Everyone knows that you’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but um, we kind of do it all the time. In fact, half the fun of that anachronistic pleasure known as bookstore browsing is to indulge in that very vice — allowing certain covers or color schemes to catch your eye and draw you over to a tome you might never have picked up otherwise. That’s not to say that the covers, or even the descriptions on the back or inside flaps are necessarily good indicators of the book itself. Some cover designs achieve a perfect pairing of style and substance, some are to the point, and some are wildly off-base, inducing disgust and/or laughter when you actually read the book in question. Enter our new favorite tumblr: the delightfully witty Plausible-Seeming but Tonally Inappropriate Book Covers, in which a mystery artist (artists?) imagines possible bad book covers for some of our modern classics, complete with brilliant (and consistent, and upsetting) accolades from modern American hero Jonathan Franzen. Click through to see some of our favorites and let us know what you think in the comments.
