Academic philosophy books seem particularly prone to terrible covers, leading me to think that if we can’t think of a decent thing to put on the front of the book, then maybe we shouldn’t have written it in the first place.

What, for example, does this cover tell us about the content of Paul Horwich’s Reflections on Meaning?

And what has a bowl of fruit to do with whatever this book is about?

A prospective reader might fairly be misled by this cover, of which it is hard to think a charitable thought.

An excellent initiative to remedy gender disparity in philosophy departments!

No idea, sorry.

… and most astonishing of all:

Now, that baby penguin sure is cute, I won’t deny it. But what the heck is it doing on a book about mortality? Could they not find something … graver?

But it is nasty of me to pick on philosophy. Check this out:

Would it be right to publish a book entitled ‘Modern British Political Thought’, and give it a cover showing the Bundestag? For this is a picture of the Yeni Cami [New mosque], in Istanbul, about eight hundred miles from the Arabs.