Thursday, August 16, 2012

Books as décor

In light of today's Lauren Conrad's craft video controversy, I thought I'd repost an oldie but goodie.

"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you'll go." Dr. Seuss

You are what you read.

At least that’s what I hoped, when I was rocking Dr. Seuss as a five-year-old or Jane Austen as a 30-something lady.

But some folks don’t care what they read. They use books as props, buy or rent them by the foot from various
companies, who will select them by color, style, or subject for you. I’ve even seen a company that sells you blocks of books that have been glued together, apparently to make it easier to move when dusting. And heck, they’ll always be lined up perfectly.
I just threw up a little in my mind.

My bookshelves offer a snapshot into my history, my interests, my (now vomit-covered) brain. They reflect my intellectual DNA (yes, even the
Betty & Veronica collection) and it’s hard to imagine viewing my books only as squares and rectangles of color to accent my home. I’ve even seen books arranged spine IN, to create a swath of white along the shelves. I was confused. How are you supposed to figure out what book to read? Oh, right. They aren’t there to be read. They’re there for me to knock some Sense and Sensibility into your head.

(photo: today
.com)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wtf! People actually do this? My books don't even look good together... but then again they've been read. Taking a closer look, some authors don't even belong next to each other. Elie Wiesel next to Eric Jerome Dickey (smut) ugh. Random reorganizing of the books has commenced. Shizz, what time do I have to work tomorrow... this could be a long night.

Unknown said...

I used to work at an independent bookstore, which is now gone. I once spent over an hour with an interior designer picking out books that would look good on her client's shelves. She spent over a thousand dollars. I was torn between by inner book snob, and my desire to keep that lovely independent bookstore in business.

Squirrel said...

I want to punch Lauren Conrad in the ovaries. WHat a dumb trollop.

Go here for More info said...

nice post i love it.

Anonymous said...

Speaking of all things Lauren Conrad, how 'bout her "novels"? Surprisingly (or maybe not), they've been rated fairly well on Amazon, no doubt by dumb ass girls/women living vicariously through a dumb ass writer's ca ca (ghost writer, that is. There's no way on God's green earth Lauren Conrad had anything to do with the noun-verb-prep phrase exercise). Out of curiousity, I checked out "her" website (again, no doubt written by someone that graduated from high school). That girl could not pimp herself out much more if she tried. Makes me want to punch her all the way to Orange County.