Using books are décor is hardly a new idea but the brazenness this essay describes is next level and a more recent phenomenon. It is no longer enough to signal rich, well-traveled, having taste and what not. We need to have a bookshelf that signal's intellectual vigor as well. Never mind that we don't recognize most of those books and have no intent or mental capacity of ever reading them.
You can order books online like floorboards, measured in any color, size, or condition. Wonder Book’s offerings include: Distressed Modern Hardbacks, Basic Black, Soft Neutrals, Arctic Blues, Burgundy Wine, Granite Greys, Fairly Distressed Vintage Leather, and Coverless Antique. For a summer home, there’s Driftwood, Seaglass, Cape Cod, and Main Cottage—four different color-scapes nearly identical, all recalling a house with an ocean view. The Autumn Hue bundle includes books in a variety of reds, oranges, and yellows. Starry Night includes mostly blue and black books with silver and gold lettering, with a sprinkling of yellow books. Titles, authors, and genres are beside the point. When you place an order, you get what you get in terms of content.
Reading all this made me look at my own book-shelf with a critical eye. Unless they were gifts or review copies none of my books are new. They were thrifted over the years, bought at library sales and on my travels when I ran into an interesting second-hand book shop. In my younger years, pre-motherhood, pre domestic responsibilities, time to read books was always a priority and there was enough available. Over the years, the collection has turned far more aspirational. These are books I want to read when I have the gift of time again. In the meanwhile, I am comforted to know they are within reach. Sometimes, I have read them on Kindle or listened to it in audio format - but they live in physical form largely as comfort objects. My books serve as reminder of my intrinsic self that is not connected to who I am related to or what I do for a living. In times of confusion and turmoil, they bring me to my center.
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