Living with Books - Softcover

Powers, Alan

3.81

386 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1402742126 ISBN 13: 9781402742125

Publisher: Union Square & Co., 2006

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Everyone has books but most people simply put them on a shelf, neglecting more creative ways to make their treasures an integral part of the interior design. Alan Powers’ witty, elegant guide to showcasing your precious volumes will change all that. Going room to room, from kitchens to hallways, he reveals inspirational ways that books can create character in the home. Stunningly photographed images from around the world display large-scale libraries, as well as such ingenious space-saving devices as enclosed book lofts; shelves cleverly tucked into stairways; and narrow wall-mounted boarding that fits snugly behind a chair. There’s advice on caring for the volumes, technical hints on planning and building bookshelves, and practical, detailed projects. Special double-page features cover such topics as designer solutions and constructing furniture out of books.

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About the Author:

Alan Powers is a reader in architecture and cultural history at the University of Greenwich. He is the author of "Serge Chermayeff,"" The Twentieth Century House in Britain," and "Modern: The Modern Movement in Britain,"

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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