Magen, AKA @bonechillingbooks on Instagram, runs a beautiful, dark, and moody account. She lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma but is originally from Biddeford, Maine, and started her Bookstagram after she moved to a neighborhood in Houston where one of her neighbors was Stephanie at @the.bookish.photog who told her all about Bookstagram.
I love when people message me to say things like, “I love your account so much and I follow you because you always have great ideas on which book I should read next.”
Favorite Books and Authors:
“For thrillers, since that’s what my account focuses on, I love:
- No Bad Deed by Heather Chavez,
- The Perfect Marriage by Jeneva Rose,
- Razorblade Tears by S. A. Cosby,
- Blacktop Wasteland by S. A. Cosby,
- They Never Learn by Layne Fargo,
- My Girl by S. Cole,
- Kindred by Octavia Butler,
- The One by John Marrs,
- Verity by Colleen Hoover,
- She Lies Close by Sharon Doering,
- Finding Tessa by Jaime Lynn Hendricks,
- That Weekend by Kara Thomas,
- A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson,
- One of Us is Lying by Karen McManus,
- The Push by Ashley Audrain,
- The Last Thing to Burn by Will Dean,
- Don’t Look for Me by Wendy Walker,
- Inside Passage by Burt Weissbourd, and
- The Whisper Man by Alex North to name a few…”
Despite her not having any fictional crushes, she was able to identify one author, among the many she enjoys reading, with whom she would love to take a selfie: Jeneva Rose. “I’m hoping one day we’ll be able to meet in person. We seem like we’d have too much fun together,” she says.
Maybe it’s because it’s an absolute favorite right now and I recently finished reading it, but I love the Razorblade Tears cover. It’s simple, but I’m digging the colors and after having read the book, the cover means that much more to me now. Also, I think I tend to gravitate more toward simple covers.
When it comes to identifying a favorite non-thriller and non-fiction book she found it easy to pick just one: The Secret by Rhonda Byrne. She says that she re-reads this book every year. It introduced her to “practicing gratitude and really understanding what it is and how to apply it to [her] everyday life. It’s certainly changed [her] way of thinking to help [her] live a more positive, gratitude-filled life.”
Favorite Bookstore:
Ooh again with the favorites. In Houston, I absolutely love Murder by the Book (@murderbooks); in Tulsa, Fulton Street Books & Coffee (@fultonstreet918) and Magic City Books (@magiccitybooks); and in Maine, Mainely Murders Bookstore (they don’t have an IG account).
If she could have a place supply her with a lifetime of books, Magen stated that it would be a tie between Minotaur Books (AKA St. Martin’s Press, a Macmillan imprint) and Atria Books (a Simon & Schuster imprint) but also the bookstores she lists above as her favorite.
Her TBR list is “OUT OF CONTROL” with more than 200 books waiting to be read! Some books she plans on reading are:
- Grown by Tiffany D. Jackson,
- The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina by Zoraida Córdova,
- Where the Truth Lies by Anna Bailey,
- Kill All Your Darlings by David Bell,
- The Shimmering State by Meredith Westgate,
- Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé,
- For Your Own Good by Samantha Downing,
- Gone for Good by Joanna Schaffhausen,
- The Darkness Knows by Arnaldur Indridason, and
- The Guilt Trip by Sandie Jones.
Her special approach to content creation is to set an alarm on her watch so it reminds her to post. When she’s too busy to snap a photo or come up with a caption she takes the healthy route and just posts later or skips the day entirely. On days she knows she will have a busy schedule she tries to take the photo and write the caption ahead of time, but it doesn’t always pan out that way, and that’s okay!
A tip she offers to aspiring Bookstagrammers:
Read diverse books; have an idea as to which genre(s) you’d like to focus on; choose your aesthetic; create the account; post good quality photos using the same lighting; write thoughtful captions that are longer than a sentence; ask a question in your caption; use all the relevant hashtags; engage with people who comment on your posts and vice versa; tag relevant people and/or companies in your posts; utilize your IG Stories, Reels, Lives, IGTV, Guides, etc.; be consistent; and have fun!
If reading or posting on bookstagram ever feels like it’s a chore and you’re dreading it, take time off. Go do other things you love. Don’t sacrifice your love of reading for trying to keep up with bookstagram. Try listening to an audiobook and take a few days, a week, or even a month off from posting and get back into it when you feel ready. Bookstagram is meant to be fun and a way to connect with other book lovers, so make sure you keep it that way for yourself.
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