Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Buying books by the yard?

I'm up late tonight (check the timestamp at the bottom of this post), so I'll blog now and take "tomorrow" off.

I just came across this deeply disturbing article in The Seattle Times:

Books are so popular in home decor that even people who don't read acquire them. They buy volumes by the yard at Half Price Books. They send orders to a California book-decor specialist, who ships Danish books by the foot.

Danish? Well, they aren't meant to be read.

Perhaps the ultimate signal that books are decor came when a recent Pottery Barn catalog showed an entire bookcase with the books turned backward, annoying mismatched spines facing inward, all in an attempt to achieve a neutral, uniform look.

I can overlook the Danish books being bought by the yard and used to cozy up a room. Apart from the necessity of dusting, I can't see much difference between that and trompe l'oeil murals of bookcases. But I gasped at the part about turning the shelved books backward, spines to the wall. That strikes me as frighteningly similar to Morticia Addams' flower-arranging technique. (In case you don't remember, she snipped the blooms off her roses and lovingly tucked the thorny, leafy stems into vases.) Some things are just plain wrong.

7 comments:

Robin Bayne said...

Wallpaper would be cheaper.

Susan Kaye said...

We live in a time when the only thing left is to take something meant for a specific purpose and use it for something, hopefully, outrageously different.

Fortunately, in this instance, it is merely books. For some of our fellow creatures it's their bodies.

Take care--Sue

Anonymous said...

I'm Jade from the Pen and Paper link.

How did you know I'd linked to your blog??

I don't even think I've made one comment on your blog.

I don't mind being listed on your blog at all. I'm just curious as to how you found me.

Your Sister in Christ,

Jade

Brenda Coulter said...

Hi, Jade. Every couple of days, I check Technorati.com for new links to my blog. (That is, sites that put permanent links in their sidebars rather than just referencing one of my posts.) Except in the very rare instances where I believe a blog's content would be objectionable to the majority of my own readers, I always provide a reciprocal link.

Thanks for stopping by, and for linking.

Brenda Coulter said...

Thanks oodles, Jezreel. I hope you enjoy the book and that you'll share it with your friends.

Bonnie S. Calhoun said...

That is just plain creepy!!! How would I know where my favorite books are? How would I see the pink cover....Nah, not for me! I need to read titles. LOL

Mirtika said...

I think that had less to do with books, and more to do with some obsessive-compulsive, anal-retentive type. A MONK designer, if you will. ; )

Mir--likes the variety of spines, even of heights, of books.