SBPT: Kim @ Dreaming In Libraries

It's that time of the week again! Todays epic blogger is Kim from Dreaming in Libraries. She's a German blogger who I have to say I'm a little in love with, she's made this tour for me and a friend for life (she has no choice in this).
Being from Germany we thought up a cool post idea where she compares German and UK book covers. I've never understood why the publishers change the covers but it would seem that the German ones do appeal more to Kim and the UK ones more to me. So enjoy the post and let us know what you think of the covers.

Kim is a book-obsessed girl from Germany studying Physics of Earth. When not struggling with mathematic formulas, she’s busy fangirling over her latest favorite book. She loves to do everything concerning books: reading, blogging, writing, making bookish pendants,… Kim started her book blog “Dreaming in Libraries” in 2014 and thereby discovered a new hobby. You can find her blog at dreaminginlibraries.blogspot.com and she’s more than happy to talk to you on Twitter (@DreamingLibrary)!

English Covers vs. German covers

with Kim

Hey Everyone!

I’m Kim blogging over at Dreaming in Libraries!

So for this guest post Mily asked me to do something very fun: comparing English covers to German covers. If you’ve ever wondered whether English books translated into German would end up with the same covers, the answer would be: most unlikely! German publishing houses almost always don’t only change the title of the book; they create a complete new cover, too.

I’ve thought of ten covers from my book shelves to show you the differences between their original covers and the German ones.

Here we go alphabetically:

    

After by Anna Todd

I think I prefer the German version of “After”, especially if you have a look at the following books in that series. You probably won’t see it in the picture very well, but the black font is shiny and haptic as is the flowery thing. The rest of the book cover is matt.

    

Awaken by Katie Kacvinsky

These covers really don’t look similar AT ALL! If it weren’t for the name of the author on it, you couldn’t tell it was ONE book. I do like both covers very much. Since I own the German version, I’d probably tend to like that one more, but the English cover is pretty cool, too.

    

Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling

Both covers are very different and yet so similar… I can’t tell you why, but I’m not the hugest fan of either of those covers. I think it’s because of the drawing, though. Both covers contain a drawing of Harry Potter and I don’t like either of them.

   

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Again, I can’t really tell you which one I like better. Both covers are quite different. Yet I’d probably again prefer the German cover, because it fits the story a bit better. 

    

Let’s Get Lost by Adi Alsaid

I love both covers of this book very much! Both of them are unique in their own ways and I think they are gorgeous. At last covers without people on it ;-)!

    

Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout

As for this series I definitely prefer the German covers! They are shiny and I just like the design in general.  I think the model looks a bit freaky on the English cover.

    

Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini

I love the German covers – as a whole, the trilogy looks gorgeous on my book shelf. I don’t really know why the English cover doesn’t speak to me, but I probably wouldn't have picked up the book, if I had only seen the English copy in my bookstore.

    

Thoughtless by S.C. Stephens

So, the content of those two covers is pretty similar and yet they are completely different. To be honest, I don’t like the English cover at all and I’m very happy that I have the beautiful German covers on my shelf :-)!

  

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

There are two different German covers for one of my favorite series ever. Unfortunately the hardcover version isn’t beautiful at all! Maybe the publishing house realized that too, because in fall they’re publishing all books of that series as a much prettier paperback version again and they won’t continue with the original hardcovers. Also, I’m glad they stuck to the English cover this time, because I like that one really much.

    

Trial by Fire by Josephine Angelini

Another series by Josephine Angelini and again, I prefer the German cover! I think that one is just stunning and it fits the story so well! Nonetheless the English cover looks amazing, as well, so I’d totally buy that copy, too.

What do you think about those different covers?

In case you wondered: books translated from German into English have different covers, too. I chose two series for you to compare:

Tintenherz (or Inkheart) by Cornelia Funke

and

Rubinrot (or Ruby Red) by Kerstin Gier

I hope you enjoyed this post!

Yours, Kim