I grabbed Book Nooks to get some style ideas for a section of shelving in my home. The book offers lots of great ideas and is geared toward true “nooks” — small areas that can be accented with books. The authors segment their ideas by theme: small spaces, children’s room, garden area, etc. The pictures are very nice and there are lots of great ideas. They also included recommended book lists by a few authors, which I loved. A great book-based decor read!

Thank you to Chronicle Books and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

What I liked about it was there are lots of pretty pictures of how to show off your books in different places (even the bathroom) and I enjoyed seeing some book recommendations from authors I enjoy. I was hoping for something different though, maybe more for the average reader, how to take an existing space and turn it into a cozy book nook. The suggestions were more about curating a certain theme like black and white books, or a cookbook area with knickknacks. It was 3 stars for me.

"Book Nooks:
Inspired Ideas for Cozy Reading Corners and Stylish Book Displays"
by Vanessa Dina; Claire Gilhuly
September 2024

Vanessa Dina and Claire Gihuly pull out all the comfy, home decor stops in "Book Nooks: Inspired Ideas for Cozy Reading Corners and Stylish Book Displays" (Chronicle Books, 2024).

Color coordinated, or color sorted, tomes gather together for bookish beautification both large and small: a few books of quotes, essays, and humor for bathroom reading; a selection of coffee-table sized books stacked up a few stairs.

Every photograph is sumptuous and social media, even gallery, ready.

My only qualm is 'Book Nook" displays books in ways that sacrifices book safety (our babies!) many bibliophiles might not:

*crunched into empty fireplaces spine first
*underneath coasters and vases
*on gardening tables

I am appreciative of the creative spirit and skill sets involved in such an endeavor, especially as more book piles creep ever closer to taking over another room:)

Thank you kindly to Vanessa Dina, Claire Gilhuly, Chronicle Books, and NetGalley for the eARC.

Book Nooks: Inspired Ideas for Cozy Reading Corners and Stylish Book Displays
Vanessa Dina, Claire Gilhuly, Antonio’s Achilleos (photography)
Books as decor shown in multiple ways around the home. Beautiful settings and practical placement for every room. Options, lists, and styling techniques. Ideas for displaying your books as well as various reading lists.

A beautiful coffee table book itself, this will give you many ideas on where and how to display your books.
The displays skews toward hard back and high end homes but I found several ideas that could easily be incorporated into a practical busy family home.
It’s a gorgeously photographed statement of: I love books.

I received an ecopy of this from NetGalley.

I guess that I am just not the target audience for this book. Although I have numerous "book nooks" inside and outside of our home, I was not inspired by the examples the authors gave. They looked more like "staging" for a house going on the market than a comfortable place to read. I will not be posting this review on any of my usual review sites, as I do not wish to cause the author any harm. The book will probably be a big seller amongst the "farmhouse chic" and "industrial loft" type home owners. I wish the authors luck.

I love the pictures and little tidbits by authors about what a book nook means to them. This is a cute, inspirational, coffee table book companion.

I loved reading this and learning about how other display books, full of gorgeous photos that will definitely inspire me.

Ask any bibliophile and they will most likely admit to having at least one book about books- be it a novel, a compilation, or a beautiful book like Dina and Gilhuly’s Book Nooks. Admittedly, I have a soft spot for book spaces in homes, shops, doctors’ offices, out in the wild- you name it. Where there is a book, there is a potential story to behold, and that is what had me smiling as I read this. There are some fun ideas and ways to marry one’s love of reading and spruce up your space at the same time.
Thank you to NetGalley and Chronicle Books for the advance copy. All thoughts are my own.

A lovely coffee table book for book lovers. Lots of inspiration for creating a book nook, or simply calling the pile of books next to your favorite reading chair a book nook. Bonus lists of favorite books for excellent authors sprinkle through the pages of rainy autumn dreams. Even cookbook collections get some love, though the fondness for monochrome collections is a bit surprising from someone who has cookbooks of every color except white.

This was like Pinterest in book format. I loved all the ideas on book nooks and how to set them up. Ideas on things to add with your books and all the pictures were amazing. So inspiring!

I loved this book. It's basically an inspirational picture magazine of sorts for cozy, book-loving people who enjoy looking at other's creative ways of displaying their most prized editions. The book is divided into sections, mostly rooms of the home with other areas (like the bar and garden) sprinkled in. Some extras, like bestselling authors' lists of their favorite books, are tucked in the pages. I'm not sure what Vanessa Dina's objective was when creating this, but it inspired me to look at my book collections and how I could more aesthetically and creatively display them. *Advance copy provided by the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

This wasn't quite what I was expecting. I picked it up hoping to get some ideas on creating a cozy book nook and it's more in the realm of different aesthetic ways to display your books. It's very visually appealing with great photographs but I'm not sure it's worth an entire book. I agree with other reviews that this might have been more useful as a blog post.

It does have different categories to theme your bookshelves around but it feels very centered on social media posts about your collection and less on creating a nice space to read in. Overall, not a bad book and I can see some folks getting value out of it but it's less useful for me personally.

This was an aesthetically pleasing lovely book! I love a good book nook! I wish there was a section for the types of fiction readers?? I understand the themes they chose but a fiction reader section would've been fun.

I had to read “Book Nooks” because I have tons of books in my house and wanted stylish ideas for displaying them. This book offered several options depending on your book collection and where you want to put them in your home. My favorite part was in the Cookbook (Nook 7) section where “Go Monochrome” for kitchen and dining areas really caught my eye. The authors explained that an all-white cookbook nook is like a little black dress, because is easy to style and fits nearly every home aesthetic. The photos were very inspiring and made me want to create a dining room cookbook nook immediately!

Thank you to NetGalley and Chronicle Books for the opportunity to read an advanced reader's copy of this book for an honest review.

Perhaps it's just me and the expectations I set for this book, but I was expecting the complete opposite. For the record, I requested to read this book on a whim purely because like many avid readers I have far too many books and am not sure how I want to organize them. I was expecting a book to provide inspiration and pretty pictures with fun, new ways to explore a love of books. I was expecting to learn how to take a jumbled shelf of books and create a cohesive space in your house - or room - that enhances the beauty of the books you already have.

This book wasn't really that. This book had the opposite perspective.

While it was very pretty - I will give it that - and it might be a nice coffee table book for someone to buy, peruse through once, and stick under some random Home Goods knickknack on your credenza, it's not terribly useful for actual readers. Most of the inspiration ideas about hobby books, books of certain colors, etc. expected you to pick a theme and then buy books that fit that theme. It expects that the reader will curate a collection of books around their aesthetic value, and not their actual content. This is fine for some people, I suppose, but I think it will completely lose most of its readers.

I've never been one to decide on how I want a space to look before I have the items to put in that room - so I think this is where the book totally lost me. My possessions have special meaning and function - something I think anyone living in a small space can relate to - not purely aesthetic value. I love having pretty items as much as the next person, but if they don't meet either of those previous criteria, I'm not interested. This book is certainly one of them.

Thank you to NetGalley and Chronicle Books for a free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I think thie book is most useful to readers with limited space. I did come away with an idea for my bedroom and I enjoy the authors' book picks throughout the book.

Home is where the books are. This inspiring home decor book is brimming with photos of cozy places to read and creative ways to display books at home.

Thank you Chronicle Books & Netgalley for sending me a digital ARC of this book! This book has pictures and gives you tips on how to create your own book nook. I don’t really feel like I got anything out of reading this book but I enjoyed reading this book and looking at the pictures.

This books is aesthetically visual, filled with vibrant pictures of book nooks large and small. It almost feels as if this should have been a blog series, this isn’t something I would get much use out of keeping on my bookshelf. It offered some tips on how to color coordinate or pair like books with like topics (like putting cookbooks in the kitchen) and how to use some as decor. Nothing novel, as you could find all of this and more on Pinterest, but it was visually stimulating so I’m sure there is a suitable audience out there for this. Just not what I would want out of a hard copy book.

Thanks to NetGalley, Chronicle Books, Vanessa Dina and Claire Gilhuly for providing me with a complimentary ARC to review!

I think my hopes were too high for this one. I was expecting to see something new in here and not just the same advice given that I’ve seen numerous times before. If someone hadn’t done any research I think this book would be great.

I really enjoyed this design book full of a variety of styles of book nooks. This book is a perfect gift for the bibliophile in your life. I would love to have a hardcopy of this title in my own book nook. I’ll definitely be sharing this title with my audience of readers. When you are a lover of books, it’s hard to incorporate them in your home in a way that is both beautifully aesthetic and organized logically so that you’re able to find what you need. I love the tips in this book about how to display books and use them more as decorative items in the design and staging of one’s home.