We’ve established here on this blog that books are here to stay. It turns out they were not supplanted by the Kindle or the eBook. One reason is that books are just so gosh darned beautiful. They really are.
Of course, some are more beautiful than others. Let’s look at just a few ways in which the beauty of the book is being kept alive.
Interior Design for the Rich and Famous
I might be the last person on this blog to realize that there is such a thing as a “personal book curator.” Book curator to the wealthy, Thatcher Wine is a “celebrated bibliophile” and he says:
My philosophy is that the books we keep on our shelves reflect who we are. But the thing about books is that you can only really read one book at a time—yes you can be reading five books, but not literally all at once. So home libraries, especially those that contain a few dozen, hundred, or even thousands of books, are not about constant use of reading. They are a reflection of where you’ve been and where you want to go.
Thatcher Wine
Wine is the founder of Juniper Books in New York, which is famous for custom book jackets based on Pantone chip colors. Juniper sells “books by the foot” to design your bookshelves with the perfect aesthetic. This market is well and truly thriving. Upmarket and well-established publishers, such as Taschen, Phaidon, and Rizzoli, print beautifully designed oversized books on art, design, and architecture, which Thatcher loves to use in his work.
In fact, he wrote a book entitled For the Love of Books: Designing and Curating a Home Library. Note to self: You don’t need to buy new books for decorating! I’m betting you could visit a used bookstore and come to an agreement with the owner to take away boxes and boxes of books that just aren’t moving and arrange them artfully at home.
That would not be my personal approach; I’m the old-fashioned kind of person who believes books are to be read.
Books as Decorating Items for Rich People Who Don’t Read Them
The Millions reported earlier this year on Ashley Tisdale, actress and singer, who bought 400 new books all at once to fill her shelves for an Architectural magazine’s visit to profile her home. There was outrage on Twitter.
She defended herself, saying that “any interior designer would have done the same. They do it all the time, I was just honest about it.”
Well, now that I know about Wine, I suppose she’s right. And is it really a bad thing?
Her husband, Christopher French, (he actually bought the books on her instruction) advised Twitter readers:
(1) Support local used bookstores when staging for photoshoots and don’t worry if people have opinions about it, because some people will always feel the need to have an opinion about anything, no matter how trivial.
Christopher French on Twitter
And Bill Morris, in writing this article, referred to the Twitter account Bookcase Credibility with the tagline “What you say is not as important as the bookcase behind you.” With 115.2k followers, it seems many people agree.
So, if you haven’t read the books on your bookcase, how does anyone know who you really are?
The Business of Beautiful Books
The Folio Society likely needs no introduction. They create beautiful but pricey books that you will treasure forever. These books are stunning inside and out. The illustrations are incredible. But it is important also that Folio prints books that are very widely read. In their own words, “we publish books that have changed the world.”
And beautiful books tend to be sturdier than most. Indeed, some beautiful books last for centuries.
This book of Gospels was made by Eadfright, Bishop of Lindisfarne. He died in 722 AD. Lindisfarne is a small island off the northeast coast of England and was a thriving monastery in the Middle Ages.
The Lindisfarne Gospels are being loaned by the British Library to the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle upon Tyne. It will be on display in an exhibition until Dec. 3, 2022. For a Bible, of course, the content is more important than the material item, and so the entirety of the Lindisfarne Gospels have been digitized here. And you can buy a lovely book all about it here.
The Not-So-Lost Art of Bookbinding
I was delighted to find that there are charitable organizations dedicated to traditional and contemporary bookbinding and to the preservation and conservation of the printed and written word. For example, The Society of Bookbinders.
This society operates in the UK, by region, and holds masterclasses, lectures, and demonstrations on bookbinding-related subjects and techniques. They also publish a flagship journal, BOOKBINDER, annually.
They have an active membership contributing skills and enthusiasm. For example, Helen of helenhandmadebooks.com; just look at her beautiful online store.
If you want to bind your own books, you can even buy a complete bookbinding starter kit, containing everything you need to get started in bookbinding, including a fully illustrated tuition guide.
What do you think? Should books exist to be read or can they exist for any reason whatsoever?
What is the most beautiful book you own?
