Books

Judging Books By Covers Has Never Been So Fun

by Emma Oulton

Before you begin the amazing new online game Judgey , you’ll have to forget everything your librarian ever taught you, because the aim of the game is judging books by their covers. Yep, that’s allowed now. But here’s the catch: they’re going to judge you right back.

Judgey is simple: you get shown 10 book covers in a row, and you have to rate them based on how good they look. This rating is then compared to the book’s actual rating on Goodreads, and you’re judged by how accurate your guesses were. At the end of the game, I was told off for being “pretty damn judgey” — whoops.

The game is super-addictive. Maybe it’s all those years of repressing my book-judginess, but I cannot stop playing. The best part is that the game makes it really easy to buy any of the books, so when you find that perfect cover, you can head straight over to Amazon and buy it for yourself. And once you’re shown those stellar Goodreads ratings, you’ll buy even the ugliest of books — so everyone’s a winner.

But while judging books by their covers is fun, the moral of the game is clear. My judgments were rarely ever right, so that’s a ton of Goodreads favorites I would have missed out on if I’d never given them a chance. So I’ll keep an open mind on my next visit to the bookstore, and I’ll stop dismissing books before I’ve even read the summaries — but nothing can stop me from playing Judgey for five hours a day.

Image: Fotolia