Totemic Object or Dusty, Dog-Eared Companion?

Keeping your books in a pile on the floor might be a cheaper way to organize your trove of literary treasures, but it just doesn't show them the respect they deserve. In an era where the physical book seems to be under siege by its digital analogues, books are often deemed tired, old and ever so tangible. In a bits and bytes world, who needs a separate book for each story?

Bibliophiles do! And as digital readers become ever more popular, it seems that the act of owning and displaying books has become an activity that seems almost holy, historical and reverent: like the Renaissance duke who exhibited his worldly and exotic treasures in his Cabinet of Wonders, books seem to take on an increasingly totemic significance. And the design of the furniture meant to hold these reliquaries of story has been getting wilder.

To the designers of these displays and those who buy them, books are no longer another regular feature of the home; their placement has become far more fetishized. Some of these designs conceal their burdens, disguising books as something more or less. Others incorporate a place for the bibliophile to sit or recline, in effect providing a place of practical worship. Some carve out a huge, central niche for themselves, announcing the tantamount important of the dead-tree written word. Others safeguard the books as if being out in the open were too blatant, too dangerous.

 To wit: