How to buy books (by the foot)

A couple of weeks ago my boyfriend and I went to a housewarming party at an amazing apartment. Rooftop views of London, lots of natural light, double doors leading into an enormous living room, this place had it all. However, what immediately grabbed the eye was the main bookcase where the books were lined up by colour. "Hullo", said the boyfriend, snatching a book from the centre of the shelf and beadily eyeing the spine, "I don't think that these books have actually been read!". The colour-graduating (or rainbow) bookcase has become something of a design blog classic and is clearly big business, as evidenced by the existence of Wonder Book, which I spotted on the wonderful Chez Larsson. This company sells books by the foot. Honestly. You don't find out which actual books you're buying, you just specify the colour you want and the length of your shelves and voila, rainbow bookcase by courier. While it certainly looks impressive, I think there's something quite sad about people having lots of books that they'll never read, however impressive they might look.


Rainbow bookcase found via Apartment Therapy.