# Books as decoration **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [August 27, 2021, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-as-decoration/949628 "2021-08-27T17:05:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Yodalicious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yodalicious/32/8195_2.png) [@Yodalicious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yodalicious)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2021, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-as-decoration/949628/1 "2021-08-27T17:05:23Z")
I know, I know, books are for reading, but what if they aren’t. My ex-wife has a collection of books from [Eaton Press](https://www.eastonpress.com/home). I’ve looked at the illustrations, but they’re too nice to really crack open. The other day I discovered The Folio Society’s edition of [Game of Thrones](https://www.foliosociety.com/usa/a-game-of-thrones.html). A little pricey for me, but man are they beautiful. Again, I’d probably only look at the illustrations, and the map. I have all the Ice and Fire books anyway, I’d probably re-read those if I wanted. So, these books would just sit on a fancy bookshelf looking nice. ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2021, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-as-decoration/949628/2 "2021-08-27T20:27:49Z")
I dunno, the Eaton Press ones kinda vibe me the wrong way. It is said that Trump, and his gold plated toilets, was a poor person’s idea of a rich guy, y’know - “classy”. The Eaton Press books feel like that to me. Fake hoity-toity. ---
**Author:** ![Somethingwitty1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/somethingwitty1/32/8899_2.png) [@Somethingwitty1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Somethingwitty1)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2021, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-as-decoration/949628/3 "2021-08-27T20:50:43Z")
I think books look cool. I have a built in book shelfs in a den filled with books I have read. It looks goods. So I get the “Books as Decoration”. Mind you, these aren’t all great leather bound works of literature. I got some Robert Ludlum and Fodor travel guides in there too. Even some of the great literature is ratty paper backs. But, I do think you have to read the books first. Or at least have an intention of reading them some day. Otherwise, I find it…(looking for a polite way to say this). ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2021, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-as-decoration/949628/4 "2021-08-27T20:51:25Z")
> [@Icarus](#): > > I dunno, the Eaton Press ones kinda vibe me the wrong way. Yuck! Every time I see modern “leather-bound” books trying to look like an updated version of classics, it just screams “I don’t read, I just want to look classy.” But they would go well with a collection of Thomas Kinkade paintings in a “gentleman’s study”… . eta: My sister decided she wanted to “decorate with books”. She started walking through estate sales or old book stores looking for “Muted cobalt blue cloth covers, excellent condition, medium width, nine to eleven inches tall.” > [@Somethingwitty1](#): > > I think books look cool. I have a built in book shelfs in a den filled with **books I have read**. Amen! [bolding mine, as it deserves!] I might send your comment to my sister… ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2021, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-as-decoration/949628/5 "2021-08-27T20:58:11Z")
You can literally buy sets of fake books that are just a bunch of covers over cardboard, glued together. They sell them for staging homes or making your office look more important. Most “coffee table books” are essentially just decoration. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2021, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-as-decoration/949628/6 "2021-08-27T21:00:35Z")
I read somewhere that people are buying old books to fill their empty shelves for Zoom backgrounds…anyone else heard that? ---
**Author:** ![Somethingwitty1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/somethingwitty1/32/8899_2.png) [@Somethingwitty1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Somethingwitty1)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2021, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-as-decoration/949628/7 "2021-08-27T21:25:17Z")
> **[Washington’s Secret to the Perfect Zoom Bookshelf? Buy It Wholesale.](https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/12/26/books-by-the-foot-washington-dc-covid-books-440347)** > > Books by the Foot curates shelves full of books for Washington offices, hotels, TV sets—and, now, Zoom backdrops. Another aspect was people snooping about what books were on people’s bookshelves. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2021, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-as-decoration/949628/8 "2021-08-27T21:53:12Z")
> [@Somethingwitty1](#): > > …snooping about what books were on people’s bookshelves. “Wait, what? I’ve got _Girl Scouts Unleashed_ and _Cub Scouts Tied Up_ on my bookshelf? Honest, Miss Supervisor, I just bought those…well, yes, I did buy them, but I bought them by the foot!” ---
**Author:** ![aurora\_maire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aurora_maire/32/328_2.png) [@aurora\_maire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aurora_maire)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2021, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-as-decoration/949628/9 "2021-08-27T22:07:12Z")
When TV personalities started working from home, I was always looking at the books and other objects they had behind them. I remember seeing a site that judged people on these things. Then the “zoom background” got professional and boring. ---
**Author:** ![erysichthon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2021, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-as-decoration/949628/10 "2021-08-27T22:28:53Z")
I am surprised to see disparaging remarks about Easton (not Eaton) Press editions. They are beautifully-made, ultra-high-quality books. I have the Easton Press edition of Philip K. Dick’s _The Man in the High Castle_ (one of my all-time favorite novels), which I received as a gift. It is absolutely stunning—thick leather binding with a ribbed spine, sewed (not glued) binding, heavy acid-free paper, gold trim on the page edges, beautiful frontispiece illustration, elegant typography. No cracking noises when you open it. I can see why people say Easton editions are “too nice to read,” but they are so sturdy that reading them won’t hurt them. Would I purchase more of these for myself? Probably not. I’m not a collector, but I can appreciate a well-made book. Sure, maybe rich people buy them for decoration and never open them or read them, but that doesn’t mean the books themselves are bad. ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2021, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-as-decoration/949628/11 "2021-08-27T22:38:26Z")
You may be thinking of this twitter site - [Bookcase Credibility](https://twitter.com/bcredibility?lang=en) Not always as funny or clever as it likes to think it is, but very good at spotting book cases as visual padding. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2021, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-as-decoration/949628/12 "2021-08-27T22:56:18Z")
I remember reading that when Samuel Pepys bought some books, not only were they not bound (he had to pay to have them done separately), the pages were not slit. I used to wonder how it was that books in old libraries were often all identically bound and had such rough edges on the pages. ---
**Author:** ![Somethingwitty1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/somethingwitty1/32/8899_2.png) [@Somethingwitty1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Somethingwitty1)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2021, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-as-decoration/949628/13 "2021-08-27T23:04:44Z")
I think the distinction would be that you actually read the book, and that it is one of your favorite novels. I enjoy Phillip Dick as well. So it not unreasonable for you to enjoy a well made book of that novel. If you just ordered the collected works of Phillip Dick from Easton, with no intention of reading any of them. Just so they would look cool on your bookshelf. Well I think that is different. If I had the money, my den might look like this: > **[10 of the most incredible home libraries around the world](https://www.businessinsider.com/best-home-libraries-2016-8#the-books-in-this-london-library-are-hidden-in-a-wooden-staircase-which-leads-up-to-a-lofted-bedroom-levitate-architects-designed-the-library-as-a-solution-to-the-residents-book-storage-problem-the-staircase-can-hold-about-2000-volumes-7)** > > We rounded up the most spectacular private libraries. Take a look. ---
**Author:** ![aurora\_maire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aurora_maire/32/328_2.png) [@aurora\_maire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aurora_maire)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2021, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-as-decoration/949628/14 "2021-08-27T23:16:09Z")
> [@Banksiaman](#): > > You may be thinking of this twitter site - [Bookcase Credibility](https://twitter.com/bcredibility?lang=en) That’s not the one I was thinking of but it’s pretty good. I love this catch. Scattered books with no titles and reality distortion on the right. > ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2021, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-as-decoration/949628/15 "2021-08-28T01:17:45Z")
This doesn’t necessarily fit the thread, but I’m sticking it here anyway: I’m watching HGTV, and I see again and again, any little unused corner with a shelf and a chair is deemed “a reading nook”. If the designers were actually readers, they might provide some good light, separation, privacy, quiet… ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2021, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-as-decoration/949628/16 "2021-08-28T01:42:15Z")
> [@digs](#): > > “Wait, what? I’ve got _Girl Scouts Unleashed_ and _Cub Scouts Tied Up_ on my bookshelf? Honest, Miss Supervisor, I just bought those…well, yes, I did buy them, but I bought them by the foot!”  You’re into children’s feet, too?! ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2021, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-as-decoration/949628/17 "2021-08-28T01:48:10Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > too?! Hmmm… Actually, I did think about some foot-fetish-y titles, then it would’ve read: "…but I bought them by the foot! Ohmigod, that did NOT come out right…” ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2021, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-as-decoration/949628/18 "2021-08-28T01:50:11Z")
I always get annoyed at “bookcases” which are obviously more for decoration and displaying things than actually holding books. I will admit that I do have a few “book sets” like the “Great Books of the Western World”, which I saw as a way to acquire books that I’d like to read when I get around to it. ---
**Author:** ![Yodalicious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yodalicious/32/8195_2.png) [@Yodalicious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yodalicious)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2021, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-as-decoration/949628/19 "2021-08-28T03:27:09Z")
What I’m thinking was more along the lines of nice bound edition, of say, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings next to some kind of dust collector statue, or Sting hanging on the wall nearby. And, my reader copy on a nearby shelf. ---
**Author:** ![anny\_m](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@anny\_m](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anny_m)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2021, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-as-decoration/949628/20 "2021-08-28T04:24:44Z")
An article I saw a couple years ago had what \* concerned was the ultimate in “books as decoration.” The interior designer decided that the page edges looked better than the spines of the books and shelved them all backwards. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-as-decoration/949628.md?page=2)