<
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jul/28/book-hoarding-storage-bookshelves>
"When moving house and cities some years ago there was a conspicuous absence in
so many of the potential homes we inspected – bookshelves.
And where there are no bookshelves it usually means there are few books. It was
as if, when styling homes for potential sale, the real estate agents had issued
strict instructions: whatever you do, make sure there are no damn books about.
The rule was not absolute. It did not apply to the atlas-sized pictorial book
of Hamptons beach houses or English gardens or Aztec iconography left casually
on the coffee table. Just the way another,
Modernist Cuisine: The Art and
Science of Cooking, reposed challengingly uncooked-from on the stone kitchen
bench beside a bowl of persimmon and the flickering sandalwood candle.
Books, in this situation, were presented as cultural-social artefacts, curated
to denote and connote aspiration and cultivated taste.
The look was minimalistic, of course. And if minimalism has an archenemy – sort
of a Marie Kondo kryptonite if you like – it is loads of books and their
shelves.
So it was that the first thing we did after moving into our new Sydney place
was have 70-plus metres of bookshelves installed. The shelves in the study,
which is where I mostly write – and often just think about it – with my dogs,
are now three-deep with books. They are on almost every other surface too, and
now in cardboard boxes by the door.
Needless to say, I love books."
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
