Do furnish a room
April 8, 2022 4:47 PM Subscribe
If you disagree with publishers about how to furnish the room, but you can't rebind all your books as people used to do, you can replace the dust jackets. If you have cases of books of the same size, you can jacket them into a single mural. (This reminds me of an encyclopedia aimed at young readers when I was a kid. Possibly the World Book?)
Popular series probably have several sets already designed, in styles ranging from modern pale to modern flat to bright, plus all the possibilities on etsy.
If you want to design them yourself and have them printed, here's a how-to from a printer, with templates for Canva etc.. I'd be impressed by software to help jacket a case of *disparate* books into one image; haven't found any.
If you feel that you personally need a decorative book jacket, also possible.
Previously: dustjacket reprints, dustjacket collection. Mostly via a Guardian article that started a bit hate-read-y but didn't end too badly.
Popular series probably have several sets already designed, in styles ranging from modern pale to modern flat to bright, plus all the possibilities on etsy.
If you want to design them yourself and have them printed, here's a how-to from a printer, with templates for Canva etc.. I'd be impressed by software to help jacket a case of *disparate* books into one image; haven't found any.
If you feel that you personally need a decorative book jacket, also possible.
Previously: dustjacket reprints, dustjacket collection. Mostly via a Guardian article that started a bit hate-read-y but didn't end too badly.
This reminds me of back when I was in elementary school and had to make covers for my textbooks. As an adult, I can see how easily I could use fabric and iron-on transfers to make art like these. Fun idea.
posted by irisclara at 5:05 PM on April 8, 2022 [8 favorites]
posted by irisclara at 5:05 PM on April 8, 2022 [8 favorites]
This reminds me of back when I was in elementary school and had to make covers for my textbooks.
I have such strong, fond memories of the grocery-bag-covers and decorating them. I've never been very artsy but I feel like I went to town on those.
posted by curious nu at 5:09 PM on April 8, 2022 [32 favorites]
I have such strong, fond memories of the grocery-bag-covers and decorating them. I've never been very artsy but I feel like I went to town on those.
posted by curious nu at 5:09 PM on April 8, 2022 [32 favorites]
My appreciation for the unifying aesthetic is trumped by my irrationally hot rage at not being able to see titles and authors and/or volume numbers immediately.
posted by BrotherCaine at 5:19 PM on April 8, 2022 [23 favorites]
posted by BrotherCaine at 5:19 PM on April 8, 2022 [23 favorites]
When I was in elementary school, lo, these many years ago, we got our school book covers from the Hamilton County Electric Cooperative. They had a picture of Reddy Killowatt on the fron. Alas, my google-flu is failing me.
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 5:20 PM on April 8, 2022 [6 favorites]
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 5:20 PM on April 8, 2022 [6 favorites]
I don't see much difference between buying 400 books you'll never read because your house is being featured in Architectural Digest and buying 400 books you'll never read because you spend all your reading time fighting on Twitter.
In other news, this post has inspired me to give all my little bundles of dead trees dust jackets that say THE POWER BROKER.
posted by betweenthebars at 6:02 PM on April 8, 2022 [16 favorites]
In other news, this post has inspired me to give all my little bundles of dead trees dust jackets that say THE POWER BROKER.
posted by betweenthebars at 6:02 PM on April 8, 2022 [16 favorites]
Reddy Killowatt: The Power Broker
I am tempted to jacket all our books with titles my sweetie and I would recognize which aren’t the official title.
posted by clew at 6:09 PM on April 8, 2022 [9 favorites]
I am tempted to jacket all our books with titles my sweetie and I would recognize which aren’t the official title.
posted by clew at 6:09 PM on April 8, 2022 [9 favorites]
When I was in elementary school, lo, these many years ago, we got our school book covers from the Hamilton County Electric Cooperative. They had a picture of Reddy Killowatt on the fron. Alas, my google-flu is failing me.
My high school gave us brown paper covers that had Abraham Lincoln or George Washington on the front, depending on the size of the book. Some of us would cover those with gift wrap during the Christmas season.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 6:38 PM on April 8, 2022 [4 favorites]
My high school gave us brown paper covers that had Abraham Lincoln or George Washington on the front, depending on the size of the book. Some of us would cover those with gift wrap during the Christmas season.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 6:38 PM on April 8, 2022 [4 favorites]
Ha, this post also inspired in me the sense memory of covering my text books with grocery bags and labeling them with marker.
My experience with dust jackets is kind of the opposite— I remember what a revelation it was that I could take all the garish dust jackets off my books and reveal the beautifully sedate cloth bindings with gold or silver embossed titles and authors. Made my bookshelves look less like a bookstore and more like a library.
That was back when I still read books… sigh
posted by ejs at 6:50 PM on April 8, 2022 [18 favorites]
My experience with dust jackets is kind of the opposite— I remember what a revelation it was that I could take all the garish dust jackets off my books and reveal the beautifully sedate cloth bindings with gold or silver embossed titles and authors. Made my bookshelves look less like a bookstore and more like a library.
That was back when I still read books… sigh
posted by ejs at 6:50 PM on April 8, 2022 [18 favorites]
While we're getting Proustian, is there a name for the specific texture that brown paper textbook covers got, usually by late winter/early spring, where the fibers started to delaminate and the formerly slick paper got velvety smooth and kinda fuzzy? mmmm
posted by bartleby at 7:00 PM on April 8, 2022 [21 favorites]
posted by bartleby at 7:00 PM on April 8, 2022 [21 favorites]
(an image search for Reddy Kilowatt brings up this great Public Safety Message.
Reminds me of my favorite high voltage junction box warning sign.)
posted by bartleby at 7:06 PM on April 8, 2022 [5 favorites]
Reminds me of my favorite high voltage junction box warning sign.)
posted by bartleby at 7:06 PM on April 8, 2022 [5 favorites]
It would be kinda cool to have a tool like the Rasterbator that would let you measure the spines of your books and then do a print job for covers with art of your choice. Book jackets are pretty long, you'd have to be able to print on large paper. but, how in the world would I ever find a specific book. Many of my books are old friends; I enjoy seeing them on the shelf. I think about re-reading them, but to-be-read stacks are so big.
if you are not familiar with the Rastaerbator, it is immensely useful.
posted by theora55 at 7:18 PM on April 8, 2022 [7 favorites]
if you are not familiar with the Rastaerbator, it is immensely useful.
posted by theora55 at 7:18 PM on April 8, 2022 [7 favorites]
Mostly via a[n] article that started a bit hate-read-y but didn't end too badly.
Tag: mefibait
I cackled when reading that. Ha, I love it!
posted by Monochrome at 7:49 PM on April 8, 2022 [3 favorites]
Tag: mefibait
I cackled when reading that. Ha, I love it!
posted by Monochrome at 7:49 PM on April 8, 2022 [3 favorites]
My Dad worked for the electric & gas company, and we had Reddy Kilowatt merch all over the house. Wish I'd tried to hang onto some of it into the ebay era.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 7:56 PM on April 8, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by The Underpants Monster at 7:56 PM on April 8, 2022 [1 favorite]
Oh, is this the thread where I can mention the horror of pandemic-era interviews with David Brooks and his color-organized bookshelves?
posted by hippybear at 8:00 PM on April 8, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by hippybear at 8:00 PM on April 8, 2022 [3 favorites]
Well, Loebs are colored by language to begin with, that never bothered me. There is a happy medium here, in which people sort their books by their insides and then jacket them harmoniously.
This is a couple of hops from Rasterbator, but — of course there’s at least one LaTeX package for dust jackets.
posted by clew at 8:41 PM on April 8, 2022 [3 favorites]
This is a couple of hops from Rasterbator, but — of course there’s at least one LaTeX package for dust jackets.
posted by clew at 8:41 PM on April 8, 2022 [3 favorites]
Encyclopedia for child readers sounds to me more like Childcraft. Had those. Had the World Books as well.
posted by Windopaene at 9:45 PM on April 8, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by Windopaene at 9:45 PM on April 8, 2022 [3 favorites]
measure the spines of your books and then do a print job for covers with art of your choice
An easier alternative might be to jacket everything in plain white and then paint/draw your own mural on them.
posted by Phanx at 12:13 AM on April 9, 2022 [3 favorites]
An easier alternative might be to jacket everything in plain white and then paint/draw your own mural on them.
posted by Phanx at 12:13 AM on April 9, 2022 [3 favorites]
Anything that makes an individual book impossible to find when you want it is a bad idea. Aside from that, do whatever you want.
On a (vaguely) associated topic, some second hand bookshops here in the UK insist on organising their window displays by colour. One week they'll have all yellow books in the window, the next week it'll be all red ones and so on.
This annoys me because it prioritises the book's appearance over its content, and mitigates against simply filling the window with whatever happens to be the most interesting stock they have at that time. By "interesting", I mean rare, unusual or hard-to-find books which are otherwise available only online. Serendipity matters when you're visiting shops like this, and devoting limited window space to popular mass-market paperbacks just because they happen to be the right colour prevents quirkier, more off-beat titles getting noticed.
I sometimes see this practice adopted in second hand record shops too, where it's equally unhelpful for all the same reasons. Please don't do it.
posted by Paul Slade at 12:18 AM on April 9, 2022 [4 favorites]
On a (vaguely) associated topic, some second hand bookshops here in the UK insist on organising their window displays by colour. One week they'll have all yellow books in the window, the next week it'll be all red ones and so on.
This annoys me because it prioritises the book's appearance over its content, and mitigates against simply filling the window with whatever happens to be the most interesting stock they have at that time. By "interesting", I mean rare, unusual or hard-to-find books which are otherwise available only online. Serendipity matters when you're visiting shops like this, and devoting limited window space to popular mass-market paperbacks just because they happen to be the right colour prevents quirkier, more off-beat titles getting noticed.
I sometimes see this practice adopted in second hand record shops too, where it's equally unhelpful for all the same reasons. Please don't do it.
posted by Paul Slade at 12:18 AM on April 9, 2022 [4 favorites]
Somehow reminded of the library in The Great Gadsby where the books were absolutely real but none of the pages had been cut.
posted by sjswitzer at 12:42 AM on April 9, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by sjswitzer at 12:42 AM on April 9, 2022 [2 favorites]
While we're getting Proustian, is there a name for the specific texture that brown paper textbook covers got, usually by late winter/early spring, where the fibers started to delaminate and the formerly slick paper got velvety smooth and kinda fuzzy? mmmm
Nappy?
Y’all thought making paper covers was cool? I could never the eff get it to fit right.
posted by BlunderingArtist at 5:17 AM on April 9, 2022 [1 favorite]
Nappy?
Y’all thought making paper covers was cool? I could never the eff get it to fit right.
posted by BlunderingArtist at 5:17 AM on April 9, 2022 [1 favorite]
That brown paper is properly called kraft paper and is made with the kraft process (wiki). Just a fun aside.
posted by seanmpuckett at 5:23 AM on April 9, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by seanmpuckett at 5:23 AM on April 9, 2022 [5 favorites]
While we're getting Proustian, is there a name for the specific texture that brown paper textbook covers got, usually by late winter/early spring, where the fibers started to delaminate and the formerly slick paper got velvety smooth and kinda fuzzy? mmmm
Maybe it's a kind of felting?
posted by grog at 6:48 AM on April 9, 2022 [2 favorites]
Maybe it's a kind of felting?
posted by grog at 6:48 AM on April 9, 2022 [2 favorites]
> When I was in elementary school, lo, these many years ago, we got our school book covers from the Hamilton County Electric Cooperative. They had a picture of Reddy Killowatt on the fron.
My high school gave us brown paper covers that had Abraham Lincoln or George Washington on the front, depending on the size of the book.
Your schools gave you book covers? I always had to make my own covers out of paper grocery bags.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:15 AM on April 9, 2022 [4 favorites]
My high school gave us brown paper covers that had Abraham Lincoln or George Washington on the front, depending on the size of the book.
Your schools gave you book covers? I always had to make my own covers out of paper grocery bags.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:15 AM on April 9, 2022 [4 favorites]
The school gave out paper covers that were Pepsi-branded(!), but the paper was not as strong as grocery bags and they wore out and you had to replace them with grocery-bag covers partway through the year anyway.
posted by BrashTech at 7:30 AM on April 9, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by BrashTech at 7:30 AM on April 9, 2022 [2 favorites]
I loved decorating brown paper covers, but by the time I'd gotten to middle school, stretchy book covers had come into fashion, which of course cost $$. I didn't have an allowance (immigrant parents don't pay their kids for doing chores, y'all) and while my parents were generally ok with school-related purchases of any kind, at 11 years old I knew off-the-bat that I couldn't ask my mom to buy something so frivolous. So I was the sad sack who kept using homemade brown paper covers out of reverse-side grocery bags.
Looking at the prices of those stretchy covers, they are actually only a couple dollars apiece. I don't know if they were more expensive in the 90s or whether they just seemed more expensive. I just remember that between the homemade book covers and the lack of a Trapper Keeper, I was most definitely not one of the cool kids in middle school.
posted by basalganglia at 7:37 AM on April 9, 2022 [3 favorites]
Looking at the prices of those stretchy covers, they are actually only a couple dollars apiece. I don't know if they were more expensive in the 90s or whether they just seemed more expensive. I just remember that between the homemade book covers and the lack of a Trapper Keeper, I was most definitely not one of the cool kids in middle school.
posted by basalganglia at 7:37 AM on April 9, 2022 [3 favorites]
It's not as fancy, but a long time ago, I bought this edition of Van Gogh's letters.
I have been downsizing my large book collection and have discovered that most books are worth basically nothing because people sell them so cheaply on Amazon. After multiple attempts to give away an old set of World Books, I have had to throw them in the trash - its breaks my heart. I was hoping someone would take them for a craft project, but if someone wanted them to make a wall of red books, I'd be thrilled.
(If you google getting rid of old encyclopedias, you will find multiple articles saying you should give them to libraries or schools. Ha! Libraries and schools do not want thirty-year-old encyclopedias. It's just making someone else deal with your crap.)
posted by FencingGal at 8:24 AM on April 9, 2022 [1 favorite]
I have been downsizing my large book collection and have discovered that most books are worth basically nothing because people sell them so cheaply on Amazon. After multiple attempts to give away an old set of World Books, I have had to throw them in the trash - its breaks my heart. I was hoping someone would take them for a craft project, but if someone wanted them to make a wall of red books, I'd be thrilled.
(If you google getting rid of old encyclopedias, you will find multiple articles saying you should give them to libraries or schools. Ha! Libraries and schools do not want thirty-year-old encyclopedias. It's just making someone else deal with your crap.)
posted by FencingGal at 8:24 AM on April 9, 2022 [1 favorite]
But... I want my houseguests to peruse my incredibly esoteric library and wonder just what the hell is wrong with me.
posted by xedrik at 8:26 AM on April 9, 2022 [10 favorites]
posted by xedrik at 8:26 AM on April 9, 2022 [10 favorites]
This annoys me because it prioritises the book's appearance over its content
One of my first arguments with my ex-husband was over him wanting to arrange our books by height instead of genre, subject matter, author - the only things that made sense to me. I was stunned and a bit rude about it. I regret being rude.
posted by FencingGal at 8:27 AM on April 9, 2022 [5 favorites]
One of my first arguments with my ex-husband was over him wanting to arrange our books by height instead of genre, subject matter, author - the only things that made sense to me. I was stunned and a bit rude about it. I regret being rude.
posted by FencingGal at 8:27 AM on April 9, 2022 [5 favorites]
But... I want my houseguests to peruse my incredibly esoteric library and wonder just what the hell is wrong with me.
Hail comrade!
I have always had books around me, and part of the "nesting" in my new apartment consisted of figuring out where to put the books. I had to get rid of a lot during the move, but i've always done a lot of book weeding, mainly to stay on top of a book acquisition habit. I've already gotten enough new cookbooks to exceed the shelves I had devoted to them in the new place. (I get a lot through giveaways - I probably am one of the people who takes the books others of you try to give away if you live near me.) If my roommate ever moves out I'm taking this whole apartment over on my own, and I'm already planning for how to rearrange the books in that instance.
At no time ever have I considered the aesthetics when I figure out how to arrange things. Maybe I'll sort of organize things by height, but only within each vague category; Irish literature here, "nerdy" stuff there, history books over here, my prized complete set of the Time-Life Nature Library there. Craft and travel books in my office because that's more for reference and more utilitarian. Childrens' books and new-agey stuff in my bedroom because I don't want you knowing those weird corners of my brain unless I know you really well.
It's a riot of color and pictures, but that's the point.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:38 AM on April 9, 2022 [6 favorites]
Hail comrade!
I have always had books around me, and part of the "nesting" in my new apartment consisted of figuring out where to put the books. I had to get rid of a lot during the move, but i've always done a lot of book weeding, mainly to stay on top of a book acquisition habit. I've already gotten enough new cookbooks to exceed the shelves I had devoted to them in the new place. (I get a lot through giveaways - I probably am one of the people who takes the books others of you try to give away if you live near me.) If my roommate ever moves out I'm taking this whole apartment over on my own, and I'm already planning for how to rearrange the books in that instance.
At no time ever have I considered the aesthetics when I figure out how to arrange things. Maybe I'll sort of organize things by height, but only within each vague category; Irish literature here, "nerdy" stuff there, history books over here, my prized complete set of the Time-Life Nature Library there. Craft and travel books in my office because that's more for reference and more utilitarian. Childrens' books and new-agey stuff in my bedroom because I don't want you knowing those weird corners of my brain unless I know you really well.
It's a riot of color and pictures, but that's the point.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:38 AM on April 9, 2022 [6 favorites]
I don't see much difference between buying 400 books you'll never read because your house is being featured in Architectural Digest and buying 400 books you'll never read because you spend all your reading time fighting on Twitter.
Flagged as devastating personal attack.
posted by straight at 9:05 AM on April 9, 2022 [11 favorites]
Flagged as devastating personal attack.
posted by straight at 9:05 AM on April 9, 2022 [11 favorites]
FencingGal: I experimented briefly with a hybrid system based partly on height and partly on author surname, but it ended up making my brain itch. It worked like this:
I have four identical floor-to-ceiling bookcases running along the full length of my bedroom wall. Each bookcase has six shelves, creating 24 "cells" altogether. Until my experiment last year, I arranged the books filling these shelves alphabetically by author surname with each subsequent row running the full length of the room. Fine.
Trouble is, the shelves soon got full. The obvious move then was to stack new arrivals horizontally in the correct alphabetical cell, using the space left vacant above the shorter books to do so. But it took only two or three taller books interrupting the short books in any given cell to render much of that cell's horizontal space unusable. Where I needed one unbroken length of horizontal space, they'd broken it up into small chunks, none of which were long enough in themselves to take another book.
My answer was to rearrange the books in each cell so that the short ones were all at one end of the cell, allowing me to maximise its usable horizontal space by ensuring it remained in one unbroken length. Each book stayed in its own home cell (as determined by my initial alphabetisation) so I could still find it fairly easily when I wanted to.
All that worked fine for a while, but eventually the thought that all my books by author X might no longer be stacked together became too much for me and I had to go back to the way things were. As lockdown projects go, I suppose it could have been worse.
posted by Paul Slade at 9:37 AM on April 9, 2022 [2 favorites]
I have four identical floor-to-ceiling bookcases running along the full length of my bedroom wall. Each bookcase has six shelves, creating 24 "cells" altogether. Until my experiment last year, I arranged the books filling these shelves alphabetically by author surname with each subsequent row running the full length of the room. Fine.
Trouble is, the shelves soon got full. The obvious move then was to stack new arrivals horizontally in the correct alphabetical cell, using the space left vacant above the shorter books to do so. But it took only two or three taller books interrupting the short books in any given cell to render much of that cell's horizontal space unusable. Where I needed one unbroken length of horizontal space, they'd broken it up into small chunks, none of which were long enough in themselves to take another book.
My answer was to rearrange the books in each cell so that the short ones were all at one end of the cell, allowing me to maximise its usable horizontal space by ensuring it remained in one unbroken length. Each book stayed in its own home cell (as determined by my initial alphabetisation) so I could still find it fairly easily when I wanted to.
All that worked fine for a while, but eventually the thought that all my books by author X might no longer be stacked together became too much for me and I had to go back to the way things were. As lockdown projects go, I suppose it could have been worse.
posted by Paul Slade at 9:37 AM on April 9, 2022 [2 favorites]
That brown paper is properly called kraft paper and is made with the kraft process (wiki). Just a fun aside.
Not to be confused with the kraft dinner process.
posted by clawsoon at 9:56 AM on April 9, 2022 [3 favorites]
Not to be confused with the kraft dinner process.
posted by clawsoon at 9:56 AM on April 9, 2022 [3 favorites]
Thanks for posting this, clew. I saw the Guardian article and meant to post it but your FPP with the additional links is so much better!
posted by Bella Donna at 11:56 AM on April 9, 2022
posted by Bella Donna at 11:56 AM on April 9, 2022
some second hand bookshops here in the UK insist on organising their window displays by colourA family member did this to the books in my house. For example, Robinson’s terraforming trilogy “Red Mars” / “Green Mars” / “Blue Mars” all ended up on separate shelves. I was scarred. Scarred for life, I tell you. Why on Earth.
posted by fantabulous timewaster at 12:44 PM on April 9, 2022 [4 favorites]
Old [pre-1980] wooden fishboxes are just the size to efficiently hold 4 rows of standard size [7in = 18cm] paperbacks. I make no apology for filling 3 such crates with green- orange- and blue- spined Penguin/Pelicans; I know where I am.
The Fontana Modern Masters series [Marcuse, Joyce, Sartre, etc.] was designed so that the front covers of different books could be assembled into an abstract artwork by Oliver Bevan.
Some years ago I was shocked [shocked!] when I tried to take down a book from a shelf in a lake-side hotel and discovered that a hole had been drilled through the books-by-the-foot so that they could be bolted to the shelves with a threaded steel bar.
posted by BobTheScientist at 1:43 PM on April 9, 2022 [4 favorites]
The Fontana Modern Masters series [Marcuse, Joyce, Sartre, etc.] was designed so that the front covers of different books could be assembled into an abstract artwork by Oliver Bevan.
Some years ago I was shocked [shocked!] when I tried to take down a book from a shelf in a lake-side hotel and discovered that a hole had been drilled through the books-by-the-foot so that they could be bolted to the shelves with a threaded steel bar.
posted by BobTheScientist at 1:43 PM on April 9, 2022 [4 favorites]
Kraft paper is interesting, no wonder it can be used in place of rushes in chair-seating. Thanks seanmpuckett ! And there’s also Kraft-Tex paper which can be machine washed?!? but doesn’t seem to be plastic.
My sweetie and I can find most of our books in the dark, what with the repeated weedings and rereadings. So we could jacket them even without IDs worked into the design. But… there are forty books on a shelf, that means adding a 160x cover thickness for jackets (given the turn back of the flaps). I’d rather have room for another thin book! Or at least use the thickness for checkout cards.
posted by clew at 2:46 PM on April 9, 2022
My sweetie and I can find most of our books in the dark, what with the repeated weedings and rereadings. So we could jacket them even without IDs worked into the design. But… there are forty books on a shelf, that means adding a 160x cover thickness for jackets (given the turn back of the flaps). I’d rather have room for another thin book! Or at least use the thickness for checkout cards.
posted by clew at 2:46 PM on April 9, 2022
I like the way the World Book has the picture but also the letters on the spine.
I wonder if that method could be used on one's own book collection without messing up the picture.
posted by MtDewd at 3:02 PM on April 9, 2022 [1 favorite]
I wonder if that method could be used on one's own book collection without messing up the picture.
posted by MtDewd at 3:02 PM on April 9, 2022 [1 favorite]
weedings and rereadings
Try saying that with a mouthful of Novocain.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 3:08 PM on April 9, 2022 [2 favorites]
Try saying that with a mouthful of Novocain.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 3:08 PM on April 9, 2022 [2 favorites]
The Everyman library was also color-coded by subject, thirteen categories depending on decade. Handsome!
posted by clew at 3:39 PM on April 9, 2022
posted by clew at 3:39 PM on April 9, 2022
"Books are awfully decorative, don’t you think?"
—Gloria Upson
posted by sonascope at 6:14 PM on April 9, 2022 [2 favorites]
—Gloria Upson
posted by sonascope at 6:14 PM on April 9, 2022 [2 favorites]
The new(ish) Penguin clothbounds are so gorgeous, my sister sends me pictures of them from time to time just to torture me. These are (almost) all books I already have. They are all books I either have or can have free on my phone from the Library of Congress. And I’ve read them. I don’t need these. And I refuse to see what they cost because I already know it’s too much, even if all of the above weren’t true.
But damn they’re beautiful.
Being able to find books when you want them is most important, but once you can do that, why not make them pretty?
Those Juniper sets are lovely. I love this post.
posted by Mchelly at 7:39 PM on April 9, 2022 [3 favorites]
But damn they’re beautiful.
Being able to find books when you want them is most important, but once you can do that, why not make them pretty?
Those Juniper sets are lovely. I love this post.
posted by Mchelly at 7:39 PM on April 9, 2022 [3 favorites]
Some years ago I was shocked [shocked!] when I tried to take down a book from a shelf in a lake-side hotel and discovered that a hole had been drilled through the books-by-the-foot so that they could be bolted to the shelves with a threaded steel bar.
Don't get me started.
(That's the upstairs bar at the Park Theatre in north London. Each book has a sturdy metal wire driven through it from front cover to back so it can dangle from the ceiling.)
posted by Paul Slade at 9:51 AM on April 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
Don't get me started.
(That's the upstairs bar at the Park Theatre in north London. Each book has a sturdy metal wire driven through it from front cover to back so it can dangle from the ceiling.)
posted by Paul Slade at 9:51 AM on April 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
So, this is for people that have books as decoration rather than for reading, I guess. I'll pass, even though I could probably still find most of my books from memory, having been arranged in strict alphabetical order by author, much to the chagrin of my wife who keeps wanting me to arrange them by size.
posted by dg at 11:25 PM on April 10, 2022
posted by dg at 11:25 PM on April 10, 2022
To really fuck with your friends, scan the covers of their books, print scaled jackets of them, and then put them on different books. You could probably automate a lot of this.
As much as I love weird, eccentric design, I can't help but point out that the world has had an easy solution to ugly books since at least the 1300s: book cases with cabinet doors. Hire someone to throw some trompe-l'œil fake books on the surface if you want to be silly.
(That said, as a temporary art project, this sort of thing can be very cool.)
posted by eotvos at 7:50 AM on April 11, 2022
As much as I love weird, eccentric design, I can't help but point out that the world has had an easy solution to ugly books since at least the 1300s: book cases with cabinet doors. Hire someone to throw some trompe-l'œil fake books on the surface if you want to be silly.
(That said, as a temporary art project, this sort of thing can be very cool.)
posted by eotvos at 7:50 AM on April 11, 2022
as a temporary art project, this sort of thing can be very cool.
I just find myself thinking of the poor staff who have to re-sort everything back to its proper place when that temporary art project is done.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:53 AM on April 11, 2022
I just find myself thinking of the poor staff who have to re-sort everything back to its proper place when that temporary art project is done.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:53 AM on April 11, 2022
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posted by HypotheticalWoman at 4:58 PM on April 8, 2022 [28 favorites]