Judging Books by Covers

Although today is Christmas Day, you don't need yet another form of media to tell you about Christmasy things. That's not to say I don't love Christmas- I do- but one can only take so much of anything. So instead, I'll share a thought I had this morning, when my husband mentioned Kronk to my son, and said "If you'd seen The Emperor's New Groove, you'd know who Kronk is." To which I, in the next room, rolled my eyes and thought to myself That's something we won't be watching anytime soon.

I know. I can already hear the gasps from some of you, in disbelief that I don't like this movie. I know your reactions because these are the reactions of my friends. I don't know anyone (aside from myself) who doesn't like this movie. But I haaaaaaate this movie. Just hearing the name of the film for the first time I thought wow, this will be stupid. I don't even want to see it because I don't ever want to like a movie with such an obnoxiously stupid title. And it involves a llama, which made it all the more stupid. They tell you not to judge a book by its cover, but from the cover only did I judge this film.

And you know what? I was right.

I watched it, I tuned out half of it while I was watching it, and I still don't like it. I'll admit there are movies that I disliked initially and learned to love- The Road to El Dorado is a fine example, and much in the same vein as TENG in that it's animated, it's silly, and it came out in the same relative time frame. I didn't think I would like RTED, but  was wrong. I love that film. But I still hate the stupid llama.

Perhaps as a child, it's important to try something you think you might not like, because you're young and you haven't experienced enough of the world.  Even as an adult, try things you might not be sure about. But I'd like to think that, at this stage in my life, I can look at something and say you know, I'm not going to like that, and people might shut up and have faith that maybe, having known myself quite intimately for literally my entire life, I might have some idea as to what I will and will not enjoy. And even if I'm being a stubborn old curmudgeon, what difference does it make to you? So I don't want to watch your horrible llama movie. Leave me alone.

The point is, you very much can judge a book by its cover. The point of the cover is to draw you in, appeal to your senses. If your senses are repulsed, maybe it isn't the book for you. Maybe the publisher ought to have done a better job being more appealing. Or maybe I'm just a killjoy who hates to try anything new.