Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Walls Of Books Free Us



The Great Wall of China.
Trump’s proposed wall of Mexico.
Home run wall.
Maximum security prison wall.

We think of walls as something hard, made of concrete, steel, wood, or stone.  The wall is intended to keep people or things outside – or inside.  But what about a wall of books?

As a book marketer, blogger and writer, I am often exposed to images of books when spending time online, whether it be with social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook, or with author websites or a book publisher’s digital home.  I am amazed, yet not surprised, at how often a picture, drawing, or visual pops up that showcases typewriters, stacks of books, book covers, or walls of books and bookcases stuffed with colorful tomes.  It comforts me, to see image after image, click after click, that those in the book industry, from authors, editors, and marketers to publishers, bookstores, and awards all seem to be on the same page here. We all feel a sense of security, happiness, and brotherhood when we link to iconic images of books.

Movies and TV have the Hollywood sign.  Financial institutions have a bull.  Colleges have the cap and gown.   New Yorkers have a skyline or the lights of Time Square.

And publicity has wall-to-wall books.

Sure, other imagery is associated with books, from an open book, someone reading, and a library’s pillars, to an old-fashioned writing instrument, printing press, or Shakespeare.  But no image is as common online, especially on Twitter, when it comes to books than the warm-blanket one of ceiling-to-floor, wall-to-wall books.

The other day I must have visited 350 different Twitter accounts and each time I went on I would be serenaded by beautiful book images.  It was like watching a year’s worth of stunning sunrises and sunsets.  Collectively, I felt tucked away in my childhood imagination, with every image presenting another chapter to the story of books.

Book porn. That’s what it was.  A literary orgasm via social media.

What’s interesting is that I rarely saw the same image twice.  Clip art, original images and historic visuals can readily be found online, but so many people chose different ones, personalizing them where possible. But the result was the same.  

For those of us who adore books, we are one big family and our family albums or digital scrapbook are filled with wonderful images of books that inspire those who come upon them.

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Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2015



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