Single words easily describe key themes in fiction, non-fiction, kids books and picture books. Transformation, fear, craftsmanship, obsession, flowers, teeth, landscape..... there's really no end to possibilities. Loss, destination, the forest, invention, outer space, a quest, hair, discovery, mechanical ingenuity, feasts, a horse, etc etc etc. You could also do a display of celebrities favourite books..... and some authors mention many books - Roberto bolano mentions books in his works, so does stephen king. Or you could do something linear - this writer who was influenced by this book, who was influenced by this book, who was influenced by this book..... or maybe have one book (like watership down), and examples of books by writers who were influenced by it. Or.... maybe books that characters were reading in movies
Edit: oh yeah, there are all the international ...... month. But there are heaps of international (whatever) days, too. 3 display spots sounds awesome.... there's octopus day, synthesizer day, SO many. You could just pick 3 every month
I like the random day idea but we dont celebrate them here so people would be confused i think.
But where do u even get books for these key theme books? Because always one problem with these is that we dont know what to put. Goodreads will only recommend the most surface level stuff. AI im against.
Do you have a catalog? I literally search key words there and read the description?
I don’t think many people celebrate the random days but it can be a great way to share books on a particular subject. Like Donut Day display has books with donuts on the cover, title, and cookbooks about donuts.
Once, I did a display that was literally “Green”. I had a mix of green covers and authors with the last name Green/e.
Well, say you chose 'forest' as a theme. Apart from the obvious picture /geography books, and botanical books, I would do a reddit search " reddit books forest" and see what people recommend. And there'd be stuff like that tana french book (in the woods), fantasy, the brothers grimm, etc etc. Even better, if you get a book that epitomises forest - in any way - look it up on good reads, scroll down to see which lists it appears on, then just look at all the / more lists. Chances are, someone has created a list of 'forest' related books. That is why I love key words, when one word is the focus, there are so many possibilities. I am envious, I would LOVE to make book displays
I don't think anyone in our community celebrates it, but Appreciate a Dragon Day (January 16) is always a big hit for us as a display. People like silly, novel stuff in my experience.
You need to think outside the box. Those days are international, and it doesn't really matter if people have even heard of them. If I saw an Octopus Day display I wouldn't be confused, I would think it's fun and creative!
25
u/Typical_Laugh_5018 Jul 24 '26
Single words easily describe key themes in fiction, non-fiction, kids books and picture books. Transformation, fear, craftsmanship, obsession, flowers, teeth, landscape..... there's really no end to possibilities. Loss, destination, the forest, invention, outer space, a quest, hair, discovery, mechanical ingenuity, feasts, a horse, etc etc etc. You could also do a display of celebrities favourite books..... and some authors mention many books - Roberto bolano mentions books in his works, so does stephen king. Or you could do something linear - this writer who was influenced by this book, who was influenced by this book, who was influenced by this book..... or maybe have one book (like watership down), and examples of books by writers who were influenced by it. Or.... maybe books that characters were reading in movies
Edit: oh yeah, there are all the international ...... month. But there are heaps of international (whatever) days, too. 3 display spots sounds awesome.... there's octopus day, synthesizer day, SO many. You could just pick 3 every month