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From WBEZ Chicago, this is Nerdette. I'm Greta Johnson and this is the first

installment of Nerdette's special series Under Cover. It's an investigation into the different

ways a book can come to life. First up we are going to examine a seemingly small but

extremely important and kind of controversial element of the tone you hold in your hands.

Next week we're going to hear about what it takes to get a print book into your earbuds

and the week after that we are going to learn all about all of the different people involved

in getting that story onto the big or little screen. We're going to answer questions like

why are so many people upset about blurbs? For me it is quite stressful. Do authors actually make

any money off film adaptations of their books? Think of it as like a cool thing that could happen

but probably not. And what do a narrator's vocal warm-up sound like?

Today we are talking all about how we judge a book which of course is by its cover.

I am on the basherly shallow about this. It's like a personal thing I think.

Those are a group of avid readers that we talked to at volume's book cafe here in Chicago.

I don't usually like to rely on the cover because of that old you know don't judge a book by its

cover although you know it's kind of hard not to do that. I didn't think I cared about covers

until I realized that I browse and that's what draws me to something anyway. If I trust the author

it doesn't matter what the book is about I'll pick it up. I think the only thing we don't know

what I'm getting ready to get into is the blurb? Absolutely yeah it's I have to read the blurbs.

So today we are going to zoom way in. Pass the title, pass the cover art to the simple quotation you

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