Austere bas relief gold print on cloth covers.

Being that I don't judge books by their covers, I don't really have a strong opinion on these trends. I do have, however, a very strong visceral repulsion to a few of the covers presented here. They are fugly as heck:

- "My Year of Rest and Relaxation" looks like the first time I discovered background images and `<font color=""></font>`. The title, of all things, is unreadable with that color. I googled and there are better versions (still with the pink color scheme, mind you) of this cover.

- "Disappoint Me" (or should it be written "DISAPPOINT ME"?) looks like the first time someone made a meme after they learned how to lasso-cut a portion of an image into a new layer. There is, again, that poisonous pink that does readability no favors. FWIW, it has successfully disappointed me indeed. There seems to be a version of the book that doesn't fit this trend but reads so much better.

- "Seduction Theory" I'm glad Clippy seems to have found a job at graphic design after that long stint as an office assistant. Alas, old habits die hard, I guess. Unfortunately, neither the Brush Script MT(-esque) label telling me it is a novel nor the Word Art effects give a seductive mood. It gives a very puberty vibe, however, as it reminds me when I designed the Christmas Party poster in my freshman year, and pop has just upgraded the family computer to MS Office 2003.