Armchair BEA 2016: On Aesthetics

For a period of time back in the early 2000s (aka before the blog), I refused to read book jacket flaps or the back of the book because they always, always seemed to spoil a major plot point. I would go into a book thinking that the basic premise was whatever was written on the flap and then that thing that I thought would be part of the set up would happen three-fourths of the way through the book. Oh, it made me so angry.

So I stopped reading jacket flaps and plot synopses and started picking books based on the cover and title. So, a few of the books I encountered that way are:

• A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray
• Jason and Kyra by Dana Davidson
• Luxe by Anna Godbersen
• Nzingha: Warrior Queen of Matamba (part of the Royal Diaries series)
• Dancing in Red Shoes Will Kill You by Dorian Cirrone
• Slam! by Walter Dean Myers

I didn’t 100% love them all, but they all matched my expectations–even if A Great and Terrible Beauty was more fantasy than the cover let on.

Now that I think about it, though, I was more likely to give books and genres I wasn’t into more of a chance when I went by the cover and title alone. Lately, I have been reading jacket flaps (usually only the first paragraph–just enough to get an idea of the basic premise. Unfortunately, spoilers still abound if I read beyond that) and ruling out lots of books because they’re not what I feel like reading. However, the best way to discover if I feel like reading something is to just read it. A lot of my favorite reads have been outside of my preferred genre.

So. I guess I learned something about myself today.

As for blog aesthetics, I kept thinking that I needed a knockout layout. You know, something that really said ME. And if I had that layout, I would be more apt to update my blog. Yeah, that didn’t happen.

My point then is that I have no real brand except for my content. However, I did redo my Top Ten Tuesday button to match my site. So I guess that’s something.