Agreed on all counts. Some of the US cover designs look ... phoned-in to me, and, considering how irritating I found the interior design (with the stars and stuff) in the first (younger, shorter) book, I'm not sure I could get through any of the later ones in that format.

FYI, if you like the UK covers but don't want to pay extra for shipping from the UK, you can order the Raincoast editions from Chapters Indigo (www.chapters.indigo.ca) or amazon.ca; they are identical to the UK editions inside and out (except they say Raincoast on the spine), but you get a bit of a break on the currency exchange.