Ugh. This actually makes my teeth hurt. Totally staged and none of these look like they've been read even once. The reason to have books is to read them. Right?

When it's that obviously staged it feels creepy rather than elegant. If I had to live there those books would have been in the Recycle receptacle in a heartbeat. You would never see a high-end decorator do this. I can see this in an Atlantic City home where the owners never read and the decorator ordered books by the yard and by color.

I wouldn't want to know these people. Phony. When we had big bookcases in our previous home every book on the shelves had been read (and many more in boxes). Our new smaller home has no bookcases and we donated all our books to the library. It was like saying goodbye to friends, but yes, books are made to be read.

Peaches12345 how did you manage to do it? I have given away thousands of books but I'm still hanging onto probably a thousand. It seems like it's time but it's really hard to do...

If you looked at my bookshelf you would know an awful lot about me.

The room was done by Cathy Kincaid:

http://cathy-kincaid.com/private-residences/

My thoughts, the color of the books may have been the inspiration for the room's color palate.

I like it. My books wouldn't look so matched though! Normal people might have a shelf of yellow (Nat'l Geo.) or maybe a set of Harvard Classics and the rest would be a mixed mess. This wouldn't not work with mismatched books, wouldn't it? (lost track of my double negatives there...)

Practigal-. LOL. At first I fought tooth and nail with DH about it. I was most worried about my classics like all the Jane Austen's and my many mystery series collections like all the Sue Grafton's from A to X, most in hbk since I can't wait for pbks to come out. Oh, so many memories. I actually said goodbye to each favorite as we packed them up. I finally had convinced myself that I love reading so much and will never stop reading now on my Kindle; so many books, so little time. Now others could love them, too. The library was so grateful. And, of course, I kept asking myself, "What Would Jane Do?" I hope you know what I mean.

I like it.

I would like to read in that room. I just don't want THOSE books in the bookcase in that room. . Where on earth do you buy sets of red books.

I like bookshelves filled with similar color spine books, even if they aren't read. So much better than filling them with lots of decorative knick-knacks that end up looking cluttered, especially for homes with tons of built-ins.

The only home I've ever seen where the books all matched in sets and were actually used, was in a very wealthy attorney's office. Those had a purpose.

At one time, as a kid I did have two matched sets. One was a great 17-book series for kids published between 1890 and 1907. The other was about a dozen of those wonderful illustrated Junior Classic series they published in the '50's and '60's.

Both, alas, lost when my parents divorced and moved.

We love our Kindles (DH and I each have one) but we still have many bookcases. The MBR has 9 full-height new bookcases, a custom build we put in during our recent remodel. The LR has 7 full-height bookcases, which are all Danish-style teak which I've lugged around from place to place over the last 40 yrs.

5 of those LR bookcases are here:

During the remodel we sorted through our books and managed to get rid of 22 fileboxes full, donated to our local library for their monthly sales. I was determined to finally get enough shelf space to display some of our art pieces, even if I had to double-stack some of the paperbacks - which of course, I ended up having to do anyway!

I'm afraid our books are not decorative accessories. I think our style has to be described as, "Our books ARE our decorating style"..........!

The collection in the OP pic doesn't bother me. Not my thing, but it looks nice.

Our L-shaped hallway downstairs is full of bookcases, 9 or 10. They've all been read, many more than once. I've mixed in things with them. Some collected traveling, others family things and pictures. I think the bookcases and their contents say a lot about who lives here.

My dad has a breakfront in the upper foyer filled with antique books he has collected. Don't think he's read a one, but he had enjoyed finding each of them. He has several fore-edge painted books.

I am a very avid reader. I read for at least an hour or two every day. But I do not buy books to read in paper form. I LOVE my kindle because I can have my entire library with me at all times. I also bought a waterproof Kobo e-reader so I can read in the pool w/o worries about ruining a book or electronic device.

We also collect books. Most of these aren't read but many are very very old and I think they are beautiful. I have some of my sets arranged in sets but I found that too matchy when I had too many sets, so I've broken up some and put other books in between. I think it looks nice, but don't mind if others do not like them.

I have a few sets at the very top, but only b/c I am waiting to find more books to replace them with or mix in. I don' like the way they look as full sets up there.

I don't mind the matched sets so much. Better than this which makes me feel claustrophobic...

Or the impracticality of where they wrap the books so you can't see what they are....

...or where they put the books on the shelves backwards so you can't see what they are.

I think that room looks lovely and the fact that the books 'match' doesn't mean anything about who the people are.

When I see a room like the one in the OP, I would never think that the homeowners ONLY have those books and therefore don't read--I would assume their 'everyday' books are stored more higgeldy piggeldy and not according to color, like most folks, only somewhere else.

We had some sets of books in our living room growing up that were supposed to look formal and dignified: Plato, Marx, etc. Unless we had a school report, they were unlikely to be used. The National Geographics, "book of the month" club picks, armchair historian books and spy novels and theology that my parents read for fun were shelved in the family room.

My house has stacks of books in every room. We've given away hundreds and have hundreds left. Only two color-coordinated sets but the fact that we own them doesn't mean we don't read!

In the 1970's and into the early '80s, my parents used to occasionally get various mail order book of the month set collections - some were collections of classic books, bound in red, similar to the type shown above. Some were Time Life collections - such as a series on the history of sailing, or the old west, etc. They were a little matchy matchy, but still interesting and were definitely read in the pre-internet era :). While the books above are staged, I have to wonder if the owners just had a ton of books and these were just the ones that happened to be some of those sets of encyclopedias and book anthologies/ series. However, I cringe a little at the thought of a book falling over onto one of those blue plates

I like it. Love the colors. I'd prefer a slightly more mixed look, but it doesn't creep me out at all. The backwards stuff in Annie's examples are just too too.

Beagles, love your tall wall of books!

I've looked at this designer's rooms and I don't think I've seen so much Chinese blue and white 18th century export ware used by anyone else. Her palette is very calm and neutral and her style quite traditional.

As long as they know how to spell "books"...

The overall look of the room is a little too formal for me, but I like the books and it does't bother me at all that they're matched sets. It also doesn't mean that they haven't been read. Perhaps the owners are careful when they read - one of the easiest ways to ruin a book is to crack the spine. I don't happen to have any matched sets, but I do have several shelves of classics that I dearly love and have read multiple times. From across the room you might think they hadn't been read because they still look good.

If I hit the lottery I could happily buy quality leather bound books, and they're not inexpensive.

https://www.franklinbooks.com/collections-and-sets/

I have a few sets of matching books that I am keeping for sentimental reasons but the rest are reference books we actually use. Our current built ins are full and the books are grouped by subject, gardening, travel, dogs, interior design, chicken keeping, cars,etc. I'm in a panic about what I'll be able to fit in the new place.

Beaglesdoitbetter - Love, love your wall of shelves!

When i downsized, i gave away a lot of books. Still have four bookcases full. My books were in storage for a while, and now that i have them back i've been re-reading them. Quite a lot hold up and i keep them. i give away the rest.

i've always loved books, ever since i was a kid. i am retired now, and usually read a couple of hours a day. i have stopped buying so many books, though. There are a few mystery writers whose books i buy hardbound the day they come out. if i read a review of something that sounds interesting, i download it to the Kindle app on my Mac.

I'm also a reader, and donated hundreds of books before I downsized. My local library was very happy to accept them! I now have one bookcase, jammed full .. many are family history books. And I have a Kindle that I have used since my move. I really need to find time to go to my new local library, but it's so easy just to download books to my Kindle ... My shelves have never looked like that original picture. Each to his own ....

Jakkom, Beagles.... I love your book collections! Yes, I can never get rid of all of mine, either, though I am working on downsizing.

Beagles, I too love your tall wall of books, but have to admit it would make me anxious to be going up and down that ladder carrying books. I'm currently re-reading one of my fav authors and just went through all 24 books in her first series - can't imagine going up and down the ladder with an armful of hardcovers. LOL!

Okay, that middle photo of all the books wrapped in plain paper to match the wall/shelf paint was absolutely terrifying.......I mean, why even HAVE any books, in that case??

I love my Kindle, but I use it for new authors that I try out through BookBub. For books I re-read a lot, I like to hold "the real thing".

When I was interviewing contractors to do our MBR remodeling, one of the contractors remarked, "See, this is the difference between working in Southern CA and Northern CA. In Southern CA when I would suggest installing some built-in bookcases, the homeowners would look puzzled and ask, 'What for?' In Northern CA we get asked to put them in all the time."

I laughed at that (having lived in Southern CA for a while) but it did make me think - my younger brother has lived down there for thirty yrs, and he doesn't have more than a couple of hundred actual books. And most of those are tech-oriented because of his job. But he uses his Kindle like pamghatten does, I think.

Annie, that picture of the reader surrounded by books makes me think of a library-themed horror movie.....next shot, reader gone, book lying on floor and shelves just a leetle closer to the chair LOL.

As for putting plain covers on books and turning them backwards, sheesh way to demonstrate the owner doesn't read and indeed is a hopeless philistine who can never be trusted. No book lover would ever give a thought to either of those silliness decorating ideas.

My other eye-roller is the decorator trick of hanging mirrors, pictures etc ON THE SHELVES IN FRONT OF THE BOOKS. Yes, I'm yelling because it's so totally ridiculous. Who in the world would do something so stupid that precludes one getting to the actual books?

I'm not sure a set of encyclopedias or South Western Reporters (court) would look like they've been "read"??? Even though most lawyers use LexusNexus and the like, I bet they'd save the hardbound books for sentimental reasons if they bought them all before internet made searching cases so much easier. I have an entire set of Harvard Classics and they don't look read either, but that's because I haven't read them from cover to cover, even though I do read some of them some of the time and they are good for my son to see for school work. I wouldn't get rid of them, so maybe they didn't either? Maybe.

I'd really like to have the set of 1950s-era encyclopedias that were my dad's. I pored over them as a kid, and fondly recall whiling away summer days with my nose in one of those rather musty-scented books, just soaking it all up. I suppose encyclopedias are rather outdated these days, what with Google at our fingertips, but I'd still like to own a set. The last time I saw the old family set, they were at my brother's house. Hopefully his kids find at least some "kitsch" value in them at this point.

I really like the looks of the room in Jim's original post. I too would imagine that these people have other mismatched books in the house, but this is a lovely way to display those sets. How else would you display sets? You wouldn't want to break them up.

can't imagine going up and down the ladder with an armful of hardcovers. LOL!

The ladder can lift out in an outward direction so it is really stable. It is just pushed in because it doesn't take up as much space in the room that way.