I love reading books. I love it above nearly any other form of past time activity. I try to read as often and as much as I can, yet I never seem to get do enough. There’s always another book to read, another story to hear. Yet there are some books that you simply can’t wait to read, even though your Stack is so large it will soon be granted full membership in the UN. Surely, you say to yourself, you must already have more than enough already. You need to buy those books just as much as a library needs a poorly constructed fireplace.

However, I can never stop myself from dreaming, and the best way to kick my imagination into gear is to stare longingly at the pre-released cover art. What lies inside you, o’ awaited book?

It’s especially rewarding to partake in said activity whenever you’re wasting precious reading time by listening to your teacher babble or maybe while you’re at work. It takes your mind of the dreary time you’re having, and it lets you have a sneak-preview of the fun to come.

So I thought I’d share some of my current personal favourites with you. These are all books that I plan to read at some point, though none of them are as of yet (argh!) available for purchase. Except for pre-orders, o’ course.

Almighty Amazon has the next Neil Gaiman novel slotted for a July ‘08 release. The cover is done by Dave McKean, who is a personal favourite of mine, and I think it looks quite intriguing for a YA novel. Normally I wouldn’t bother to pick this up (I haven’t read Gaiman’s “Coraline”), but I’m so famished on Neil these days that I think I just might have to. He is, after all, a god amongst writers. All hail him!

“Absolute Sandman Vol. 3″ by Neil Gaiman and various artists is down for a May release. I love this cover art and can’t wait to add it to my collection. Woe for my bank account, joy for my eye. The cover artist is the infallible Dave McKean.

Abercrombie really blew me away with his second book in the First Law Trilogy, but the third has the looks of a right champion. I can’t express how much I want to lay my greedy hands on this book. It shall be mine!

“Altered Carbon” by Richard Morgan is one of the best books I’ve read this year, and in “The Steel Remains” we get to witness this special author have a stab on the Epic Fantasy genre. Should be a very interesting read in and of itself, even though I’d buy just based on its cover. Mmm… Noir…

Aside from the horrid tagline towards the end, I think this cover is pretty nice. Not the best in the bunch, but that’s nearly outweighed by name of the author. R. Scott Bakker’s first SF offering will probably be one of the books of the year. You can quote me on that.

This is an expensive book, yet I think it will be worth every penny when you see what writers Sub Press has managed to align. Dave McKean has also done a solid job on the cover art. The short story from Patrick Rothfuss, author of “The Name of the Wind”, was the cherry on the top that made me order it. The main reason, however, is the cover just below this text…

Everyone who orders Sub Press’ “Tales of Dark Fantasy” gets “Thumbprint”, a free chapbook by none other than Joe Hill. Thumbs up (pun intended) to Vincent Chong for a great job on the cover. It looks nothing fantastic from where I’m drooling.