No Review, No Explanations
Post a picture of a book you love on Facebook for seven days with no review or explanations. Tag the person who invited you to do this, then tag someone else who you are inviting to participate in this challenge.
I got invited by someone to participate in this challenge. I am actually NOT a fan of chain letter type situations...but I paused because this one involved BOOKS. I made the conscious decision that I would participate WITHOUT tagging people to possibly participate. While I could think of a few other book lovers who would enjoy this challenge I did not want to tag people on Facebook to possibly participate. I did not want to make anyone feel pressured or to clutter up their Facebook feed.
However I DID make the decision to participate by posting pictures of books I love and found it to be a very enjoyable experience. Since I read a lot and enjoy the process of reading it was difficult to make the decisions about which books to include. For my first book I chose Haunting of the Hill House. Day two I posted a picture of Pablo Neruda's Book of Questions. Day three I posted a picture of Jack Zipe's translation of the first edition of Brothers Grimm. The Shining by Stephen King was my choice for day four. On day five my picture was of Norse Mythology by Neil Gaimon. My choice for day six was Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng. My final choice was Mary Oliver's New and Selected Poems Volume One.
Each book was chosen intentionally for good reasons. However not posting an explanation was a good habit in itself. Reviewing books is something that I really love doing--that's why I have this blog and my Twin Cities Geeks gig. Reading critically and thinking of why I like or do not like something is a good practice.
However having a project that entails just taking pictures of books reminded me that sometimes the simple act of looking at book covers is pretty darn cool. I fall into the camp of buying used paperback books and borrowing digital books from the library because those methods are cheaper and easier for transportation. But this project reminded me that when it comes to cover art I often find that hardcovers have beautiful covers. (Just click on the links for Brothers Grimm, Norse Mythology and/or Little Fires Everywhere).
When I worked in a bookstore in high school my manager once said, "You can't tell a book by its cover but you can sell a book by its cover." I find that sentiment to be so true. There are actually some books that I want to get caught reading in a public place because of the cover art. Most recently Red Clocks and Circe [check out my review of Circe here] were book covers that served as a fashion statement for me.
My eyes are wide open that the bookstore manager hit the nail on the head that one of the purposes of a cover of a book is to sell a book in our market driven world. However there is something about the beauty of a book cover and just being able to sit down and just BE with the covers.
One of the other groups that I really enjoy participating in on Facebook is the Harlequin Connection group. While the primary goal of this group is to develop a community surrounding Harlequin Romance novels a lot of other aspects of the bookish life come up as well. Once there was a conversation on digital versus print books. I mentioned that I really am trying to push myself in the direction of buying fewer books and on the occasion that I do that I buy digital copies. (You can read more about why I have chosen to take this direction here). But I also mentioned that one of the things that I love about Harlequin covers is how luxurious their covers can feel and how they are really the perfect size. (I LOVE mass market paperback books because they are the perfect size for traveling and taking to bed). I feel that cutting down on purchasing physical books will help me with BOTH my budget and clutter control...but there is something about being able to just gaze at a book cover that reminds me of a story I love or that has an enticing cover whenever I want. Gazing at book covers is a soothing experience for me.
I got into a conversation once with a friend on how I think that a book cover is something that I do strongly consider on whether to buy certain kinds of books or not. I reflected out loud that it may be because I do not seek out spas to do things like get my nails done very often. I know that many women participate in spa experiences because it is an ultimate form of relaxation. But for me, sitting down with a physical book for uninterrupted reading is one the most relaxing experiences. There is something about loving a cover that makes reading turn into a luxurious experience for me.
The Clothing of Books is a book that explores the relationship that is developed with book covers. I have not read it yet so I can not fully comment on it. But I can comment that it was just a source of joy to just simply share the covers of books that I love.
Of course I did find that there were tough choices to make. So I added a day eight and included all of the books that I considered as runners up. So ALL of my Raymond Chandler books, a collection of all of the Lord of the Rings books, The Great Gatsby, Once and Future King and Ernest Hemingway's Short Stories were immediately gathered. Then after thinking a little bit more I added some of my favorite poetry: Pablo Neruda's Anthology of Odes and The Gift by Hafiz. I realized that I should also add some of my favorite romance novels and added the first book of Sherryl Wood's Chesapeake Shores series (see my blog post about this series here) Small Town Girl and a hilarious series romance book Dating By Numbers (see my review here). And since Mindset was such a life changing book for me I had to include it as well.
Of course as a book lover its hard to know where to draw the line. In fact my husband saw my post on Facebook and asked why I did not include any Ian Fleming. I commented that Fleming's writing is pretty darn brilliant and that it did not occur to me to add him to the list of runners up. Since I love Stephen King so much I just posted a picture of section his books on my bookshelf.After a lot of thinking I realized that I love each of the books that I have chosen to keep for one reason or another. So I went ahead and took a picture of my bookshelf and posted it on Facebook calling it a "Shelfie."
Because when I think of books I love sometimes I think its best to ask me my favorite in a particular genre or the kinds of books I like to read for certain kinds of moods. It was fun to note who reacted to my different pictures and things that other book lovers said. It was so tempting to say WHY I loved each book I posted. Yet there was something liberating to just post a book saying that I loved it with no explanations. After all, why should I have to defend what I love?!
I got invited by someone to participate in this challenge. I am actually NOT a fan of chain letter type situations...but I paused because this one involved BOOKS. I made the conscious decision that I would participate WITHOUT tagging people to possibly participate. While I could think of a few other book lovers who would enjoy this challenge I did not want to tag people on Facebook to possibly participate. I did not want to make anyone feel pressured or to clutter up their Facebook feed.
However I DID make the decision to participate by posting pictures of books I love and found it to be a very enjoyable experience. Since I read a lot and enjoy the process of reading it was difficult to make the decisions about which books to include. For my first book I chose Haunting of the Hill House. Day two I posted a picture of Pablo Neruda's Book of Questions. Day three I posted a picture of Jack Zipe's translation of the first edition of Brothers Grimm. The Shining by Stephen King was my choice for day four. On day five my picture was of Norse Mythology by Neil Gaimon. My choice for day six was Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng. My final choice was Mary Oliver's New and Selected Poems Volume One.
Each book was chosen intentionally for good reasons. However not posting an explanation was a good habit in itself. Reviewing books is something that I really love doing--that's why I have this blog and my Twin Cities Geeks gig. Reading critically and thinking of why I like or do not like something is a good practice.
However having a project that entails just taking pictures of books reminded me that sometimes the simple act of looking at book covers is pretty darn cool. I fall into the camp of buying used paperback books and borrowing digital books from the library because those methods are cheaper and easier for transportation. But this project reminded me that when it comes to cover art I often find that hardcovers have beautiful covers. (Just click on the links for Brothers Grimm, Norse Mythology and/or Little Fires Everywhere).
When I worked in a bookstore in high school my manager once said, "You can't tell a book by its cover but you can sell a book by its cover." I find that sentiment to be so true. There are actually some books that I want to get caught reading in a public place because of the cover art. Most recently Red Clocks and Circe [check out my review of Circe here] were book covers that served as a fashion statement for me.
My eyes are wide open that the bookstore manager hit the nail on the head that one of the purposes of a cover of a book is to sell a book in our market driven world. However there is something about the beauty of a book cover and just being able to sit down and just BE with the covers.
One of the other groups that I really enjoy participating in on Facebook is the Harlequin Connection group. While the primary goal of this group is to develop a community surrounding Harlequin Romance novels a lot of other aspects of the bookish life come up as well. Once there was a conversation on digital versus print books. I mentioned that I really am trying to push myself in the direction of buying fewer books and on the occasion that I do that I buy digital copies. (You can read more about why I have chosen to take this direction here). But I also mentioned that one of the things that I love about Harlequin covers is how luxurious their covers can feel and how they are really the perfect size. (I LOVE mass market paperback books because they are the perfect size for traveling and taking to bed). I feel that cutting down on purchasing physical books will help me with BOTH my budget and clutter control...but there is something about being able to just gaze at a book cover that reminds me of a story I love or that has an enticing cover whenever I want. Gazing at book covers is a soothing experience for me.
I got into a conversation once with a friend on how I think that a book cover is something that I do strongly consider on whether to buy certain kinds of books or not. I reflected out loud that it may be because I do not seek out spas to do things like get my nails done very often. I know that many women participate in spa experiences because it is an ultimate form of relaxation. But for me, sitting down with a physical book for uninterrupted reading is one the most relaxing experiences. There is something about loving a cover that makes reading turn into a luxurious experience for me.
The Clothing of Books is a book that explores the relationship that is developed with book covers. I have not read it yet so I can not fully comment on it. But I can comment that it was just a source of joy to just simply share the covers of books that I love.
Of course I did find that there were tough choices to make. So I added a day eight and included all of the books that I considered as runners up. So ALL of my Raymond Chandler books, a collection of all of the Lord of the Rings books, The Great Gatsby, Once and Future King and Ernest Hemingway's Short Stories were immediately gathered. Then after thinking a little bit more I added some of my favorite poetry: Pablo Neruda's Anthology of Odes and The Gift by Hafiz. I realized that I should also add some of my favorite romance novels and added the first book of Sherryl Wood's Chesapeake Shores series (see my blog post about this series here) Small Town Girl and a hilarious series romance book Dating By Numbers (see my review here). And since Mindset was such a life changing book for me I had to include it as well.
Of course as a book lover its hard to know where to draw the line. In fact my husband saw my post on Facebook and asked why I did not include any Ian Fleming. I commented that Fleming's writing is pretty darn brilliant and that it did not occur to me to add him to the list of runners up. Since I love Stephen King so much I just posted a picture of section his books on my bookshelf.After a lot of thinking I realized that I love each of the books that I have chosen to keep for one reason or another. So I went ahead and took a picture of my bookshelf and posted it on Facebook calling it a "Shelfie."
Because when I think of books I love sometimes I think its best to ask me my favorite in a particular genre or the kinds of books I like to read for certain kinds of moods. It was fun to note who reacted to my different pictures and things that other book lovers said. It was so tempting to say WHY I loved each book I posted. Yet there was something liberating to just post a book saying that I loved it with no explanations. After all, why should I have to defend what I love?!
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