In order to answer the title question, we need to resolve two important issues:
- Where and how do we physically store our books?
- How (or do) we organize our books?
For centuries before the book took form as a codex, it was rolled up and stored as a scroll. In fact, up until the very recent past the scroll still was the form in which books most often were encountered throughout Asia. As you might imagine, scrolls usually are stored quite differently from the way in which we in the West store our codices.
Although we now prefer our books on sturdy shelves, standing upright, with the spines facing us so we can see the titles printed thereon, 'twas not always so. You will remember from our last post that the codex in Western Europe, prior to the invention of moveable metal type, was produced by hand, a laborious process of several years duration. Because this process was so expensive, the books produced were so valuable that they often were stored in locked chests, in locked cupboards or chained to desks or shelves.
After the introduction of printing from moveable metal type, books finally could be produced in sufficient quantities to
- insure an increasingly literate population
- that eventually would desire books for home consumption
- that eventually would need inexpensive ways to store such books
No one knows who first thought of using empty milk crates and cast-off wooden planks to engineer inexpensive bookshelves, but there have been myriad variations on the theme, such as cinder blocks and planks or repetitively stacked milk crates and similar empty containers. For an engaging look at some simple book storage solutions, as well as some very creative gadgetry for your home library, we suggest a visit to Kimbooktu, a fellow bookish blog that should be on the blogroll of anyone creating a private library. And to see the results of some of the suggestions therein, be sure to visit Kimbooktu's sister blog, Your Shelves!....
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