For the years I managed an indie bookstore, one of my favorite displays to create involved grouping books together by their cover color. No need to concern myself necessarily with their content, just the amazing, attractive cover art was all that I needed to consider. Plus, it helped to answer the frequent customer question, “Hey! What was the name of that book? You know the one with the (insert a color) cover?”
“Colour is like food for the spirit—plus it’s not addictive or fattening.” Isaac Mizrahi
So, here are my picks for your red bookshelf:
- “The Catcher in the Rye,” by J.D. Salinger. Many think of this classic novel as the forerunner for YA fiction.
- “The Story of Ferdinand,” by Munro Leaf. The story of a pacifist young bull who dares to be different.
- “Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda,” by Becky Albertalli. Always read the book before you see the movie.
- “Red Dragon,” by Thomas Harris. Since you have to have at least one book on the red shelf with red in the title, it should definitely be this thriller that introduced the world to Hannibal Lecter.
- “The Underground Railroad,” by Colson Whitehead. #1 on the New York Times bestseller list for weeks, a Pulitzer Prize winner, National Book Award winner, and winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction.
- “Wolf Hall,” by Hilary Mantel. Historical fiction at its best. Reading it is like watching a really entertaining soap opera.
Share your favorite red-covered book in the comments or on social media using #redcover.
Julie Bond is a voracious reader with eclectic tastes running the gamut from YA lit, to psychological suspense, and anything dog-related, of course. You can find her haunting her favorite San Francisco Bay Area indie bookstores. Email her at ObsessiveBookFanatic@gmail.com
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