A World of More Than Just Words...

Legendary Interior Designer Billy Baldwin once declared, " Books are the best decoration." I couldn't agree more but I still like paintings and other art works also.
Set on a shelf or lying open on a table, books do become decorative elements in most any room, as vital to the overall scheme as any piece of furniture or most hand carved arts and crafts . I cannot imagine any home without them.
"He that loveth a book will never want a faithful friend," proclaimed the 17th century British scholar, Issac Barrow.
More than three centuries later, his words still resonate with book lovers everywhere. "Faithful friends" have habit of turning on you; not so with books is my conclusion.
Why do these ubiquitous objects continue to inspire such adoration and devotion? One reason ia that cherished volumes are like favourite family photographs: Each time you look at them, you are transported back to joyful times. Perhaps you remember the day in a grammar school when a literary classic you've now read many times over was first placed on your desk. Holding a 'dog-eared' book in your hands may conjure up recollections of a carefree college vacation relaxing at a side-walk cafe somewhere in Europe, while the sight of a glossy museum catalogue can trigger the same awestruck feeling you experienced the first time you saw in person the work of an artist you greatly admire; you may even picture yourself among the shelves of a dusty old bookshop on a small side street in which you discovered a long out of print tome after years of searching.
Besides providing a window on the past, books show the world who we are today. A collection of books gathered over a lifetime reflects the owner's pursuits, pastimes and passions. No matter what the category, be it antique weapons, French cuisine, Chinese snuff boxes,or 18th century furniture, a book on the subject has been published somewhere in the world. This may explain the tendency of bibliophiles to steal a glimpse at the bookcases in a new acquaintance's home. If the topics they find there are subjects in which they have little interest, conversation will quickly drift in other directions, but should those shelves harbour familiar titles, especially obscure ones, a lively discussion will ensue, and, quite likely, friendship will blossom.
Books can also be appreciated on a purely aesthetic level. Consider the leather bindings on antiquarian books...florid, gold-leaf designs still visible after centuries of use, and colours deepened by the handling of successive owners. Beautiful endpapers in bold marbleized patterns, graceful botanical prints in strong stripes create a sense of anticipation when a front cover is opened and a sense of closure when the last line has been read.
Dust jackets brittle with age showcase the fonts, colour schemes, and graphic design motifs popular at the time they were first printed. Even the pages have a distance look about them, whether gilded or ragged or even dog-eared. From small press editions of erotica or military instructions on flintlocks to pulp fiction novels turned out in the various centuries, books possess visual and tactile qualities that CD-ROMS and Internet databases can never, ever replicate. Page after page of Online databases simply do not inspire reading.