Friday Face-Off is an idea originally thought up by Books By Proxy which I stole from the fantastic The Tattooed Book Geek. The idea originally was to compare UK and US covers based on an assigned theme each week and choose the winning cover. I will be twisting it slightly: not specifically US and UK covers, just different editions.

This weeks’ theme is a cover featuring a skull: “Sometimes skulls are thick. Sometimes hearts are vacant. Sometimes words don’t work. ”

For this theme I have selected William Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

Cover A:

Cover B:

Cover C:

Cover D:

Cover E:

Cover F:

And the winner is… COVER F!

This was a simple pick for me this week. I liked the simple layout of the cover, and the stylised appearance of the skull in this one.

What are your thoughts? Do you agree with my winner, or does one of the others work better for you? Let me know in the comments!

Next week I will be looking for a cover featuring a train: “Time goes faster the more hollow it is. Lives with no meaning go straight past you, like trains that don’t stop at your station.”