There are two different meanings to the term "orange books". First of all, it can simply refer to the colour of the cover of the book. An orange book is a book with a predominantly orange cover. Metaphorically speaking, however, "an orange book" is an unexpected delight. Such as a book you randomly pick up in a bookstore without ever having heard of it before, and then when you read it you find that it is pure gold (or rather, pure orange).
Orange books I've come across include Chris Cleave's The Other Hand (the original orange book, and one of the few that are actually orange in both meanings of the expression. You can read all about my escapades to find it here), Mark Zusak's The Book Thief, Albert Sánches Piñol's Pandora in the Congo, and actually - the first Harry Potter book was orange before I knew there was such a thing as orange books.
One book that only almost falls into this category is Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game. This books isn't quite orange, since it was recommended to me, but I didn't expect to like it, and yet I reallyreally did. So I guess I would categorize it as more of an apricot book.
Also - orange doesn't just apply to books. I've had orange book meals, bought orange book CDs, found orange book blogs and one day I hope to meet a guy to whom I will feel comfortable saying "You're an orange book".
Have you come across any orange books lately?
8 comments:
I would class Alex's book Cassastar as an orange book, having seen and heard so much about it on line decided to buy it.I was pleasantly surprised at the outcome as I am not usually into SciFi at all.
Yvonne.
I do like this idea. A group of pals were working in the forest of BC. We decided to go to a movie in a nearby town. We didn't know the movie - not one thing about it. Turned out to be Caddy Shack - completely orange book movie.
You are a delight and are an orange book friend to me!
Aw, thanks Yvonne! Many have compared it to Ender's Game, so I guess it's apricot-orange.
I had no idea what to expect when I read my first Preston & Child book, the Relic, but it was awesome and now they are my favorite authors.
What an interesting concept! I'd have to give it some thought, but I'm sure I could come up with some examples of my own. I can think of a musical artist or two that would also fall into this category. Would that be an Orange Band?
Gilbert Sorrentino's poetry collection "The Orangery" has an orange on the cover, and contains a series of hilarious poems on the theme of oranges. Am I amazing? Yes I am. Sadly it's out of print and you can't read it. (I'm still amazing though).
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/436175.The_Orangery
Hmmm . . . one book I would have to call "orange" would be Cherry Heaven by L. J. Adlington. I picked it up pretty randomly, just because I saw it on the shelf at the library.
I have several orange books, my favourite of which is Rod McKuen’s poetry collection, “Listen to the Warm”. I’ve also eaten an orange tangerine – it was unexpectedly delicious.
Re The orange book guy thing: That’s never really appealed to me, but I realize that it takes all sorts to make a world…..
Thanks for this fun post.
Have a good week, Boonie
It is such a delight to find a great book that you've either never heard of, or heard of and didn't expect much from...
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