Monday, January 30, 2012

Pretty books about books

I got rather annoyed with the realtor who told us we had too many books and needed to pack some of them away (even some bookcases) before we started showing the house. So the next time we met, I auspiciously placed around the house some lovely coffee table books about decorating with and living with books. Living with Books by Alan Powers even has some plans for constructing bookcases from a variety of materials at the end. At Home with Books: How Booklovers Live with and Care for Their Libraries (Ellis, Seebohm & Sykes) is much more personal, showing the libraries of artists and writers, titled gentry in elegant stately homes and just ordinary bibliophiles. Resources for restoration of books, furnishing libraries and finding more information on great libraries follow the main pictorially rich text. I still have a couple of similar texts at home to peruse and drool over...trust me, these people ALL have a lot more books than I do!