Judging books by their cover: Decorator Books

Perhaps I am making too great an assumption but I figure that most people who would catalog their books are primarily concerned with their contents. However, this seller thinks that the contents should be the last thing considered.

www.bookdecor.com

The site does have some nice photo galleries of traditional-looking libraries. However, some of the statements on the blog-like pages of their site are pretty extraordinary to what I think our audience would believe:

"Antique books are a smart investment. Whether you are purchasing them for decorative purposes or intellectual enjoyment (or both), these books are terrific assets that last for centuries. Here at Book Décor, we know better than anyone the multi-purpose advantages of collecting these books from dealers." -- www.bookdecor.com/antique-books.html

From their home page:

"We specialize in antique leather bound books used for decorative purposes. All of our books are original antique books between 50-200 years old. Most of the books we offer are in Danish. We also have French and German books available. None of our books are in English."

Given that their site is in English, they are either very optimistic in the polylingual abilities of their web visitors or they don't expect the books to be read.

"If you want a book that you can read, enjoy and then toss aside, then head to your nearest bookstore. If, on the other hand, you are in the market for beautiful antique volumes whose appearance is more important than the actual text, then you've come to the right place. At Book Décor, we specialize in decorative books. From leather-bound foreign novels to gilt-accented antique texts, our books serve as magnificent design elements." -- www.bookdecor.com/books-by-the-foot.html

Apparently they figure that their buyers don't have many books:

"Have only 50 books but need to fill two large cases? Divide your collection and then stagger them on the shelves. Use candles as bookends and/or take unique house hold items and display them in the empty space. Want to increase your collection without spending a fortune? Invest in some quality leather-bound decorative books. Leather-bound books (regardless of the text inside) are beautiful additions to any home and certain to improve the look of your bookcase." -- www.bookdecor.com/book-case-decorating.html

"The adage "do not judge a book by its cover" does not apply at Books Décor. Here, we ask that you disregard the quality of the text in favor of our books' outer beauty. Home libraries are often more about decorative splendor than they are functionality. In offering books by the yard, we give our clients the opportunity to spend hundreds of dollars on volume collections as opposed to thousands." -- www.bookdecor.com/books-by-the-yard.html

I invite you to look through this site and pick out some of your favorite quotes. There are many other choice ones to be found there.

James

I wonder "how shallow" we can go?

I think i've gone through "The Scary Door".

Nothing so surprising -- there had always been people that buy books just so they have them on the shelves.

Just noticed I hadn't answered the OP's request.

Here, we ask that you disregard the quality of the text in favor of our books' outer beauty

Let's see. Gilt shit is still shit.

For sale polished turds.

You can't polish a turd*. You can wrap it up nicely, I suppose.

*or perhaps you can! (YouTube 3'44")

I had a great aunt who bought several yards of books through an interior decorator. My mother, who was a literature major in college, thought that was hilarious, in a "how can anyone be so shallow" kind of way. Today, I own and cherish those books. When I see those books, it brings back wonderful memories of my great uncle's cigar smoke filled study.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that books can be more than just carriers of stories and information. They can be treasured family heirlooms, beautiful links to the past. I'm sure my great aunt never intended them to be used for anything other what her decorator intended, but remember, we're only temporary guardians of books. They always get passed along to someone.

Here are some of them:

Those books pictured have the added benefit of being worth reading too!

my goodness, at first I thought it was tongue-in-cheek, but looking at the site they seem to be serious. it's seriously funny in a sad sort of way.

i am sure i have bought books to impress, it wasa not the cover thought it was the titles

Well, I just bought james joyce "Ulyssies (really can't spell that!) 'cos it was about $8 dollars. And I have always wanted to "try" and read it!

>11 SimonW11:

This reminds me of the thread about which books one places at eye level and in the rooms guests are likely to see.

The blog-like posts on bookdecor.com have a fair amount of repetition in them, expressing the same sentiment in different ways:

all these pretty books we have for looks are not written in English and probably would not care to be content you'd wish to own/read even if they were in English so you should pay no attention to the little man behind the curtain or the content of the books

Still, it is an attractive site and there is a place for this kind of material. Of course, it is a little like this site which offers covers for iPads and other e-reader devices that are made to look like books. They have spine-only facades which can be used for bookcase doors as well.

www.ManorBindery.co.uk

We discovered these in the Uncommon Goods Catalog.

James

I think I agree with most of the posts. This is a pretty shallow reason for owning books. But we do need to realize that books transcend. I find I am much more content in a room with books so I do keep them around the house. But I also READ them for goodness sake! Also, I notice that when I do have guests, the presence of certain books stimulates great discussion. So--maybe the ones I place on the coffee table are purposeful. How different is this to the person who started the thread in reality. Maybe we all are "affected" more than we realize.

I do not mind books for decorating purposes - decorating or not, they are books and one day someone might read them. But they seem to be very proud of the fact that they do not have any English books... and that is what bothers me.

decorative books are a singularly unreadable bunch, out of date legal journals are I believe common.

>8 pduck:
I'm intrigued by those books in pduck's picture: are they what they say they are, or just blank paper? All of Zola or Rousseau in one volume sounds unlikely, and Kipling at least would still have been in copyright at the time.

Those are real. You used to be able to buy a good sampling of the western canon to fit on just one long shelf. Not the most comfortable reading - large tome, small print. Sometimes 2 columns per page. I saw a set recently at a thrift store.

I buy mostly hardbacks because they're better constructed and I think they look nicer on the shelf. I also seem to accumulate quite a few of the so called "great books." I read and enjoy them though. There's a bit of vanity there, but I'd be flat out embarrassed to display a bunch of books that were so blatantly bought for appearances. Anyone that knew me would realize I couldn't read them. Maybe someday the part of my brain that understands that will short out and I'll think it's a great idea — but not today.

Well, I suppose that if one were to look at my books acquired to books read ratio one might conclude that my collection is very decorative.

Besides, even the venerable Strand has had a 'Books by the Foot' program for many years, where you can even rent them if you so desire....

http://www.strandbooks.com/books-by-the-foot/

Yeah but they were not proudly telling you that none of your books will be in English. :)

I think they are warning you, not boasting, about none of the books being in English. It's just that they are so matter of fact that they come across as proud.

I confess to a sneaking sympathy for the site. I do think fine bookbinding is an art that has validity whether or not the text is accessible. I don't think I have ever bought a book that I had no hope of being able to read, but my daughter has been known to buy books in German because the binding and typography was attractive. And I do have a Latin dictionary much larger than I require - the cheap paperback I once owned was really more useful to me, but I discarded it and kept the extra-large Victorian era volume with the decorative gilt binding. There may be a few other examples of this phenomenon on my shelves as well. *cough* Folio *cough*

I thought the only reason to join the "folio society" was for that HUGH Times Atlas. Which after a few years is NOT as free as it seemed at the time.

Uh . . . are we not supposed to read the Folio Society books? They're some of my favorites. I just take special care when reading them: no snacks, wine, etc..

How do others here tag their books which have pretty bindings? I started out with just the word "cover" and I love to view those books by cover mode:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?tag=cover&offset=0&view=2wonderY...

It's a view not impossible, but difficult in real life.

>25 2wonderY:

Very nice.

Lovely!

>25 2wonderY: I have a special collection for 'beautiful books' into which I place the ones I think are particularly special.

edited to add - your cover display page is gorgeous :)

Oh, you horrible people! I suppose you also tell your children which one you love more.

>29 justjim: The one I have my arms around at that moment. (when they were teens, it was just the opposite; as I was likely trying to throttle the nearest one.)

>28 skullduggery: Added your library to my favorites. Nice! back atcha.

Wow. Those are amazing!

This has been very interesting to read. I am the owner of Book Decor and am surprised by some of the assumptions made by people concerning my small business. First, the books I sell are not to replace books that people read. I, for one, am an avid reader. That is one of the reasons I fell in love with my business. Because more and more books are digital and no longer fill the book shelves in people's homes, my books just give some decorative options. I consider the books I sell to be pieces of art not unlike a candle, picture, or a vase. Placed simply for their beauty. The books are also antique and are like owning a piece of the past and preserving that past. The contents of these books, while not in English, are still quite beautiful, many with pictures and drawings that are very unique and not seen in today's books.

Secondly, I am not proud or boasting that the books are not in English. I am simply informing. I would love to carry books in English, but they are much more expensive and difficult to find. Still hoping to do so in the future.

Third, it may surprise some people who consider themselves to be book lovers, but yes, there are people out there who own book shelves but do not read, sadly. Most of my clients are businesses, hotels, Disneyland, Ralph Lauren, etc. Places where books for decor is not an absurd idea. That there are people out there who can also appreciate the historical value and beauty of the books enough to put a few in their homes, to me, is wonderful. I would much rather have the books on someone's shelves than being thrown away.

I hope you will take this in the spirit it was intended. I absolutely agree that homes should be filled with wonderful things to read. Happy reading.

Thanks for posting, MarciP; it is good to hear the other side. I think most of us are just boggled at the idea of people who do not read.

And that still would like to see books in their houses...

I have friends that do not read but they do not even think of showing books in the house (one of them actually was very proud of not having a single book...)

I am always shocked to find people who don't read, let alone be proud they don't own books! Thanks for being positive, it was my intention to keep it that way.

There's the story, perhaps an urban legend, that Martha Stewart a few years ago bought a full set of the Loeb Classics (Greek and Latin texts with facing English, approximately $10,000 for the set) for her daughter's living room because of their decorative virtues. This extravagance was copied by other flush decorators, sparking a banner year for the publishers of the series.

>37 anthonywillard:
According to Kate Atkinson, Loebs are also popular with Scottish drug dealers (cf. When will there be good news?).

>36 EclecticIndulgence:: "I'm sure there are some Germans who would like to actually own pretty German books (still with content!), and this is a little saddening that they are taken out of their market. "

There are some of us who are simply Germano-philes who love to own pretty German books, too! I started the core of my antique German collection when I was a junior in college, studying abroad at the Katholische Universität in Eichstätt, Germany. Their university library received a large donation from an old monastery that was downsizing, and after they had their pick, they sold the rest at a public book sale. You stacked the books you wanted to purchase and paid 1 Euro per centimeter of stack height! Many of those books can be seen under my tag "19th-century binding".

Some of my favorites (i.e. books that I read in addition to enjoying for their beauty) include:
Biblia sacra vulgatae editionis (which I actually use in my scholarly work; if you have to consult the Vulgate, why not do it in a beautiful book?)
De imitatione Christi libri quattuor (which includes extensive hand-written annotations by a previous owner, probably a monk of the monastery where it came from)
Libellus piarum precum (includes some exquisite prayers developed for the use of a seminary near Münster -- WorldCat shows the only known library copy to be in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek)
Gedichte von Novalis (a small book, mostly of his more overtly religious poems, it is in a beautiful cream-colored velum binding)
Several antique German selections of Scripture, including this one and this one, which are both compact and excellent for devotion.