Don’t judge me, it’s just how I look!

Well, without barking on again about the cover for my book, I thought I’d raise the subject of book covers as a whole. I have poured over three cover proposals for my book, The Secret War, and knocked back the first two as they didn't hook me in. At first I thought I was being too much of a perfectionist, but really it's about the sort of person I am...

I am, for all intents, superficial to some degree (I’m fallible, so shoot me!) about what attracts me to certain things. I am a typical imaginative "magpie", into all manner of fantastical “shiny things”. To me, if the poster of a film looks great, no matter how crap I know the film will be in my heart-of-hearts, I will want to see it. Likewise for books. I love covers, and I ignore that cliché of clichés “don’t judge a book by its cover”, because I do. If the cover looks great, I will read the blurb, and then perhaps the first paragraph or two. But if the cover is as bland as All-bran, I won’t bother reading the blurb. I guess if no care and attention is spent on the cover - that initial hook to sell a book - then I guess subconsciously I think the content will be second or third rate. Appalling attitude, I know, but how many of you will admit that a decent cover sways your attention in the bookshop? Unless the book has been recommended to you by a friend or you’ve read an outstanding review of it in The Times, I'm certain not many of you will be swayed on a potential spontaneous purchase by a cover that looks like it was designed as an after-thought.
So if that’s the case, what are the best book covers ever designed… Or rather which covers would you esteem above any others? And did their content match the expectations from the cover?

For the record, some of my favourite covers are:

Weaveworld, Clive Barker (original paperback edition)
Otherland, Tad Williams
IT, Stephen King
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Susanna Clark (so simple, so striking!)
The Worm Ouroboros, E.R. Eddison (not sure which paperback edition my parents had, but it was an incredible pseudo 15th century painting detailing one of the many breathtaking battles in the book!).
Dune, Frank Herbert (any genius who decides to design a cover that has laser-gun wielding sheiks next to giant sandworms gets my vote – loved this cover when I was a kid, so much so that at ten years old I tried reading the book!)

All opinions gratefully received!

Have a good weekend all.