August 13, 2009
Maybe this is just a crank reaction to this summer’s “staycation,” which is just a jolly word for what our group situation really is, let’s face it, and I am NOT a decorator, or interior designer, whichever the correct term is, and I DO love some of the TV decorating shows for various complicated reasons, but I have my gripes--and the first one has been building for some time.
It’s BOOKS, and the way they’re handled by many of today’s decorator/designers.
Disclosure: I’m a writer. And way before that, I was--and still am--a reader, as is my husband. We’re readers. We each have our own beloved books, AND we (I, especially) buy new books, and then there are the books we’ve written. And there are library books, too--another subject--from multiple visits each month to two different library branches. So I think about books a lot, maybe more than most other people.
At first, what was bothering me on decorating shows, as well as in the magazines and books, were the the lack of reading lights--next to comfortable chairs, on bedside tables. Anywhere. But I’ll leave that for another rant.
What’s really getting to me lately is the growing way that books are used merely, or at least mostly, as decorative objects.
And that’s when they’re used at all, by the way. I won’t harp too long on the occasional sweeping walls of tantalizingly empty built-in shelves dotted with questionable decorative objects and the inevitable orchid or two, nor will I editorialize beyond this about the designer I heard who, when confiding that she’d thought briefly of adding a bookcase to her own bedroom, was lovingly accused by a friend of being “pretentious.” And, with a twinkle, she admitted he was right. (He may have been.)
Back to books.
TEN BOOK GRIPES:
1. ARRANGING BOOKS ACCORDING TO THE COLOR OF THEIR JACKETS. All the reds together, all the blues, etc. Dead giveaway that those books are never read.
2. TAKING OFF THE BOOK JACKETS. A lot of effort goes into those jackets. And try getting a good price for a book without one. (I’ve sold books at auction and to a museum, so believe me.)
3. TOSSING THE JACKETS AND RE-COVERING THE BOOKS WITH CREAM-COLORED PAPER. Wow, So vulgar. I’ve seen this so often lately--on TV (Sarah Richardson, are you listening?) and in magazines (Saint Oprah??).
4. STACKING HUGE “COFFEE TABLE” BOOKS HORIZONTALLY ON TINY COCKTAIL TABLES. What are you supposed to do next? Put a cup of tea or glass of wine on top of the Tom Ford book? Or build a second table on top of the stack?
5. BUILDING COFFEE TABLES WITH STACKS OF BOOKS SERVING AS TABLE LEGS. Or did I dream this? Alas, I don’t think so.
6. CREATING CEILING-HIGH STACKS OF HORIZONTALLY STACKED BOOKS AS “UNEXPECTED ART STATEMENTS.” Okay, I’ve seen this three times now, and I wasn’t even thrilled the first time. What I would really love to see is the creator trying to pull out a book from the lower third of the stack.
7. HAVING THE SAME BOOKS IN SO MANY DIFFERENT APARTMENTS. More Tom Ford, “bless his heart”...
8. MOVING THE SAME FIVE BOOKS AROUND IN ONE APARTMENT, JUST FOR THE PHOTOGRAPHER. Do you think we don’t notice?
9. BUILDING A BOOKSHELF JUST BELOW THE CEILING, “FOR A TOUCH OF TEXTURE AND COLOR.” Oh yeah? And what if you actually want to read one of them?
10. MOLESTING DEFENSELESS BOOKS TO MAKE “WALL TREATMENTS” OR CRAFT PROJECTS. Please don’t glue them together or paste them on the wall or dig holes in them to create hidey-holes.
Just--READ your books, and LOVE them!
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