There was a short post yesterday in the Good Questions section of the Apartment Therapy New York website titled How To Start a Book Collection?
The post was from an interior designer whose client has a new apartment with a lot of bookshelves and no books. There were already over 100 comments to the article when I came upon it and most were less than the kind.
Their goal:
A book collection that is “based on his taste, but also be a great collection of classics and aesthetically as pleasing as the work that’s gone into the rest of the apartment.”
A fair enough request worthy of a referral to a bookseller who offers collection development services. There are hundreds of such booksellers in the Antiquarian Booksellers of America (ABAA).
-Term Alert-
**Antiquarian is no longer synonymous with old books, or old booksellers for that matter, the ABAA is a network of booksellers who sell books ranging from the earliest days of printing to the first editions of Harry Potter**
Granted the post appears on a design site and the language of the post almost frames the request as a design challenge ie:”aesthetically as pleasing as the work that’s gone into the rest of the apartment” but I for one am all for encouraging people with disposable income to invest in authors or books they love or in a book that had a profound effect on their life. Not only will they have a tangible reminder but there is chance that it would be a good investment as well.
The antiquarian bookselling trade still has a long way to go in getting the word out about what they do. Has there been any dialog with the interior design trade as to the possibilities? There is much more than books by the foot. Placing a well thought out book collection in a clients home is not going to hurt ones business, imagine the pr possibilities for your business when your client realizes that not only does he enjoy the collection you put together but it has appreciated in value.
Thanks to Maud for the lead