When you really think about it, it is actually very easy to judge books by their covers, because the title and author of the book is right there in print. Thus if I see a book by Nicholas Sparks, I can (with a certain amount of certainty) believe the book will be a love story that has a very high chance of probability of being turned into a major motion picture.
Likewise if I see a “Dummies” book, I can probably guess the subject matter will be simplified to the point that a person of average intellect can easily understand the context, and if I see a book with a picture of a shirtless man riding a horse bareback with a long haired beautiful woman grasping him from behind… it is almost guaranteed to be a cheesy romance novel.
All of that said, I realize the reason people say you can’t judge a book by its cover is because it is an analogy for other situations. In many cases it is said in reference to people and how someone might look a certain way but their personality may not match. Here too I find fault with the concept as in many cases it seems rather easy to judge people based upon outside appearances.
Case in point, if I see a 375lb man walking in Walmart, I can easily state that his caloric intake is way too high. If I see a teenage girl who has orange skin, I can determine she spends far too much time in a tanning salon and/or misunderstood the instructions on her bottle of self-tanner, and if I see a grown man protesting a military funeral with a sign reading “God Loves Dead Soldiers” in one hand and a sign reading “God Hates Fags” in the other hand I can unequivocally state that he is a heartless, ignorant, hate-filled fool who has misinterpreted the entire meaning of Christianity, and I can even ascertain he is from Kansas and a member of the Westboro Baptist Church.
See – it really is possible to judge a book by its cover after all.
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