Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Have you seen these women?

The first lot of similar covers I’m featuring this week are Lives of the Saints by Nino Ricci, Blaming by Elizabeth Taylor and Verbena by Nanci Kincaid:


The second lot are the French translation of The Facts of Life by Graham Joyce, The Midwife’s Tale by Gretchen Moran Laskas and a translation (I’m not sure in what language) of Easter Island by Jennifer Vanderbes:



Now, you might think it’s kinda impressive that I’ve managed to find two sets of three books that use these same two women on their covers. The truth is that the first woman appears on at least five other book covers, while the second appears on at least four others! Check them out at Reusable Cover Art, a page maintained by Sarah Johnson, who blogs at Reading the Past. (Scroll down to about the midway point on the page to see these ones.) Crazy, eh?

Have you seen either of these women before on other covers?

16 comments:

  1. These just crack me up...when I looked at your first book covers I thought--"Oh My Stars" by Lorna Landvik...you will have to check it out.

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  2. I thought the first woman looked familiar! She is on the cover of Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Boujalian.

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  3. When you post these covers, I think to myself have they no creativity left in their artistic stores to come up with something fresh?

    However... given my feeble brain these days half the time I don't even notice the similarities until you point them out in this format. LOL.

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  4. I don't recognize either cover. You always amaze me when you find these.

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  5. Jo-Jo and Jess, those are two of the covers that appear on the Reusable Cover Art page I mentioned in my post!

    Thanks for stopping by, NotNessie, Ti and Kathy! I'm amazed at how many books use these two images on their covers. I thought finding two or three lookalikes was impressive (or dismaying, depending on how you look at it) but eight or nine? That's just nuts!

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  6. Wow, that IS weird! We posted about the same thing today.....maybe we are on the same wave length..... :)

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  7. I guess original artwork is just too expensive! They do make some gorgeous covers, though!

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  8. That's so funny that you and Missy posted about the same thing on the same day! It wasn't even about the same cover, it was about the repeat image on multiple covers! Kinda spooky. :) It was very interesting though and I never heard of Reusable Cover Art before but I'll be checking it out now.

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  9. While each cover by itself serves well, what I find truly troublesome is that it's perfectly okay to have all these repetitive covers. A cover should represent the book it holds: it should therefore be original and entirely personal. Some classics have similar covers, understandable. But new books should make sure not to use stock photos and should try to find their own, personal covers.

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  10. I believe this is the first time I've seen these but they're SO similar, how in the world do you tell them apart at first glance? Can't stand covers like these :(

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  11. Love love love these posts you eagle eye you. This one is unbelievable!

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  12. Another amazing collection of lookalikes! These aren't just similar -- they are the SAME!

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  13. Gwendolyn, I think you're right, although it is dismaying all the same!

    Wrighty, I know, that was kinda spooky! By the way, the Reusable Cover Art page has been updated since I posted this.

    I totally agree, Anonymous Child. Plus when there are two books with the same cover, you could argue that it's a genuine mistake, but seven or eight? That kinda boggles the mind!

    Exactly, Ladytink, it's very confusing!

    Thanks, Luanne and Jenners!

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  14. I noticed the same cover on "Oh My Stars" and "Skeletons at the Feast"--the girl with her arm raised but I guess there are a lot more.
    Both those books by the way, very good.

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