Living With Books

Stopping by the local bookstore to pick up a book one afternoon recently I was struck by the crowds of people gathered in the stacks; young parents with babies in strollers, couples whispering with books in hand, some who had slid to the floor and with backs against the bookshelves were perusing  possible purchases. The environment was positively invigorating and prompted me to reflect on how we live with books.

This photo of Albrecht Durer’s 1506 Study of Two Pairs of Hands With Books demonstrates for us the moment before we open a book to begin reading (right) and a time when we might pause, close and hold the book, reflecting on our reading (left).

Books have always been an integral part of my life from distant but distinct memories of my grandparents and parents reading aloud to me to the feeling of connectedness to my husband to be when I saw the books on his shelves. It might have occurred to me then my greatest joy would be to share a life with someone who also loved books and reading.

These few books high up on the shelves in our bedroom form some of the early foundation of my reading memories. Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows; a tale of Mole, Ratty, Badger, and Mr. Toad and their adventures on the river and in the Wild Wood, a book I have re-read  many times, beginning with Mole and his spring cleaning. Close by is The Little Engine That Could a reminder that if we think we can, we can! My grandfather’s copy of Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer with a post card from my Grandmother inside as a book marker.

My mother took me to the library every two weeks and we carried home stacks of as many books as allowed. Though the building no longer physically exists, it lives in my memory. It was my goal to read every book on the shelves. Later, as a teenager, I would have a part time job in this library. It was a complete joy to spend the days and nights in a place filled with books and people who appreciated books. The librarians themselves were marvelous and unique characters and I learned a great deal about life, work, and fun from them.

Seed pearls sewn on the pages of books on the buffet in our dining room.

How do people live with books?  Philosopher/Historian Will Durant who was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and the Medal of Freedom wrote about his life with books, “I would dress my gods in leather and gold, and burn candles of worship before them at night, and string their names like beads on a rosary. I would have my library spacious and dark and cool, safe from alien sights and sounds with slender casements opening on quiet fields, voluptuous chairs inviting communion and reverie, shaded lamps illuminating sanctuaries here and there…” (Durant, W.: The Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time: compiled and edited by John Little for Simon and Schuster)

Here is a photograph by Miguel Flores-Vianna (Haute Bohemians) of magazine editor and fabric designer Carolina Irving’s library/dining room.  She lived so closely with her books she was able to climb up on the library ladder and pull out a book to provide an image or a quote to enrich dinner conversation with friends.

Designer Michael Love dines on an intimate round table in front of a wall of antique and leather-bound books. In front of the bookcase is a long bench covered in stacks of books.

(Penfold, M. :Living Well by Design: Vendome)

You might want to crawl inside this photo of a library featured in House and Garden! Imagine reaching up and pulling out a book, resting your feet on the stool and listening to the fire crackle and pop as you read one winter evening.

This library (also featured in House and Garden) is unique with its jib door made to look like a continuation of the shelves laden with books.

This library in Greece with a wraparound couch and lamps propped on stacks of books belonged to travel writer Patrick Leigh Fermer and Joan Fermer. It was a welcoming gathering place for writers, politicians, and royalty to share thoughts while surrounded by the words and ideas of others. (Penfold, M.: Living Well by Design: Vendome)

Pierre Le-Tan’s library in Paris with books stacked on the floor, with walls covered with intricate fabrics, must have been an inspiration to him in the delicate illustrations he created for the New Yorker magazine,  fashion houses, museums, and galleries. (Flores-Vianna, M.: Haute Bohemians: Vendome.

This library in Althorp has a trio of things we might dream of when imagining an extensive home library, a curved rolling wooden ladder to help you reach the books on the upper shelves, a book stand, and a world globe. This library has over 40,000 volumes! (Von der Schulenburg, F., Text by Howes, K.: Luxurious Minimalism: Elegant Interiors.: Rizzoli)

(Photograph by Simon Upton in World of Interiors)

What a wonder, a painted library in the Castello di Masino in Italy. My attention is immediately drawn to the book stand attached to the chair. Not having such a device, I stack pillows on my lap to hold heavier books.

Here, in this open loft, the library is enclosed in a glass walled room! (Kemble, C.: Black and White (and a bit in between): Clarkson Potter/Publishers.

When we were planning to move to the Texas Hill Country, ideas for organizing our home were collected in this brown expandable folder closed with a ribbon and a rhinestone pin. We packed our books in book boxes labeled with numbers coordinating to the rooms where we wanted the books to land. When we arrived all the book boxes were stacked in an open area and a rolling cart helped me move them to the right place in the house. Having worked in a library, many of our books at home are organized in a similar system.

The room we call the library holds fiction classics and garden and interior design books. Inside the cabinet are stacks of our journals and a basket box holds various colors of ink to fill our pens.

These tiny daguerreotype portraits collected over the years echo the gilded letters on the book spines.

Creating this home has been such a joyful experience. On the center of the table in the library we keep a stack of books where we found our initial inspiration.

Our sitting room is made for reading and talking with plenty of places to sit and a light at each place. My husband had the idea of floor to ceiling bookshelves on either side of the fireplace and to me, they simply lift the room and give it personality. The people who bult and installed them couldn’t believe we could fill them with books and came back to visit and see them. Filling the top shelves is a work in progress.

In this room are books of history, philosophy, photography, biography, and plays.

The moth and the butterfly we found expired in our garden and sent away for display boxes so we could keep them with us.

My husband designed and built this bookcase in our bedroom for some of our favorites to reread and books we have purchased and have yet to read. The shelves are only slightly deeper than the books themselves so there is minimal room for dust to collect. They are the first and last things I see each day!

Upstairs in the studio books are organized in cabinets with supplies for various pursuits. Here in this cabinet are supplies and books about printmaking.

Here are books about fabric and fashion!

In this cabinet are my books about botanicals, birds, insects, and other elements of nature. These books are a pleasure to read and helpful references for my watercolors and some of my intaglio prints

Of course there are stacks of books. We have art books piled between the cabinets and under our work tables.

Living with books is indescribably wonderful. Books are constant and thought-provoking companions. Books are also a reflection of the people who live with them. If you look on the box table between the wing chairs in front of the fireplace in our sitting room you will see a stack of books representing some of the important aspects of our life here. Emily Dickinson wrote her gorgeous nothing poems on scraps of envelopes, thus using something which might have been discarded to create something new. Temples of Books was a gift to us and represents the relevance books have for people the world over. Objects of Desire contains the stories of one woman’s treasured objects and reminds us of the stories our objects hold. Masterpieces documents the gem and mineral collection in the Museum of Natural Science in Houston – one of the best in the world. Nearby we have our own collection of fossils from the land where we now live. Finally, is David Monn’s book, The Art of Celebrating, something we do every day here in the Texas Hill Country!

Inspired by the words of Will Durant, I wrote about my life with books: I would fill my garden with leather and cloth, gilt edged leaves, and spines. I would tend it from morning to late evening, by sunlight and by candlelight, gathering words to feed and water my mind. I would have my library in every room, so no matter where I might gaze my eyes would fall upon words and ideas growing, spreading like the plants in the garden surrounding me. My library would have chairs, benches and rough boulders to sit upon, inviting meditation and musing.