Living With Books [Hardcover]

Alan Powers (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1999

When entering a house, you can quickly ascertain a person's attitude towards books - in a true booklover's home, there are no rooms that do not contain books. While some people succumb to towering piles in every corner, storing books can be achieved with more graceful and ingenious design solutions. Living with books means learning how to incorporate them into your home without letting them take over. This is a beautiful book of full-color photographs, with chapters devoted to books in different rooms, from traditional libraries and dens to kitchens, bathroom s, and hallways. It addresses all aspects: storage, display, the use of books as structural elements and furniture, and advice on custom-building bookshelves (including step-by-step instructions for five different projects).

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Powers, librarian of the Prince of Wales' Institute of Architecture, has collected a wealth of photographs depicting myriad ways to store books. He shows them in the kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, and home office; in hallways and stairs; and, of course, in the library. He provides some information on the care of books, but professional and student designers will find this book especially helpful for showing how other designers have approached the design of shelving and storage of books.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Attention bookworms! Put down that novel, and check out "Living with Books" by Alan Powers; it's full of wonderful examples of how to display your Prousts and paperbacks. A chapter called "Practicalities" outlines the basics of building do-it-yourself bookcases, from wood to metal racks. -- Good Housekeeping, September 1999

Book lovers, as the term implies, find it easier to acquire books than to get rid of them. Those with hundreds or thousands of volumes threatening to take over their homes can find relief in "Living with Books."

The large-format volume recommends shelving and other storage ideas that will eliminate clutter and place books in any variety of location, including halls, stairwells, kitchens and bathrooms. In providing shelving solutions for studies, home offices and libraries, it recognizes that books have a value beyond their content, for example adding warmth and color to rooms.

Photographs demonstrate what can be accomplished when the purpose is to limit the visual effect of books, or to make books a central element in the room where they are shelved, with a number of quirky options. "Living with Books" draws many examples from the homes of architects and includes a section on building bookshelves and bookcases with a minimum of experience or tools, which should enable the reader, if he is game, to replicate some of the examples illustrated therein. -- Charleston Post & Corier, June 27, 1999

Book-lovers especially will delight in Alan Powers' "Living with Books" for the many novel ways it suggests for giving books the storage space they need and deserve. This is no simple issue: Internet users can talk as much as they like about the appeal of electronic books, but bibliophiles can't be dismissed as Luddites simply because they value the real thing. And the real thing needs a place of its own. "Living with Books" is something of a wish-book, suggesting countless ways to use shelves in attractive and practial ways... -- Richmond Times-Dispatch, April 4, 1999

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Soma Books; North American ed edition (April 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1579590241
• ISBN-13: 978-1579590246
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 9.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,039,455 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

58 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Books in their natural habitats . . ., November 28, 2000

By 

Michael K. Smith (South Louisiana) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Living With Books (Hardcover)

I have a feeling the previous reviewers were expecting a how-to book of home construction projects. Actually this is more of a tour guide. It's fascinating to discover the many creative, ingenious, and very original ways architects and ordinary booklovers have found to store books, display them, and enjoy being in their presence. Face it -- one never has enough bookshelves. And some of these homes are definitely masquerading as libraries! Here are bookshelves up under the eaves of an older house, or installed over the doorways in the hall, or built into closets and cupboards and under kitchen counters. Others are freestanding on metal shelves and poles and rigged like a ship's masts. There are small libraries built into the landings of staircases and others that cover entire walls of bedrooms. Some are two tiers deep, with the front one moving sideways on rollers. Others share space with lamps, TV sets, telephones, clocks, computers, ancient artifacts, photographs, and knick-knacks. And the one thing all the arrangements depicted in this book have in common is, none of them -- even the most attractively arranged -- are just for show. One look at the worn covers and frayed jackets tells you these books are the constant companions of their owners.

83 of 91 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars I disliked this book so much I returned it!, February 21, 2000

By 

Lissy Friedman - See all my reviews

This review is from: Living With Books (Hardcover)

As a lover and avid collector of books, I had high hopes for this book -- at first glance it seemed entrancing, especially the topic. Unfortunately, once I started reading it more carefully, my spirits sank. Some of the pictures are visually interesting, but most are not. Even more disappointing, there is not much substantive information either. If you like the idea of this book and are looking for a more satisfying read, check out At Home With Books : How Booklovers Live With and Care for Their Libraries by Estelle Ellis(Editor), et al. That book is worth every penny, and you'll enjoy it.

36 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A couple of good photos, February 13, 2000

By 

Marcy L. Thompson (Sammamish, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Living With Books (Hardcover)

If you want to see suggestions for how to live with large quantities of books, buy "At Home With Books". If you have some money left over after that, buy this book. There are lots of pictures, mostly not very inspiring, or very useful to a person who owns a lot of books. On the other hand, three or four of the photos were very inspiring.

Still, "At Home With Books" had a lot more to offer in the way of inspiration and ideas. I'm not sorry I bought this book, but I would be if my book-buying budget were even slightly more restricted than it is.