Can You Spot a Book by Its Spine?

When I flip through catalogs, I like to play this little book-nerdish game wherein I try to identify the books that the stylist chose to use as props. There are particular titles that are common–old favorites like The Catcher in the Rye (the cover by Michael Mitchell is a particularly popular one for its bold color), Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, or Where the Wild Things Are. Or sometimes it’s a collection of oversize coffee table books with clean, cool typography to express modern design aesthetics. It’s like spotting a copy of What to Expect When You’re Expecting in a movie or TV show involving a character getting knocked up (see The Back-Up Plan and Private Practice for some recent onscreen cameos). In this instance (page 43 from an Urban Outfitters holiday catalog), I scored my first point for recognizing the bright pink (and easily readable) spine of the Butt Book (lying horizontally in the middle, eighth book from the, err… bottom).  But then I spotted a special little gem of a bestseller published by our very own Algonquin Books! Can you spot Water for Elephants on the bookshelf below?

Beyond those two highlights, I squinted and tilted my head a few more times and, with a little bit of research, managed to identify a few more.

A. Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen (Did you know the movie is coming out this spring?)

B. The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

C. Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs

D. Any Objections by Mario Testino

E. Red Odyssey: A Journey through the Soviet Republic by Marat Akchurin

F. The Girl by Catherine Cookson

G. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

H. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

I. Ireland Rough Guide

J. Madonna: A Biography by Mary Cross

K. Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff

L. Butt Book by Jop van Bennekom and Gert Jonkers

Can you identify any more book spines? There’s some sort of guide to New York (recognize the fluorescent colors, can’t quite put my finger on it), also an unidentified book by Paulo Coelho, and I’m pretty sure there’s a Toni Morrison in there…  So here goes, bookish brainiacs: In the comments below, correctly identify another book from the scene  and be entered to win a copy of the new movie tie-in edition of Water for Elephants! (See below, right.) And, for a sneak peek of Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson, check out the movie trailer here.