Book Accessory & Reading Accessory Ideas for Home Library etc.

Bonheur du jour desk

admin — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 01:27:21 +0000

Bonheur du jour (”daytime delight”) is a very specific term for a kind of lady’s desk that became popular in the late 18th century. These exquisite furniture pieces are not as heavy as traditional desks. They are designed to be moved around the room and, as a result, their backs are often decorated. Much attention is paid to detailed ornamentation of the drawers.

Phrenology heads in home library decor

admin — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 00:54:00 +0000

Phrenology is a foreign subject to our modern medical practices but in the Victorian era it was common science. Each of the 48 faculties of the brain served as a sort of map to a person’s innate nature and personality. Specific areas were identified as being responsible for love, intellectuality, energy levels, and morals; doctors believed they could tell everything about a person from mapping out the bumps and oddities of the human skull. A phrenology head is a teaching tool that could help you easily learn the location of all these crucial areas. Fortunately, you don’t need to learn anything if you are simply getting a phrenology head as decoration for your home library. These objects are a curious extension of the more traditional busts and sculptures, but they have a distinct Victorian flavor. Great for a steampunk home library!

Home library, Regency style

admin — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 15:27:34 +0000

This 1816 etching by John Britton represents a typical home library during Regency. The library is located at Cassiobury Park and it was used similarly to many other home libraries of the time — it was essentially the most important room of the house and could be easily referred to as a family sitting room. A group of small dogs in the front sufficiently demonstrates the openness of this library to anyone and anything. At the same time, all traditional library features are present and their style is unmistakable. We see built-in bookcases that are architectural in nature. In other such libraries you would often see (apart from the books, obviously) various antiquities and curiosities. Small private museums of this sort had a long history, but in Georgian times and in the early 19th century the trend became very popular. As far as architectural styles, Regency designers preferred neoclassical decor, howver Gothic influences were also quite common at the discretion of individual owners who were inspired by the love of all things Medieval (as interpreted by novelists and poets). The furniture of this particular home library is typical Regency style (note the Grecian chairs), but the general tone has a certain Gothic air.

I am including some additional samples of Regency library furniture. I especially like the library steps

Waterford Bookends

admin — Mon, 24 May 2010 18:39:37 +0000

Initially I was hoping to find a set of Wedgwood bookends. So far, the best I could do is two excellent sets of Waterford bookmarks – Waterford, of course, is the parent company of Wedgwood, if you did not know. Both sets are subject to very limited availability, so I cannot immediately tell you where to purchase them. I would like to note that these bookends can also serve as excellent paperweights, do to their book-like shapes.

Steampunk office accessories

admin — Thu, 13 May 2010 17:12:03 +0000

It is no surprise that steampunk aesthetics are easily applied to home office equipment. A home office is really an extension of the traditional home library or study which reached the heights of design in Victorian times. So, if you want to achieve a sleek steampunk look you should start with a traditional home library design, not much different from what you can see in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

Jay Walker’s famous library can also serve as an inspiration. Note how the lighting has been updated, compared to the more traditional-looking libraries and some materials are used that would not have been common in the 19th century.

Now comes the interesting part. You can easily modify any modern office equipment to look “period”, thus creating steampunk items by definition. You can find tutorials on how to mod a computer, an LCD screen or a keyboard. Here are a few pictures to whet your appetite.

Steampunk computers

As you may have observed, there are several ways of creating a steampunk object. You can start with a modern device and add design and functional elements to it. Instead, you can use an existing Victorian era item and add modern capabilities to it.

Steampunk computer mice

It is generally very easy to mod a mouse, because most modern mice are optical. You can easily slop anything on top of it. There is no Victorian object that I can think of that you can turn into a mouse

USB drives

There is actually an extremely simple way to make your own steampunk USB drive. Fine an antique lighter and use its case to house any USB drive you have!

Steampunk lamps

Bathtub caddy with a book stand

admin — Sat, 08 May 2010 16:02:24 +0000

Not all book accessories are meant for use in traditional book-friendly environments. This ingenious, although potentially dangerous contraption allows one to read in a bathtub, only occasionally touching the book to turn pages. You can probably even place some snacks and a glass of wine on the same caddy. I know people who would love this book stand, despite all.

Strange bookmarks

admin — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 15:28:35 +0000

LibraryThing has a discussion about weird objects used as bookmarks. For the most part these are discovered by librarians who deal with receiving and re-shelving borrowed books. I compiled a convenient list of such bookmarks. Just keep in mind that you will have to go through it in order to find out what the absolute strangest bookmarks are.

uncooked bacon
banana peel
piece of bark
lock of hair
pancake
endorsed checks with a deposit slip
candy wrapper
muffin wrapper
Abductees Anonymous member card
package of gum
feathers
beef jerkey
keys
joints
business cards
currency
photographs
outline for an unwritten book
chewed chewing gum
unused condoms
condom wrappers
used condoms
panty liner
game cards
photos
homework
credit cards
postcards
tea bags
pins

Globes as book accessories

admin — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 18:44:23 +0000

Geographical globes should and can be considered a sort of book accessory! Envision a distinguished gentleman who is reading in his study. Every once in a while he looks at a large globe, just to get a better idea of distances between remote parts of the British Empire, described in the book. And so on. These days, the gentleman would probably use Google Earth. But you still cannot beat the look of an old globe. It creates a visual departure from the rectangles dominating your home library or office. Another good thing is that because we no longer rely on globes as sources of geographical knowledge antique globes and their replicas can give any book-filled space that desired old-timey look! Probably the most renowned company that makes such replicas is Authentic Models.

If your desk space is crowded, try a standalone globe. There are even bookends that feature small globes.

Writing habits of famous authors

admin — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 15:17:27 +0000

Just some facts about writing habits and quirks of several famous authors. Inevitably, writing accessories are a part of many such peculiar traits. Or perhaps, some writers created their own writing accessories?

Henry L. Mencken, Edgar Allan Pe, May Sarton and Maxime Kumin liked to do their writing in attic rooms.

Flannery O’Connor turned her desk away from the window.

Edna St. Vincent Millay used a one-room cabin in the woods.

Balzac used to drink over 10 cups of coffee every day.

Dan Brown keeps an hourglass on his desk and, on the hour, puts aside his manuscript to perform push-ups, sit-ups, and stretches.

Blanche D’Alpuget, when writing on the computer, printed a first draft and then deleted the original file. She then typed the entire book again from the printouts.

Nabokov wrote on index cards, standing up at a lectern, wearing socks.

Alexandre Dumas, the father, ate an apple at 7 a.m. each morning under the Arc de Triomphe.

Friedrich Schiller could not stand the smell of food being prepared, while writing. He had a kitched built at a considerable distance from the house.

Saint-Pol-Roux hung the inscription “The Poet Is Working” from his door while he slept.

Writing Desks of Famous Authors

admin — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 16:02:26 +0000

Here are a few desks and writing tables that were used by some popular writers. Reading and writing accessories, as well as traditional decor elements can be seen in several of these pictures. You can just imagine the countless hours that these famous writers spent behind these desks, composing eternal masterpieces!

Charles Dickens’s desk

Herman Hesse’s desk

J.R.R. Tolkien’s desk

F. Schiller’s desk

B. Shaw’s desk

Mark Twain’s desk

Jane Austen’s writing table

Leo Tolstoy’s desk

C.S. Lewis’ desk

See also:

American Writers at Home