All, Slate has a marvelous article about Madeleine L'Engle that I thought some of you would appreciate.

[link]

Now I feel sad about all the old illustrated books I never bought before somebody could cut them apart for prints.

I feel mean now. I think I'll go buy a Reader's Digest Condensed Book at Goodwill. First I'll put lots of highlighting into it. Then I'll fold over pages at random. After that comes the Exacto Knife Follies and the Hot Glue Gun Debacle, followed by extra glitter and sprinkles. That should be foul enough to relieve my feelings.

hee!

I worked at the Huntington Museum and Library a few years ago and got a tour of their vault--pause to wipe reminiscent drool. I can't remember the specific term for the books, but it was quite the fashion a couple of centuries ago to take apart your books and bind them together again so that bits on teh same subject were paged together. The pages would be trimmed to fit willy nilly. The curators at the museum are very conflicted over those books because some of them have pages from books that have otherwise been lost, but then again, those books were lost because fashionistas tore them apart.

Mass market books I have no problem with converting into decorative thingies. You could probably get some nifty 3-D sculptures from the remaindered copies of Jacquelinn Susann books or the stuff on the Barnes & Noble "buy it before we chuck it" shelves.

I shriek about designers who come into people's rooms, look at the books cases and go, "OK, that's just clutter, we'll help you get rid of a bunch of those--or at least put them somewhere where they won't ruin the asthetics."

Totally.

Books ruin aesthetics? To me, they say "Hi. I'm not a moron." (Unless it's a hardback of "Culture Warrior" or something.)

I shriek about designers who come into people's rooms, look at the books cases and go, "OK, that's just clutter, we'll help you get rid of a bunch of those--or at least put them somewhere where they won't ruin the asthetics."

I've seen this happen on more than one design show, and it freaks me out.

Books ruin aesthetics?

If that is the case my apartment has no aesthetics because there are books in nearly every room.

Books ruin aesthetics?

From the shows I've seen, apparently book shelves should have knick knacks and empty space and little flower arrangments--oh, and a few books might look good, but too many of one sort of thing makes a room look unbalanced. Plus you need lots of empty wall space to put up ugly art pieces.

To me, a wall is for a book case to stand against. And a book case is for books.

So true--although we just saw a cool show where a couple had an entirely book-filled room, and they built sliding bookcases on rails, so they could fit more in. Very cool.

In my current apartment, I've got what would ordinarily be the second bedroom (though wicked tiny if it was a roommate situation) as, for want of a better word, the Library. Books on 3 sides, with a futon on the fourth (since it does double as guest bedroom). And, yet, I have books, and lots of them, in other rooms.

I wish to own my own domicile someday, but I'm scared - too many of my books spent time in boxes piled up in corners in my prior residences, but I doubt I will be able get this much space when I buy, at least if I'm going to stay in MA.