Word of the Chair: Book Shelf Wealth
Where you study is as important as how you study. Having a quiet and comfortable corner to fully concentrate, makes all the difference when you have to read, analyse and write. Contrary to the popular life style guru Mary Kondo’s philosophy of minimalism, the new interior design trend of 2024 is focusing on aesthetically pleasing interiors, including presenting abundant book collections in what is called ‘Book Shelf Wealth’.* The idea is that you showcase your books (read or unread) by size, author or jacket cover colour. Many appealing images of nicely arranged book collections are circulating on social media.**
As with any trend there are detractors. Criticism has focused not only on inauthenticity – have the books actually been read or do they just look pretty? – and signaling a message of consumption and capitalism – felling trees to produce books, buying them to display wealth-. Moreover, the trend requires actually having space, which is by no means a given for everyone.*** It is a privilege to own and display book collections of whatever nature.
Still, it does not take much to create some measure of book wealth. As student or member of staff you have access to our university library, which is home to over five million books.**** With your LU card you can order and read any of these titles, including displaying them in your room or on your desk and sharing this with others. The advantage is that you can return the books (when read, hopefully) to exchange them for a new set. Moreover, there are multiple little free libraries on campus, in the entrance hall of Schouwburgstraat (but the collection might need a bit of an upgrade, with your help, as a colleague with an interest in management books has emptied their shelves) and at the BASIS base in Wijnhaven there is also a little free library.
One of my favorite quotes by C.S. Lewis, author of among others the Narnia Chronicles is: ‘You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me’. Some pleasures in life are simple and not expensive at all. Let the books spark their joy!
*Kondo has moved away from minimalism recently: Rob Walker, ‘Clutter is Good for You’, NYT, 29 December 2022. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/29/opinion/sunday/clutter-decluttering-marie-kondo.html
** Hannah Baxter, ‘Why “Book Shelf Wealth” is 2024’s First Major Design Trend’, Architectural Digest, 18 January 2024. https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/bookshelf-wealth-tiktok-design-trend-2024
And: Angela Tafoya, ‘Is “Book Shelf Wealth” the Most Authentic TikTok Interiors Trend Yet?’, Vogue, 5 February 2024. https://www.vogue.com/article/bookshelf-wealth-tiktok-trend *** ‘Book Storage; Ten Original Ways to Store Books’; https://www.pib-home.co.uk/journal/10-original-ways-to-store-books **** https://www.library.universiteitleiden.nl/about-us/collections