Yes, that is one aspect of books that an ereader will probably never be able to duplicate.

And why not?

You dedicated reader guys are being short-changed enough with those black-and-white screens… it’s de-coloring your viewpoint. But there’s no reason to expect that e-books will never have impressive covers, any more than its supposed corollary, that all printed covers are better than e-book covers. Heck, I’d put any (well most) of my covers up against the Mendelsohn cover you have pictured here.