Actors and Novels

I dislike it when a book has been republished after it has been turned into a film and the book has the actors from the film on its cover.

So, instead of creating my own version of, say, Port from The Sheltering Sky, I am now seeing John Malkovich, whose voice grates on me and I find him annoying in the way I find annoying all Americans who move to France (i.e. David Sedaris, Crumb). Instead of seeing a character (and the characters always resemble me) getting typhoid and arguing with pretty Kit at some crappy hotel in Algeria, I see John Malkovich annoyingly hulking his way through each chapter, and every time I take a moment to reflect on a powerful existential notion and close the book, there on the cover I'm reminded of the visage I don't want to visualize.

In the case of The Sheltering Sky and The Good American, I ripped off their covers before leaving them in hostels or on trains, just so that future readers, if there were to be any, did not have to have their imaginations tainted by a jacket designer. In such situations, I encourage you to do the same.

Related notes:
a) Perhaps I struggle at fiction because it's impossible for me to see characters who don't resemble me or the rest of the committed.
b) Take precaution when purchasing or checking out editions of the following: The Quiet American, Revolutionary Road, All the Pretty Horses, The Sheltering Sky.
c) I'm quite happy that no edition (that I'm aware of) of The Unbearable Lightness of Being has had the film actors on the cover. I can only assume that Kundera the Brilliant somehow arranged for this.