I recently moved into a place with a lot more space for my books, so I’ve been able to have a long overdue (and just plain long) sorting session. Inspired by all those lovely Instagram posts of people making rainbows of their bookshelves, I’ve been sorting them into sections (to-be-read, DC-related, my faves, that sort of thing) and then by colour within those sections.

And here’s something I noticed that surprised me—and I was equally surprised that I hadn’t noticed it before.

My favourite colour is purple. But apparently, it’s not the favourite colour of many book designers—or at least many marketing departments who okay covers.

I can count the number of purple spines on my shelf on one hand. If I include lilac, I might need some fingers of the other hand, too. But that’s it. And that’s among, at a guess, 300 books. There’s a lot of white, yellow, blue, and black. But purple is almost non-existent, and that makes me sad. Not just because I’d like more purple in my living room, but because it makes me wonder if publishers think (or, worse, know!) that purple books sell less well—or at least sell less well in the genres I tend to buy, which is mainly literary and “upmarket women’s” fiction.

The purple spines I found on my shelves belong to these books, and maybe you’ll find some inspiration here if your book rainbow is lacking in indigo and violet.