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The Irony of Old Books

Submitted by tokiokobayas on Tue, 02/05/2019 - 16:19

    Every once in a while, I will look through home decor and interior design. Recently, the rustic mediterranean aesthetic has become the trend and in almost every type of design in this category, there exists a pile of old books stacked up in some corner of a room. The idea is that the books are supposed to fill in “empty” space by giving the space meaning.
    Yet all of these books are books with worn down spines, all with covers in earthy tones with white, gold, or black texts. These books that are supposed to add “depth” to a room when in my personal opinion, add a “shallowness” instead.
    The reason why I believe so is because I believe the people who put these kinds of texts in their houses for an aesthetic, have no idea what the books are about; let alone what the title of the books even are. I believe books only add a depth into your library when you have read the book and know what the books lying in your house are about. I would much rather see books like Calvin and Hobbes lying around knowing that whoever’s house it is, knows how much Calvin hates his babysitter--or have a marketing book lying around and they can discuss viral marketing schemes or the importance of word of mouth marketing with me.
    If I were to pick up a novel in someone’s house and it reads “Amadeus and the Python”, I’m going to have questions. I find it ironic that if I pick up an object that’s supposed to make you look smarter and more sophisticated, you respond otiosely with “oh I just bought those because they look nice, I don’t read”.

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