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[i2amroy]

"Brass monkey"s were the name of the base that they used to hold cannonballs on ships in ages past. The phrase "freeze the balls off a brass monkey" comes from the fact that the brass contracted from the cold faster then the cannonballs did, meaning that when it was exceptionally cold the indents that the cannonballs would rest in would contract too much causing all of the cannonballs to fall off of it.

Spoiler: Brass Monkey (click to show/hide)

[TheDarkStar]

It is early January here, and it is warm enough during the day to walk around in short-sleeve shirts. Even as night comes on, it only really gets cold sometime between midnight and early morning.

California, ladies and gentlemen and those who identify as neither or both of the above. Good old California.

This reminds me of how cold it is in the northern US here. It's barely gotten above 0 F (about -18 C) for the last two weeks. 

[Flying Dice]

I'd make a complaint about it being 10 below with windchill here in Kentucky, but I just realized that I'm also wearing short sleeves so that sort of fell flat.

[Tack]

Did I mention it's Summer here? Freaking beautiful weather.
Beautiful.

If by 'Beautiful' you mean 'Alternating between blazing hot and monsoooooooooon', then yes.
Although the few days after the MONSOOOOOON are rather great.

Also, CAH does get old kinda quickly; something I found out just after buying the full expansion box.

[i2amroy]

That's a bit unfair. Cover art is the responsibility/hallmark of the publisher rather than the author. And prior to the 1980's, publishers didn't spend shit on cover art so even some wonderful books got really crappy cover art.

True, but there are many, many more bad authors with bad publishers than award winning authors with bad publishers (or vice versa). Sure, it might accidentally filter out the occasional good novel, but it filters out many more bad ones. And most good books that were printed in the ages before 1980 have had at least one reprint with better cover art than they started with, which is something I would pick up.

It's just a time saving thing. When I have an hour at a used book store to work my way through the entire fantasy/sci-fi section and decide what I'm going to pick up before my ride leaves, I need to be able to quickly filter through the large amounts of bad books to get to the ones that I personally would enjoy. And as a result it calls for some judgements.

[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

Has anybody seen the cover art for the Ender series before the movie came out
It has just about nothing to do with the book
It's great
I love book covers that aren't even close to the actual story
Like the eleventh Plauge, it's cover does not convey the story what so ever

[Flying Dice]

That's a bit unfair. Cover art is the responsibility/hallmark of the publisher rather than the author. And prior to the 1980's, publishers didn't spend shit on cover art so even some wonderful books got really crappy cover art.

True, but there are many, many more bad authors with bad publishers than award winning authors with bad publishers (or vice versa). Sure, it might accidentally filter out the occasional good novel, but it filters out many more bad ones. And most good books that were printed in the ages before 1980 have had at least one reprint with better cover art than they started with, which is something I would pick up.

It's just a time saving thing. When I have an hour at a used book store to work my way through the entire fantasy/sci-fi section and decide what I'm going to pick up before my ride leaves, I need to be able to quickly filter through the large amounts of bad books to get to the ones that I personally would enjoy. And as a result it calls for some judgements.

Blatantly untrue in SF&F. That's not to say that Sturgeon's Revelation isn't in full force (there are plenty of authors who honestly shouldn't have gotten published at all), but the vast majority of covers are absolute shit. Most of the ones which aren't are only acceptable because they're incredibly minimalistic.

[WillowLuman]

A lot of Discworld books have fairly cheesy cover art (in some versions) for instance.

[i2amroy]

I'll give you that judging like that may be more problematic on science fiction than fantasy novels, and that more Sci-Fi novels might have crap covers, but I'm mainly a fantasy reader, so I couldn't say more on Sci-Fi books specifically. That said I'd disagree with you on the fact that the vast majority of (at least fantasy) good novels have absolute shit covers. Something like the Mistborn books might not have the best cover:

Spoiler: Mistborn (click to show/hide)

But it certainly passes the "this book looks like crap" point enough that I'd check the back/inside cover for a more in-depth look. Other books can go well beyond that mark, and plunge well into the "high quality" range IMO. For example the books in the Broken Empire Trilogy are definitely high quality covers without necessarily being busy ones, and they rate as one of my more enjoyed trilogies.

Spoiler: The Broken Empire Book 2 (click to show/hide)

On the other hand I'd say that of those books that I've read I'd definitely say that my most enjoyed fantasy books come mainly from those with higher quality covers, while I've yet to have a fantasy book with a cover that falls below the "this book looks like crap" mark that has made it anywhere close to my "favorites" list, most falling strongly into the "worth it only because the book was $1" area.

A lot of Discworld books have fairly cheesy cover art (in some versions) for instance.

I'd agree with that, and they're one of the few series with cheesier art that I've enjoyed. That said it certainly wasn't the cheesy covered ones that drew me into the series, but the more simple ones like The Color of Magic.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Once again I'll reiterate that the point isn't to solely judge a book by it's cover, it's to simply aid me in quickly separating the crap 90% out of the mix. Most of my book buying is done in large chunks when my family stops by while on a trip or something similar. When you only have some 1-2 hours to get through 80 feet worth of shelves (that's floor distance, not counting multiple shelves) that look like this

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

in order to take advantage of your parent's sweet 10% teacher discount, you have to be able to quickly sort books into the "not worth looking at" and "worth more time to see if it's good" piles.

[Flying Dice]

Fair enough.

Oh! I've got a question for people: Would you consider Burroughs' John Carter of Mars novels to be SF or fantasy? Why?

[Yoink]

A lot of Discworld books have fairly cheesy cover art (in some versions) for instance.

Seems reflective of the quality, then.

Man, this talk of books (fantasy in particular) makes me sad that I don't read nearly as much as I used to.
Back in the day I would devour any book I got my hands on, and powered repeatedly through my favourite series when I ran out of new stuff to read. :<
Now I have a backlog of books I've been meaning to read, but I'm just so lazy.

[Putnam]

A lot of Discworld books have fairly cheesy cover art (in some versions) for instance.

Seems reflective of the quality, then.

don't you talk smack about my favorite anime

[LordSlowpoke]

A lot of Discworld books have fairly cheesy cover art (in some versions) for instance.

Seems reflective of the quality, then.

don't you talk smack about my favorite anime

i haven't used the term liberast for a while and i'm sorta itching to

[Tack]

Pratchett Hardcover Reprint:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Avoids the 'Kielbasa fingers' thing they had issues with in the earliest prints.
Don't mind it.
Though the new artist decided to change the look of Trolls.

[Rose]

How much do those editions go for?

How much are 40 of them?

I may need to go rob a bank.