Thursday, February 28, 2008

I Think I've Found My New Calling

From the LA Times:
The Los Angeles metropolitan area accounts for more than 5% of U.S. book sales, a figure surpassed only by New York City, according to Nielsen BookScan. But even though a study by the National Endowment for the Arts says Angelenos read more than their Manhattan counterparts, Los Angeles still ranks 53rd on the America's Most Literate Cities report measuring per-capita usage of bookstores and libraries, among other things.

Which is perhaps why a certain segment of the population in Southern California has begun to showcase the home library as an image-enhancing badge of literacy. The trend has even spawned a service: the library consultant.
Can you imagine? Getting PAID to tell people what books to read. This scheme involves two of my favourite things: being bossy, and receiving money for very little effort.

[v
ia Apartment Therapy]

6 comments:

overeducated said...

I came across this German website that has letter-shaped furniture... yes, they are bookshelves. So cool.

Here is the main website:
http://www.set26.ch/index.html

And here is where you can look at the individual letters:
http://www.set26.ch/masse_start.php

Thought you might like them! Have a nice week!

landismom said...

Best. Job. Ever.

Even if you do have to live in LA.

Anonymous said...

Of course, there's nothing to say that they'll actually read the books in their libraries. :)

Anonymous said...

It would be cool to design libraries. You would have to put up with those people that just want faux books though - you know those people that put leatherbound books on the shelves just for show. My local library is getting a complete overhaul and it is fun suggesting shelving and seating area ideas and such. Some of the shelving ideas came from your Shelve This website.

Anonymous said...

Ah, but have you seen the current iteration of Hell on Earth... er, I mean, Big Brother?* The entire upstairs is painted to look like a wall of books. Now that is what I call an L.A. library.

*(Please GOD let the answer be "no". Also possibly "been having a happy and healthy baby instead".)

-Laurabelle

Robin said...

Oh, I can imagine! :)

The realm of unlikely book-related jobs make me swoon.... if only it birthed a spontaneous dream job for me one day. :)