A rainbow of books
books I read get assigned to colours
As I was on a deep-dive random google search, I ended up reading about synesthesia (perceptual phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway - Wikipedia). It’s truly fascinating how people can associate various things with colours.
That got me thinking, if I were able to get triggered by books and see colours, what would those be? I couldn’t do it that way. Instead, I thought of colours and what books I associate with them. It was surprisingly hard considering the first thought would be about the colour of the cover.
My aim was to ignore the book covers and properly associate the colours with the stories. After a surprisingly long time of thinking on this, I did manage to come up with a list. (And consequently got derailed by colour theory, colours psychology, genetics and what colours various species can see, etc.)
It was quite impossible to associate books with specific nuances, such as chartreuse green or azure, so I stuck with the basic colours. Now, considering that each and everyone of us may think of different nuances when saying, for example, purple, I am adding colour-samples, too.
Green - Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (I especially associate this book to green because of Scotland’s predominant landscapes in book #1, but also because of North Carolina’s wilderness where the majority of books #5 and #6 takes place)
Red - Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff (this is a bit on the nose - it is a story about bloody vampires, after all)
Yellow - Book Lovers by Emily Henry (I struggled with this one, because my first instinct was to name Yellowface by Rebecca F. Kuang, but it just didn’t seem to fit. Yellow inspires me to think of sunshine and good times, so Book Lovers it is.)
Orange - Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami (A very confusing book, much like orange is to me as a colour. Nothing deeper here, unfortunately.)
Violet - The Rook and the Rose trilogy by M.A. Carrick (A very underrated epic fantasy, I think. It has fun characters, a heist, disguises and an interesting magic system.)
Blue - The Atlas Six trilogy by Olivie Blake (This series made my brain hurt - in a good way, though. I felt very detached from the story itself, but actually I was invested in every bit of it. I don’t know, I suppose because I had to cool myself down before reading to get the physics and cosmic stuff, I associate these series with blue.)
Pink - Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones (The hardest colour to get a book associated with. I don’t like pink that much, in my head is a whimsical colour, so I chose a whimsical novel.)
Brown - The Book Thief by Markuz Zusack (I’ve read it a long time ago, but this novel stuck with me. In a world torn by World War II, a little girl finds solace in books.)
Technically, the following three are the controversial “colours”, there being quite a debate on where they are “colours” or something else. I found this article which concludes they are colours, so have a look if you’re curious.
Black - The Broken Empire trilogy by Mark Lawrence (A very grim dark brutal fantasy trilogy - I loved it as much as I hated it.)
Grey - The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (An obvious choice, I’d say, considering the recurring theme is black-and-white, if I remember correctly. This book is to be savoured slowly, it’s a unique story that touches the reader in a beautiful, delicate way.)
White - Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik/ The Bear and The Nightingale by Katherine Arden (I had a hard time deciding on one book, so I didn’t. Both these are whimsical, slow-paced books inspired by elements of Russian folklore, yet Spinning Silver also takes from Latvian and Polish folklore. These are two perfect novels for the winter time, when the snow is high and the coziest place is in front of a lit fireplace.)
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loved this! something different 😍 do you know of more books like spinning silver & the bear and the nightingale?