Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Living with books II

Check out this amazing book wallpaper. (thanks to Bookninja for the link) I'd be tempted to use it in my apartment if every wall didn't already have the real thing. Still, it would be fun to use on a door to try and create the illusion of the secret room behind the bookcase.
I recently bought Issue 22 of McSweeney's. While the content of this quarterly is a bit hit and miss with me, I do always admire the creativity behind the packaging. This issue has three paperback books; the first on poetry where poets start a poetry-chain of admiration; the second where writers finish F. Scott Fitzgerald's unused story ideas and the third - and what really sold me - a collection of new work from the Oulipiens! (see info in English about this fascinating group here). But what's really cool is how these three paperbacks are gathered and held in place within a hardcover shell/binder through the use of magnets on their spines. Which makes me wonder if this might be the ultimate solution to a question that has long been puzzling me, given that I'm rapidly running out of shelf space at home. If one was to run powerful magnetic strips on the ceiling and then attach magnets to bookspines, could one utilize all that dead space and actually store books on the ceiling? Would all of those magnetic strips cause havoc on your electronic equipment? Would it be a health hazard? Hmmm, would somebody out there look into this before the next season of books arrives?

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