Tuesday, June 13, 2006

BOOKS: Shelve That Idea

Bookshelves. Plain old pieces of wood placed horizontally so that they intersect with equally mundane vertical pieces of wood? BOR-ing. Oh, sure, those were fine for pioneers and whatnot, but we're living in the 21st century, people... the age of rocketpacks! And miniature pet elephants! I think we can do a bit better.

First up, if all you German people want to ditch your reputation for being sensible and pragmatic, then stop coming up with such genius practical ideas, okay? Our Teutonic friends bring us these foldable shelves, which are brilliant, especially if you're one of those nomadic types who still likes to heft your books along with you when you move. If the Mongol hordes had had shelves like these, they probably would have been a lot better read and perhaps a bit less heavyhanded with the roving and pillaging.

Another variation on the invisible floating bookshelf concept is the Sticklebook
, "the world's first invisible shelving system that creates the illusion of a line of books hanging unsupported on the wall." For the life of me, I cannot figure out how this thing works, and a close-up photo of the device, below, does very little to help me. I welcome your theories.


These Dryade shelves just make me happy. She looks like she's really enjoying that magazine. Much as I like this unit, though, it'd require reconfiguring our space, changing our colour scheme, and probably reprogramming our DNA to make it work. Try as I might, I just can't picture this comfortably ensconsed in our current "Victorian Modernist" aesthetic. But YM, as they say, MV.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love the foldable shelves.

Anonymous said...

Did you click on the Sticklebook's "How It Works" link? Because it tells you. On the other hand, you might not want to know since it's kinda like maaaaagic now and much less so when science enters the picture.

See?

-Laurabelle

Marissa said...

The Sticklebook looks as though it could "hurt" the books. Are other people funny about this too - trying to keep books in as nice a state as possible?

--Deb said...

Without having clicked on any other links, and thereby relying on my own wits (such as they are), it looks like it's a massive comb, into which you insert the book's pages so that tension keeps them in place. But yes, I would worry about this damaging my books. I don't even like to use bookmarks that are too wide--why would I want to risk damage to the edges of every single page?
Okay--now I'm going to back to see if I'm right!

Anonymous said...

Yeah, that just screams page damage to me. Too bad though, because randomly floating books on my walls would be an interesting aesthetic.

The green shelves are pretty, but would look so out of place in my apartment.

However! So much love for the folding shelves.

Carol Blymire said...

That green-ish shelf makes my shoulder blades twitch a little bit.

Tammy said...

Diner Girl, in a good way?

So that IS how the Sticklebook works! Before I wrote this post, when I looked at the how-to page that Laurabelle mentions, I kind of thought maybe that was the case, but then I stammered to myself, "B-b-b-but... that would mutilate the pages! I must be wrong!" The Sticklebook is definitely not designed for people like me.

White Trasherati said...

Are those...albums? Seriously, are the Dryade shelves so self-consciously postmodern that they are housing LPs? That's kinda cool. I think that's Pablo Cruise she's sitting over! The German version, of course.

Anonymous said...

Nice of the Sticklehumans to try to slip the book hurtiness past you with in the FAQs about how it would just crunch up the pages a bit. Just a little crinkly! No big deal! Hey, it's not like we chopped them up with scissors! Much!

I've spent the rest of the day trying to think of what else you could do with the Sticklebook "shelves." I always end up with vases and gewgaws on my bookshelves (along with, not in place of, the books), so what would be the equivalent for these? All I've come up with so far is yarn. You could hang yarn there in skeins, individual strands, or big wads. Actual garments would not be so good; they'd just snag or get holes poked in them. But bingo presto you got yourself some fancy fabric art/cat toys real nice.

-Laurabelle

landismom said...

Please don't reconstitute your DNA. Think of the children!

(sorry, I couldn't resist)

Anonymous said...

I really like the Dryade, though the green does not go with my living room. That design would be perfect otherwise to replace my existing monstrosity.

No idea how I'd get one in Maine though. Hmmmm...

Glad I found this page.

Tammy said...

Awww... tuckova, as always, you're too kind. But I'll greedily accept your compliment anyway.