How Can Authors Use A Books Icon To Boost Branding?

I got annoyed by that little book-like icon too, so I dug in and fixed it — here’s the clean, dependable way that worked for me. First, try the simplest route: right-click (or Control-click on a Mac) directly on the bookmarks bar itself. In the context menu you should see a toggle labeled 'Show reading list' — uncheck that and the books icon (the Reading List button) disappears instantly. If you like screenshots and fiddling, this is the one-click fix that saved me from poking through settings. If that option isn’t visible for you, don’t panic; Chrome changes things from time to time. Paste chrome://flags/#read-later into your address bar, hit Enter, and disable the flag called something like 'Reading List' or 'Read Later'. Relaunch Chrome and the icon should be gone. A final fallback is to check chrome://extensions for any extension that might be adding toolbar buttons, or create a fresh profile if your profile has quirky policies. I ran into that once after an update and disabling the flag fixed it immediately. Little tip: if you ever want it back, reverse the steps — re-enable the flag or toggle 'Show reading list' on. Also, on mobile Chrome the UI is different and that desktop bookshelf icon doesn’t apply. Hope that helps — I love having the bar tidy, so this felt like reclaiming desk space on my browser.

When I tap that tiny books icon on a Goodreads profile, I usually take it as a quick doorway into someone’s reading life. For me it’s not mysterious — it links to the person’s bookshelves and reading activity: the books they’ve marked as 'read', 'currently-reading', 'to-read', plus any custom shelves they’ve created. It’s basically a compact way to see what they’ve been into lately and whether we have overlapping tastes. If you click through you’ll often see counts (how many books are on each shelf), the covers, and sometimes recent updates like reviews or ratings. Keep in mind people can set shelves to private, so the icon may not reveal everything. On mobile the same icon sometimes lives in a different spot or opens a menu, but the idea’s the same — a shortcut to explore someone’s collections and recommendations. I use that icon all the time to find companions for a read or to snoop for new titles when I’m out of book ideas. Pro tip: if you find someone whose shelves you like, follow them or check which of their reviews they’ve left for titles you’re curious about — it’s a nice way to peek behind the bookshelf and maybe discover a hidden gem.

I just finished 'Icon' last week, and yes, it absolutely has a romantic subplot that sneaks up on you. It starts with professional tension between the protagonist and a rival journalist, but slowly evolves into this electric chemistry. Their debates turn into late-night coffee sessions, then stolen glances during press conferences. What I loved is how their relationship mirrors the book's themes of truth and deception - they keep secrets professionally and personally, which creates this delicious push-pull dynamic. The romance isn't the main focus, but it adds serious emotional stakes when their careers and hearts collide during the final investigation.

Whenever I catch that little silhouette of an open book on a website or an app, my brain goes on a tiny historical detour — it's surprisingly old-fashioned beneath its modern smooth lines. The motif of an open book actually goes back to medieval art and manuscripts, where evangelists and scholars were frequently depicted holding open codices; those images signaled authority and learning. Fast-forward a few centuries and you get the printers' devices and colophons of the early presses — think the dolphin and anchor of the Aldine Press — little brand marks that functioned much like today's icons, showing origin and trustworthiness. By the 19th and early 20th centuries, bookbinders, booksellers and librarians turned to standard visual cues: stacks, spines, open pages and ex libris bookplates. Those physical signs bled into public signage and cataloging symbols, so when designers in the mid-20th century started reducing things to pictograms — through movements like ISOTYPE and the Swiss style — the book symbol got smoothed into the pared-down glyphs we recognize now. Digital interfaces accelerated that simplification. From early GUIs to skeuomorphic apps like 'iBooks' and then to flat icon systems, the book icon needed to be legible at tiny sizes, so designers kept the essential geometry: two covers and a line (or two) of pages. Even the Unicode open-book emoji U+1F4D6 is part of that lineage. If you like little visual histories, try hunting printer marks or 'Gutenberg Bible' facsimiles online — it's like tracing a family tree for a tiny, ubiquitous symbol.

My phone started doing that once after an iOS update and it freaked me out for a minute, so you're not alone — seeing a little 'Books' icon in Screen Time can be confusing. Basically, Screen Time groups usage by app or by category, and the 'Books' icon often shows up when the system is tracking time spent in 'Apple Books' or anything iOS considers part of the Reading category. That can include reading ePubs or PDFs in 'Books', audiobooks played through 'Books', or even content opened by other apps that the system lumps into Reading & Reference. If you want to poke around, go to Settings > Screen Time > See All Activity, pick Day or Week, then scroll to the 'Most Used' section. Tap the 'Books' entry to see whether it's actually 'Books' the app, an audiobook session, or a miscategorized third-party reader like 'Kindle'. A few times I've seen a web article count as reading and get grouped under the same icon. If the icon is there because of synced activity across devices, try toggling Share Across Devices (Settings > Screen Time) — that separated my iPad reading stats from my iPhone. To remove it, you can either delete or offload the app producing the entries, set an App Limit for 'Books', or temporarily turn off Screen Time. If the icon belongs to a third-party app and it looks miscategorized, sometimes the only fix is waiting for the app developer or an iOS patch to correct the category. I found it helpful to check the detailed activity first — it usually tells you what exactly is being tracked, and that clue makes the fix painless.

When I'm sketching a minimalist books icon for an app, I start by stealing ten minutes to doodle on whatever's at hand — a post-it, the back of a receipt, or the margin of a notebook where I was reading 'The Little Prince' on the bus. The whole point is to find a single, instantly recognizable silhouette: a closed book, an open book viewed from above, a bookmark peeking out, or a stack seen as stripes. I try several variations quickly so I can compare how reduction affects recognition. Next I move into the discipline of restraint. I think in shapes and negative space: two rounded rectangles and a thin line for the spine, or three simple strokes to suggest pages. I grid the icon at the device pixel size I care about — often 16, 24, 32 px — and simplify until every pixel has purpose. Contrast and stroke weight matter more than tiny decorative details. I test the design in monochrome first, then add a single brand color and maybe an accent for depth. If the app has playful energy, I might soften corners or add a tiny bookmark notch; if it's formal, I keep sharp corners and a slimmer spine. Finally, I export multiple sizes and test them in context: on the home screen, in a nav bar, inside a notification. I check dark mode, crazy backgrounds, and accessibility (high contrast). If something reads like a pile of lines at 16 px, it gets pared down. Designing minimal icons is like pruning a bonsai — cut early and often, and always zoom out to see the whole plant.

I was halfway through a commute and scrolling through my home screen when I noticed the little book icon had changed—funny how tiny details grab you. On my Pixel it looked cleaner, flatter, and more in line with those rounded, adaptive shapes Google has been pushing. My gut reaction was: this is part design trend, part technical housekeeping. Google tends to roll out icon tweaks as part of broader design updates like Material You, and those updates force apps to adopt adaptive outlines, dynamic color schemes, and simplified silhouettes so icons read clearly at small sizes and in different themes like dark mode. Beyond aesthetics, there are other practical reasons. Icons get changed to improve recognizability across regions, reduce visual clutter, or align with a brand refresh—sometimes the app name shifts too, like how 'Google Play Books' has been nudged toward a more unified Play ecosystem look. Companies also A/B test icons server-side; some users see one version, others see an experiment. I’ve seen threads on forums where folks compared the old bookshelf emblem to a new minimalist bookmark; designers often choose the bookmark because it scales better, prints well on tiny notification chips, and avoids culturally specific imagery. If the new icon bugs you, there are easy workarounds I actually use: try an icon pack or a custom launcher, check the app’s beta channel (sometimes beta keeps the old art), or clear the launcher cache if it’s a visual glitch. You can always send feedback through the app’s settings—design teams do read that stuff, especially when a lot of people mention it. Personally I miss the old bookshelf when I open 'Google Play Books' to read manga like 'One Piece', but the cleaner icon does look nicer alongside my other apps when Material You recolors everything to match my wallpaper.

The critical reception for 'Icon' has been mixed but intellectually stimulating. Many praise its bold narrative structure, comparing it to a mosaic where each fragmented piece slowly forms a breathtaking picture. The protagonist's moral ambiguity is highlighted as both a strength and weakness—reviewers call him 'mesmerizingly flawed' yet occasionally frustrating in his unpredictability. Some critics argue the pacing suffers in the middle chapters, with dense philosophical monologues that disrupt the thriller elements. However, most agree the finale delivers a payoff that recontextualizes earlier sluggish moments. The prose receives universal acclaim for its razor-sharp dialogue and visceral action sequences, though a few note certain side characters feel underwritten compared to the richly detailed protagonist. Environmental descriptions are singled out as particularly immersive, making the dystopian setting feel like a character itself.