Thursday, June 18, 2009

Tale as old as time

A few months ago I read about a woman who was so organised (read obsessive) that she stored all her books with the spines facing inwards so the shelves appreared a fairly uniform beigey-white colour. How did she find a book when she wanted it? She remembered where it was. This worked for her, but personally I don't think this is a very fun way to store your books.

The Bibliochaise and the adorable Bibliopouf are a much nicer alternative.

Or for those very special books...

My favourite unusual book storage idea is definitely the lovely Joe bookshelf by Ibride. These French conceptual designers have a strange sense of humour. The website is worth a look, if only for the hilarious but eerie 1920s family portrait where all the heads have been replaced with kangaroo heads. They also have decapitated deer and emu tables. But Joe is whole, a lovely big white polar bear:

I have a bit of a thing about bookshelves. I love books, hence places where you find lots of books are nice. I'm a strong believer in custom bookshelves being the only way to go - anything else ends up sagging away from the wall when you fill it up, and is not the best use of space. Floor to ceiling bookshelves, preferably wall to wall...yes, that would be a library.

Of course the best example is to be found in a french castle. The Beast knew what he was doing when he gave Belle his library.
"You... you like it?"
"It's wonderful!"
"Then it's yours."


Sadly the world is no longer full of wolf-filled forests with magical castles and mysteriously hairy occupants. Which is a sad state of affairs, not least because the world is still overflowing with beautiful maidens who want more than a provincial life. 

2 comments:

  1. Oh wow! What cool bookcases! I always wanted Belle's library too... we have too many books, in too many Ikea bookcases...shameful, I want to swap them all for polar bears now!

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  2. Swap them all? Then you'd have a whole herd of polar bears! Now there's a good idea...

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