We have Dorothy Parker and Robert Benchley clothbound hardbacks that are shiny from re-reading.
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I could see this working, as long as you’re consistent with everything- TV facing the wall, bed inside-out, car parked upside-down in the garage, etc.
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See also: cushions
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Yes, anoyone reading this thread who hasn’t seen Auntie Mame needs to stop reading the thread and watch the movie immediately.
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and often if you buy the book within 30-60 days of publication (iirc from reading Stross’s blog) Cory might be able to chime in.
So they have the freedom to do what they want, but i shouldn’t have an opinion on it or discuss it? That is some selective freedoming… I’m not stopping anybody from doing anything, I’m just a person with opinions discussing it in a place meant to discuss it with other people whom have opinions. That is the purpose of this thread. I’m not hurting anyone. What do you care what I care?
I’m not disturbed for the reasons you think. 
In this case I’m closer to baffled anyone would think it looked good or was a smart idea. I’m not against going contrary to an objects function when it achieves an aesthetic worthy compromising the function of the object. In this case it clearly indicates, “I don’t read these books or really care about storing them functionally” for the meh effect of a bunch of beige blocks of paper look. They even claim in the type that she is going for a neutral look. Since it is books which are a symbol of information and and indicator of possible intelligences this clearly makes a contrary statement and is boggling to anyone who likes books. That takes it from “neutral” to “facepalming”. But then again the same person thought it would be a good idea to put the card for reading on the bottom shelf where it can’t be read along with a jar of interesting objects that are tucked too far back for most lines of sight to even see. They also put a bell jar on the top shelf but too far back to be viewable and stacked some all white cds in front. This is a very poorly staged and obviously staged shelf of stuff, not something someone uses. But maybe dumb meh is the new chic for all I know…
I do like the tripod light and the bookshelf itself. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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Whatever dude. You want to spend your life judging people be my guest.
You know what has a great neutral colour, and greatly inhibits clutter? The backside of your shelves! Turn the whole piece of furniture around and donate the books to someone or somewhere literate.
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Well, why not… collect those little metal bottle-
tops, and nail them upside-down to the floor? This will
give the sensation… of walking… on little metal
bottle-tops turned upside-down.
– Flanders & Swann, Design for Living
If Apple were interior designers…
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Iirc they didn’t have them re-bound, but books were sold without the cover at all. Under the assumption that the buyer would have some bound according to their taste.
Without far more details I think that’s not unreasonable. Curating a library takes time and perhaps he likes surprises. While I stay clear of romance novels except Bujold’s, I gladly browsed the random selections off small island libraries, hotels, leftover stacks in vacation homes. And perhaps he does lend his home to friends, who can than do the same on a rainy day.
Less an issue today with ebook readers and cellular networking, but entirely understandable before that time.
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My father also left me an impressive library of about 2000 books, mostly history, sociology and politics. It was only when I packed his library in boxes following his demise, that I discovered that he had hardly ever read any of them. Either had he intended to or just bought them to look smart I don’t know but have always wondered how someone with such great interests could be so small minded. Getting rid of that materialized intellectual surplus took me weeks.
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So there’s an idea for the illiterate decorator who’s short on space: take a bandsaw to the books, and slice them into 1” sections. You can then glue these together and have a “book wallpaper”, just like they do with fake brick walls.
Now where are my royalties?
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Maybe it’s a coverup. Maybe Lauren bought some red, white, and blue ‘books by the foot’ for decorating, but when she got home she discovered they were the collected works of Donald Trump, Bill O’Reilly, Sarah Palin, etc., and was too embarrassed to actually have them on display. Instead of categorizing them properly into the recycling bin, she discovered she could hide her mistake and preserve her investment by shelving them backwards.
I like to find ways to give people the benefit of doubt. Because the only possible alternative is that she’s a moron, and I don’t like to think of people that way.
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I haven’t worked at Bakka in years, but I suspect that no matter how long I’ve been out of bookstore work, stuff like this (or shelving books by colour instead of author/series order) will ALWAYS make me want to flip tables.
And then reshelve.
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Oh those fake brick walls. One must have some philosophy problems to be buying that garbage. Ce ne sont pas des briques!
It’s all about image these days, just one big spectacle.
Then the books would not be there at all. Apple doesn’t do skeumorphics any more.
On a more serious note, I love books, I love re-reading books, but after the last two moves I have had to limit myself to buying in eBook form, and parting ways with my paperbacks. Some were so old their pages were starting to suffer anyways.
I once had a friend of a friend walk into my room, look at my (three) bookshelves and say “that’s a lot of books, have you read many of them?”.
Why would I devote half my room to books if they weren’t for reading? (Ok, there’s probably a dictionary and some other reference books I’ve not read cover to cover).
I was just baffled by that comment, but then I guess some people never experienced reading for pleasure.
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Appropriate response: No i just have a crippling need to decorate with pressed corpses of trees. It comforts me at night.
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