What your collection of books says about you
Books are still having their moment.
What you take - willingly - into your mind...says a great deal about the person that you are / or are trying to become.
Yes - books are (once again) having their moment in the sun. Celebrities are talking about books. Books are now a critical part of the setup of retailers and purposefully showing the world what ideas you are busy exploring in your spare time is a thing.
As the New York Times reports, some small vintage bookstores are now finding themselves in very high demand from fashion labels and those wanting to develop a unique brand aesthetic.
The reason? Lingering. Brands want to encourage people to linger longer in their establishments and books are a perfect catalyst to encourage such behaviour.
“I think books and unique items help tell the same stories that inspire our clothing,” said Brendon Babenzien, the men’s creative director at J. Crew and a founder of Noah. “Fashion and the choices we make around it are deeply tied to our personal interests, and the items we select reflect those same interests. In that way, they complement each other perfectly.”
“Books in stores are, essentially, cultural accessories,” said Judith Thurman, a New Yorker writer who has covered fashion for the magazine, which this year introduced merchandise with J. Crew. “They’re consumed like that. You would buy a cool necklace and a book with a cool cover.”
Not to mention, the fashion set has long had an interest in what’s known as “world building.” Books — especially rare ones concerning highbrow matter, like those Mr. Snack sells — can be tools for telegraphing taste or authenticity. Stores that sell contemporary clothing alongside vintage books and printed ephemera, said W. David Marx, the author of “Status and Culture: How Our Desire for Social Rank Creates Taste, Identity, Art, Fashion, and Constant Change,” are “kind of associating these new products that you make with this heritage.”
On the subject of disclosing what it is that you are choosing to put into your mind - what books are on your current reading horizon?
Here's our list:
As a casual observation, our own literary appetite of late is certainly steering towards fiction, philosophy related to the unknown and a deeper exploration of just about anything not related to politics and technology.
We're after ideas and thinking that goes far deeper than what is usually commercially palatable.
What's on your side table right now?
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