Bookstagram

A community of clever minds who specialize in visual book creativity.

Welcome to Books, Baths & Boobs- The place where I´ll be recreating Bookstagram images from Bookstagrammers I follow. Or, in other words:

“Hey, look what I´ve always wanted to recreate. I finally found some time so here I am. Yippie!”

Today´s the start of my new bookish experiment and I thought it would be best to start with something that´s been done a million times over by countless Bookstagrammers- Books & Coffee features.

And because this popular Bookstagram theme has been copied so often I thought I´d also give it a try. I mean- It doesn´t look too difficult. What can go wrong? It´s just a coffee and a book. Well, all this sounds simple but for me, it won´t be easy.

1. I´ve never done a coffee & book pic before
2. I live in a coffee-free household.

I would have to pick an image that´s not too difficult to begin with. Something simple. Something I won´t spend all day fussing over.

I´ve chosen a Bookstagram image from Instagram user:  openasabookworm

 

 

( NOTE: If you ever get the chance then please pop over and give that woman some love because she has AMAZING book features. I envy this bookstagram talent )

Looks fairly simple, right? Five same sized mugs and books. As I said- A walk in the park.

Now, for the great recreation reveal.

Tadaaaaa!

 

 

What do ya think? Is this a recreation well done, or is this a piss poor copy of the original?

But what about the whole process? Was this as simple as I thought it would be? It would be best to give you a rundown on how this image came to be. Because I assure you, there´s more to it than meets the eye.

 

How It Was Done

 

#1 – Preparation is key. I needed 5 books. The featured paperbacks are from P.C. Cast´s `Goddess Summoning`series. The 5 mugs all needed to be the same size as they are in the original image. Since I wasn´t about to go out and buy coffee I decided to go the fake coffee route. Coke, balsamico, water, milk… Whatever liquid´s dark enough.

 

 

 

#2 – Become the mad-fake-coffee-doctor. I admit, this was the fun part of this whole experiment. I got to mix balsamic dressing with water and milk. 

 

Which was a bit nasty, to be honest. The smell of balsamic dressing with milk wasn´t pleasant. And the end result wasn´t too great, either. I don´t recommend doing this.

 

 

 

This, I can totally recommend. Using Coca-Cola was a much better idea. A little messier but hey… This is fake coffee science. It´s not supposed to be clean. After I added milk I was sort of satisfied with the coffee illusion result.

 

#3 – Getting the right angle is also key. Look, I´m short. I have to use chairs and stools to reach stuff. I also had to use chairs to get the right angle for this recreation shot.

 

 

My Conclusion

 

Fuck the walk in the park. All this was too much work for a simple book feature. I spent nearly 2 hours mixing the fake coffee, carefully dragging 5 full mugs to my living room and rearranging the mugs, lining them up with the books. I had a near-death experience while standing on my chairs. And all while sweating my ass off in this unholy 34-degree heat. At this point I don´t even care if I succeeded or not. I just don´t want to ever do this again. THAT is how fed up I am.

Book & Coffee Bookstagram images are pretty to look at and I´m in awe of anyone who goes to these lengths to create these pictures. I sure hope these Bookstagrammers continue to create these amazing Book & Coffee features because I sure as hell won´t. I can´t and am not willing to invest that much time for one image.

 

Oh! I almost forgot!

Before I leave I think it would be best to mention that, despite this being a wasteful experiment, not all had gone to waste. Some of the Coke survived and was put to good use. The balsamic dressing and milk didn´t.

 

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What are your thoughts? Have you done a Books & Coffee Bookstagram image before? If so, how did you do it? Did you use real coffee or fake coffee? Let me know in the comments below. I´d love to chat. ❤

 

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Thank you for visiting my apocalyptic blog post series on how to recreate Bookstagram images: Part 1. I hope you enjoyed.

 

Sending lots of bookish love,