You still help the author by doing this.
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But then we’re back at square one, why not decorate with them? You’re going to decorate with something, and that something will invariably be little more than clutter, so why not books?
I agree backwards books are silly, but, you bought the book, you can do whatever the hell you want with it.
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If you buy new books. If the author is alive.
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My fathers books that are now in boxes in my wifes oversized garage are mostly ones that he had already read but bought at Goodwill because he wanted a nice library in the home they bought after he had retired from the service.
My books are mostly paperbacks that I will never read again but will keep forever anyhow.
My wifes mysteries… we do let those go, sometimes.
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because they look horrible and are disturbing to anyone who actually likes books and will be a pita to clean.
most real book collections wouldn’t looks so uniform spine in. I can’t think of a single good reason other than making a show home lived in yet neutral, where no one actually lives there but you want to give an impression of what could be. But display books would be better suited to that task as they don’t look weird and like crap.
a good designer isn’t just trying to find random clutter or junk to decorate with, they are considering form and function.
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In the 19th century, it was common for wealthy people to have their books rebound to match each other – can’t have an aesthetically displeasing library after all. It must have made actually finding the right book a nightmare, but I suppose they could have servants do it.
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I’m… uh… socially reticent so when I visit peoples houses I always spend as much time as I can looking at the books or whatever (games sometimes) in their living room.
If I saw this, I think I’d have to leave.
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I have a problem with books. That is, when I go to a bookstore, I don’t NEED a book, but I WANT one. I love having books and regularly re-read books I haven’t read in a while. This does create a problem for storage. I’ve taken to leaving a few by the front door and trying to remember to put them in those Little Free Libraries that have cropped up everywhere. This whole spine backwards thing is just wrong.
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I think we’ve just found a corollary for John Waters’ excellent advice (“If you go home with somebody, and they don’t have books, don’t fuck 'em!”) - if you go home with somebody and they’ve shelved their books backwards for aesthetic effect, don’t fuck 'em!
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In my musical career back in the 90’s, I had auditioned and joined this band. The band ‘leader’ was this really artsy guy and had this wall of shelves lined with books. Hundreds of them. I was pretty impressed until I found out he never read any of them. He would deliver the city weekly to book stores and pick up all the books they were tossing out (covers removed). Never read one of them. It was just an ‘image’, a facade just like his art, music and lip-synced sequenced performances.
Also, Auntie Mame is one of my top 10 movies of all time.
Well, that’s an aesthetic. What do you care? Who are you to judge? How is it any of your business? Let people do what they want, they’re not hurting anyone.
My friend, if you’re disturbed by something so trivial, that is on you.
“We need to make books cool again. If you go home with someone and they don’t have books, don’t fuck them.” —John Waters
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My FiL, a former editor and publisher.
Presumably, if you actually read the books, you had some sort of organization in your library, so if you wanted Wealth of Nations, you knew to go to the shelf left of the garden window, while if you wished for Burton’s translation of Thousand and One Nights, it would be on the upper shelf near the fireplace.
And if you bought the books for looks, you wouldn’t care anyway.
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You don’t say? I once knew a couple who owned a second hand book store. One day they told me that a doctor had driven into the city from his holiday house and bought a carload of books for his library. They way they told it it didn’t matter what the books were about.
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I wonder what these designers would do with Kindles. Delete all the metadata, and give the title “Book” to every item?
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Bit broke I’m afraid, but that is a totally awesome idea.
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after my mom died, we have been returning home quarterly, cleaning up, sorting through, etc
both parents passed on a love of books to my sister and I.
books - yes! same topics? no.
i have a home, well, now a house - FULL of books -
you cannot donate them - no one wants them anymore
the paperbacks are easy - they crumble to dust when you touch them - okay recycle
but the hardbounds? what to do? I’ve been slowly moving some out here because - maybe my kid will want them
NOW? i find out they are for decorating.
Yeah, the fact that rich people are already buying color-coordinated books is why I think there’s a market there. Although the people most concerned about matching books are probably least concerned with actually reading them…
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