Monday, June 18, 2012

Books jockey for shelf space with other cherished collections


By LAURA K. LLOYD  -  Special to The Kansas City Star

Updated: 2012-06-17T01:52:09Z

Anna Porter Russ of Kansas City displays books in a multitude of ways on her bookshelves.
Jim Barcus

Anna Porter Russ of Kansas City displays books in a multitude of ways on her bookshelves.

Built-in bookshelves hold a collection of antique decoys and vintage gun powder flasks in a Fairway home.
Bookshelves in a Fairway home frame a large armoire in the master suite.
Bookshelves are being used in more and more ways. Christine Rankin of Kansas City uses hers for cooking equipment.
Bookcases are in transition, just like the people who own them. The printed word no longer needs paper, and paper no longer needs stiffened linen or leather to contain it and be a … book.
Rows of decorative spines with titles stamped in gold or black — those advertisements of a household’s taste and personality lined up in view — might actually start looking a bit too 20th century for people hurtling themselves into a paperless future.
Or not.
Current magazines still recommend buying hardbacks for almost nothing at garage sales to fill shelves to make a person seem well-read. As recently as March 2012, Dwight Garner, after taking a dig at the limitations of e-books in The New York Times, thought it relevant to quote bibliophile and novelist Anna Quindlen: “I would be most content if my children grew to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building bookshelves.”
And Benjamin Sundermeier, designer at Space Planning + Design in the Northeast area of Kansas City, said his clients don’t seem motivated to “shift away from shelves” housing books.
In the books vs. bookless micro-controversy, books still have a lot of support. (In the eminently practical “Use What You Have Decorating” by Lauri Ward, books are treated as design accessories that deserve thoughtful, neat shelving that doesn’t mix in distractions like photos, art objects or gewgaws.)
Let’s say, however, that your attachment to some of your books (paperbacks of Jodi Picoult? First editions of Tom Clancy?) is starting to fade as you develop your love affair with your e-reader. Perhaps you’re trying to simplify or allot space to some of the other design accessories you have acquired. It’s hardly news that bookshelves are also the perfect venue to display collections of majolica, Blue Willow china or Star Wars action figures, among countless possibilities.
Full piece at Kansas City Star.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/06/14/3654875/books-are-competing-for-shelf.html#storylink=cpy

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