"you might pick them up to look at once in a while"

[slemslempike]

I suppose it serves me right for reading "top tips" on home decoration, but really.

Books
A room lined in books can be a delight. Stick to hardbacks, or neat vintage paperback collections. Your selection should reflect your passions, so much so that you might pick them up to look at once in a while. Books arranged according to spine colour look close to obsessive - instead stack them horizontally in diminishing sizes, especially on a large square coffee table.

I hate whoever wrote this. "you might pick them up to look at once in a while". Imagine!

I am going to see The Audience tonight, I mustn't forget to go. I keep thinking it's Wednesday, which it isn't. (It's Thursday.) I am looking forward to it, but a bit worried that you might need to know more twentieth century British history than I do to really understand everything. (I say that like I have more knowledge of other periods. I don't.)

Comments

[chiasmata]

We saw The Audience the other week, and I don't feel that I missed out due to my appalling lack of history knowledge.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

That is good to know! At least I'll recognise Thatcher.

[eglantine-br.livejournal.com]

The whole home decorating article is horrifying.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

You must have cushions. But they mustn't look the same! You must have frames. But they mustn't look too dissimilar!

[oursin.livejournal.com]

Aaaaaaarrrrggghhhh
MOAR horrid interior design ponceyness

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

"Stick to hardbacks, or neat vintage paperback collections". I am reminded of the Myles idea of the book-handling service: http://chriscross-thebooktrunk.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/i-want-to-be-book-handler.html

[sam-t.livejournal.com]

Oh, for heaven's sake. What I want from an article on interior design with books is ideas on how to have a room which contains both bookcases and windows without the spines of the books fading. This is something I have never managed to get right, and somehow no-one seems to want to tell me how to do it.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

One of the things I really like about my flat is that the spare/book room doesn't get direct sunlight, and the positioning of the window means that two long walls aren't in daylight at all. This is a little dark, but much better for the books!

[katlinel.livejournal.com]

Hear, hear! I don't mind books being thought of as decorative but not at the expense of being able to read them, and certainly not in the sense of only having books that suit an artful interior design.

You might be interested in UV film for windows.

[khalinche.livejournal.com]

Oh, vomit. Still not as bad as some of the home decorating videos you can see on youtube where people actually _cut the spines off of books with a Stanley knife_ and then glue them onto the sides of boxes so you can have storage that looks like books. Instead of, you know, using that space for books instead of boxes of tat camouflaged as books which are now dead.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

UGH. I am less hardline about reusing books (well, SOME books, especially those falling apart) for art or other endeavours, but that just sounds horrid.

[yiskah.livejournal.com]

YOU MIGHT WANT TO PICK THEM UP TO LOOK AT ONCE IN A WHILE.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*punches everyone*

(Semi-related - I am just back from a weekend away with my colleagues, at one point one of them [jokingly] said: "Jessica! Stop reading! You are on HOLIDAY!" As if reading is not the SINGLE BEST THING ONE COULD BE DOING WITH ONE'S TIME.)

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Reading is a lovely holiday in itself! I am looking forward to packing my books for next week. (This time next week I shall be in Marseille! Did the guy come back saying what I do when I get there?)

[yiskah.livejournal.com]

No - I'll try him again later in the week.

[hunningham.livejournal.com]

I've just been & read the article. It also has handy hints about choosing the fruit for your fruitbowl.

".. if you can't splash out on anything more than a bowl of fruit then overflow it using one fruit such as oranges, to add colour to a dull room. Let them tumble out, turning elegance into cool decadence."

All round fail at life I'd say ... sitting in a room with fruit that's not for eating and books that aren't for reading but both co-ordinated with your perfectly positioned cushions. Cool decadence indeed.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Whenever I have fruit that has "tumbled out", it ends up bruised, not artistic.

[hunningham.livejournal.com]

I think it's meant to be a hand-placed tumble, not a natural tumble. Either way, it's a different world.