Rare Book Monthly

Articles - October - 2021 Issue

Book Earrings

Ebby's earrings (from their Etsy listing).

Ebby's earrings (from their Etsy listing).

You don't often find original new products for book lovers, but here is one – book earrings. There is a seller on Etsy now selling earrings that look like books. From the pictures, they look realistic and don't cost very much. You could build a library worth of these for what you pay for one set of diamond earrings.

 

You can buy earrings featuring off-the-shelf, preselected titles, but you also can have ones that are custom made based on your selection. Based on the titles offered, and the sound of the reviews customers have written, I would guess that the primary market is younger women and girls. Offered titles are from Rick Riordan, creator of the Percy Jackson series. The protagonist here is a teenage male, which makes me think teenage females is the prime audience. I don't see any Shakespeare earrings. I am going to have to admit that I had not heard of Rick Riordan and his books before, which simply reflects how much out of the loop I am. He has sold 30 million books.

 

Now, if you want the Shakespeare earrings, and aren't concerned that it will show people how old and out of touch you are, you can order custom earrings. They provide a field where you can enter the book title and you can provide a link to an image of the cover you want, so you can wear a First Folio instead of a twentieth century reprint. I would have expected this would be quite expensive but it isn't. The off-the-shelf earrings are $12 while the custom ones are only $15.

 

These are a good size earrings, but not something outrageously large as you might think. These are not life size nor even a miniature book. Maybe a mini-miniature, just under one inch tall.

 

As of this writing, they had only sold 67 sets so far, but I believe this is something new or the word hasn't gotten out yet. Judging by the reviews, customers like them. The seller has a perfect 5 star rating and those who have posted comments wrote rave reviews. While young women are obviously the main target, men can wear them too. There is one man who provided his picture wearing a set along with the comment that he loves them. He really looks quite stylish. If I was his age, I would probably order a set too, but I come from a time when men didn't wear earrings so I would not feel quite comfortable.

 

The name of the seller is EbbyEarrings, and according to one of the reviewers, Ebby is a dog, presumably the owner's dog and not the actual proprietor. If you think you might be interested, check them out. Here is a link: www.etsy.com/listing/1032398405/custom-book-earrings

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