Let's face it, we do judge books by their covers. 

In a market that's now very commercially competitive, book designs do more than just catch our eye in a bookstore (physical or virtual). They tell us about the style, subject and genre of a story but also increasingly they can even point to who the publishers is - yes Penguin i'm talking about you. 

Ebooks outsold Hardback in 2011 and to combat this we can now see a whole range of beautifully designed and produced books that just make you want to hold them, stroke them, put them on your bookshelf and admire them. As books should be.

Here's some of my favourites for this month:

The stand out star for me is this striking cover for The Boy Who Fell to Earth by Kathy Lette. This beautiful hardback by Bantam Press incorporates characters and themes of the story into the type of the title, which is a great design feature.

 Some of my other choice covers are:

- Revenge of the Tide by Elizabeth Haynes [Myriad Editions, PB]

- Good as Dead by Mark Billingham [Sphere, PB]

- Infamous by Sherrilyn Kenyon [Atom, PB]

- Wonder by R J Palacio [Bodley Head, HB]

- Itch by Simon Mayo [Doubleday Childrens, HB]