Lord Help Me, But Sprayed Edges!

Photo by Kristina Elyse Butke

What's a poor book lover to do when books are getting prettier and shinier?

I never cared about foiled covers or deluxe editions or sprayed edges or anything else like that before, so where is my love of this stuff coming from? I'm going to blame BookTube, BookTok, and Bookstagram for all of the carefully curated bookshelves and collections they feature showcasing how gorgeous books have become. Oh, and of course, publishing.

This was not a thing even five years ago, from what I remember. These types of books were relegated to the far reaches of the realms where you could only get them through Fairy Loot, Illumicrate, etc. In other words, if you wanted a special edition, you ponied up the dough to a book box retailer. I never did, because I didn't think I could afford to have book crates delivered to me monthly, and there was never a guarantee you'd get a special edition before they ran out of copies.

Fast forward to now, and publishers are designing books just like you see in monthly crates. You could walk into a Barnes & Noble and see exclusive editions with foil lettering on the covers and beautiful sprayed edges for several books, just chilling there. And other stores have their own editions, too, like Target and Waterstones and Walmart. And aside from social media, the news is getting in on this, too:

• This is Why So Many Books Now Have Colorful Edges

• Spredges Effect: Why Books are Becoming More Beautiful

With the increase in availability of these types of books, plus the mouthwatering bookish lifestyle presented to me by social media influencers, I suddenly started wanting special editions.

I cleared my shelves to designate one book case to be entirely devoted to collector editions (aka the prettified versions). I'm slowly filling that up but I'm trying to arrange them by size, since publishers don't print books in a standardized way. Right now the most recent purchases are just in a pile next to my already-full bookshelf in my room:

Look how pretty they are! But I need to shelve them. Photo by Kristina Elyse Butke.

I am also completely redoing my Heaven Official's Blessing collection. I got all 8 books (at the time, they were trade paperback only) and then they came out with special edition hardcovers, and readers, I was done. I have been picking up these new versions as they release, and they are beautiful. The paperbacks have their own gorgeous art, but I decided to gift them to a friend so I wouldn't have duplicates. I don't think I ever would have done something like this if the new books hadn't been so lovely.

I have an ongoing wishlist on various sites that feature the special edition/deluxe book editions, and I'm just patiently waiting for them to release or go on sale. With school being out and teaching pretty much being done for a good while, I can't really buy any more of these for the time being, but I can wait. These books are worth it.