The Friendly Atheist has noticed something a bit odd about Christian and atheist books: many bestselling Christian nonfiction book covers tend to feature large pictures of their authors, while popular books about atheism tend to sport minimalistic, text-only cover images. It doesn't sound like that big of a deal (and maybe it's not), but it is rather curious. Here's just two examples; the Friendly Atheist has many more at the post above:

vs.

Interesting, no? Now before we go off and declare that all Christian authors are egotistical jerks: I just spent some time browsing around Amazon.com to see how widespread this is, and I think it's worth noting that the minimalistic-cover atheist books are probably more comparable in style and content to works of serious Christian theology, which I suspect do not tend to have their authors' pictures pasted all over the cover. So we're looking at two different genres here, with different styles and target audiences.

But that said: these are the Christian and atheist books most likely to wind up near each other on your local Barnes and Noble bestseller bookshelf; and the visual difference is quite striking. Do Christians tend to attach more importance to a book's author than do atheists? Are atheists just less photogenic than Christians (I kid, I kid)?

What message do these book covers send to you? Does one style carry a more positive message for you, and if so, why?