ROY G. BIV! It's a Literal Reading Rainbow of New Books

Posted by Cybil on May 10, 2023


There are many standard ways to organize books – by genre, by author, by theme, by topic. Alphabetically by title remains popular.
 
Then there are the non-standard ways to organize books, and those are much more fun.
 
For this collection, we’ve gone to a simple but primal source – the electromagnetic spectrum of light visible to the human eye. In other words, the rainbow. All the books here were published within the last two years and are sorted by the dominant color on the book cover, ROY-G-BIV style.
 
This may seem random, and it is, but we have found that it’s also reliably fun. Arbitrary sorting tends to generate interesting juxtapositions. Where else are you going to find court intrigue in Renaissance Italy next to gritty urban living in contemporary Oakland? A Harlan Coben thriller next to an Emily Henry romance? Or 1920 Wall Street tycoons next to one of the Bangles?
 
Scroll through the reading rainbow below and see what pops. Feel free to further the discussion in the comments sections and add any good leads to your Want to Read list. 

 

Red

 

  Orange

 

 Yellow

 

 Green


Blue


Pink



Purple





Play along and recommend some colorful reading in the comments below!
 

Comments Showing 1-12 of 12 (12 new)

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Marc *Dark Reader with a Thousand Young! Iä!* Whar indigo? How did pink sneak in between blue and purple?

I love the concept but somewhere along the way it became ROYGBPP.


message 2: by Ashley (last edited May 10, 2023 01:12PM) (new)

Ashley I agree- it is a great concept.. What's bothering me is that this was done one month before pride month... I think this would have been better served and appreciated if you all had waited a few weeks and did this with queer books.. kinda feels like a slap in the face as a queer woman.. so close to pride month and you're using roygbiv a little before the dates its most appropriate to use it for where not all of the books on this list are queer.. idk. it's just not sitting right with me.


message 3: by Bloss ♡ (new)

Bloss ♡ Gosh, some of these covers are wildly different in the UK! Many of them would need to be in entirely different colour groups if they had their UK cover art.

I have to say, 9/10 I tend to favour the North American cover art!


message 4: by Lindsey (new)

Lindsey Sanford Ashley wrote: "I agree- it is a great concept.. What's bothering me is that this was done one month before pride month... I think this would have been better served and appreciated if you all had waited a few wee..."

To be fair they do tend to do a big article of LGBTQIA+ books and authors for pride.


message 5: by Law (new)

Law Where's The Unpopular Vote? It's cover art is pink, and it's a queer book, and readers have enjoyed this one.


Marc *Dark Reader with a Thousand Young! Iä!* I would like a list of octarine covers but they’re all Unseen …


message 7: by Natalie (new)

Natalie This is super fun, but some of these aren’t even new… the first one on the list has been out for a year and half. I’d so much rather be introduced to something I haven’t heard of before


message 8: by Jules (new)

Jules Lindsey wrote: "Ashley wrote: "I agree- it is a great concept.. What's bothering me is that this was done one month before pride month... I think this would have been better served and appreciated if you all had w..."

To be doubly fair, we as queer people don't own the rainbow ^_^

Now if this had been June and they did this *without* highlighting queer authors/characters, yeah... that would not be okay.

But this is seriously just a color based book list.


Marc *Dark Reader with a Thousand Young! Iä!* Speaking of book colours:

Everybody is a book of blood; Wherever we're opened, we're red.
-Clive Barker, Books of Blood


message 10: by Steven (new)

Steven Belsito I would love to see this a a regular kind of thing. Its a lot of fun.


message 11: by Lindsey (new)

Lindsey Ashley wrote: "I agree- it is a great concept.. What's bothering me is that this was done one month before pride month... I think this would have been better served and appreciated if you all had waited a few wee..."

That would have been a great idea. Maybe they still will.


message 12: by Bill (new)

Bill Ashley wrote: "I agree- it is a great concept.. What's bothering me is that this was done one month before pride month... I think this would have been better served and appreciated if you all had waited a few wee..."

Agreed--not what I was expecting. Now let the right-wingers descend on us for being "too PC!"


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