4 days ago
Decorative books that let the shelf-obsessed appear cultured
The article on buying books by the metre to decorate a room ('Look how well-read I am!': How 'books by the metre' add the final touch to your home – or your image, 22 July) reminded me of the famous service offered by Flann O'Brien, writing as Myles na gCopaleen, to those people who wanted to appear cultured but were too busy to read. Levels of book-handling are offered from Popular Handling to Handling Superb, or Le Traitement Superbe. The satirical fantasy is available to read in The Best of Myles.
My 1975 Picador copy needs no such service, not because it's been read several times, but because the low standards of British book production mean the pages are browned, the spine is reassuringly cracked, and if I tried to reread it the whole book would fall LancasterPeakirk, Cambridgeshire
I bought an original cartoon for my bookshop partner's 50th birthday. A bookstall keeper had a huge notice on his stall. 'Books For Sale! RED ONES, BLUE ONES, GREEN ONES.' But used to it as I was, I was still shocked when people bought sets of leather-bound books to furnish their shelves: Kipling red, Galsworthy dark blue (and much cheaper) Stevenson pale blue. However, beautiful as it was, even non-bookish customers balked at having five yards of The Christian World Pulpit in their SquiresSt Andrews, Fife
When I was in practice as a solicitor, I was responsible for my firm's library. In those days, legal textbooks, law reports and books of legislation were substantial and handsome hardbacks. But new editions and replacements were constantly being issued by the publishers. So what to do with the redundant volumes?
Fortunately, I found a few local pubs and restaurants that were willing to take a shelfful at a time. Sadly, I was never able to break into television with our old books, but several firms obviously have. Look at any TV drama and if they have bookshelves in a scene, you can almost guarantee that ancient copies of Halsbury's Laws, Halsbury's Statutes, the Encyclopaedia of Forms and Precedents etc will be on HeymansBackwell, Somerset
If people are buying 'metres of books' to decorate, how am I going to peruse their bookshelves to see what they are really interested in? That's always been an enjoyable part of visiting someone's home for me. This is possibly one of the dumbest decorating trends I've heard WilliamsNetley Abbey, Hampshire
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