It's not meant to be taken literallly. It just means not to judge something by superficial characteristics. For instance, the title of this thread made me think that it would be something interesting, but I was wrong.

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Originally Posted by Big

I disagree Spider. It is meant to be taken literally as A BOOK is an example that can represent other situations.

A book's cover is meant to entice someone to pick it up and buy it. The appeal of the cover may or may not reflect the quality of the contents. It's like advertising. So if you judge a book by it's cover, you may be mislead by the cover designer, whose job it is to attract your attention, not to accurately portray the book's contents. Therefore, the proverb does hold up when taken literally (or literarily as in the case of a book).

I can't believe I'm arguing this point.

(and thank you, therick, for a very nice and much appreciated compliment)

Big, I'm not sure I'm following your thinking on this, but I usually select a book because of a good review or because it's an author or subject that I'm interested in. I read a few pages to see if it appeals to me, and then I decide whether or not to buy it. The cover may initially attract my attention, but has little to do with my assessment of the book (unless there's a hot babe on the cover).

Originally Posted by Big

Ok, here is a straight question: According to the proverb, do you prefer to buy a book with an appealing cover over the book with a plain cover without looking at the contents of either book?

If I had to buy one of the books and I had no other information, I'd choose the one with the more appealing cover and hope that it reflected the quality of the contents; but according to the proverb, it wouldn't make any difference. The proverb, however, isn't meant to deal with that situation. It's meant to discourage you from automatically picking the book with the flashy cover, but instead encourage you to look inside and make a more intelligent choice.