don't really know what Artemis Fowl is about? I know it's not about the covers but I just know my friends like it. :)

eaglescry said...

But my favorite out of those I think are the Inkheart ones. They're so pretty!

Pica said...

"Die" is an article in German, like "the" in English. But in German, the article changes with the case and gender of the noun, like in Spanish or French.

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