Blog Post: The Joys of a Book Table

[From Our Blog]

New blog post by AgentPete

The Joys of a Book Table

About a year ago I was visiting at a friend’s house and noticed they had a book table.

It’s literally what it says – a table of any size you happen to have, on which you throw a random assortment of ancient dog-eared friends, shiny new acquisitions, and in our case, books unpacked from deep storage that we haven’t seen for decades – in itself quite a pleasure.

This is not for the TikTok folk, there’s little to no prestige in it. It’s mostly just for you.

And what a thrill it is… There they are, in all their dusky allure, inviting you to pick up, flip through, and move on when you feel like it.

It’s analog-style browsing, and it feels so frickin’ good for your mind!

Do you have a book table? And what’s on it today, pray?

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[AgentPete]

And… I don’t quite know how to describe this… but I’ve found a particular kind of joy in seeing the oldies, cover-facing not the usual spine-out, alongside the more recent ones. The random juxtaposition is pleasing in an unexpected way. Is it context, some kind of meta-theme, perhaps? The book of stories are themselves part of a bigger plot…

 

[BrianY]

I had thought of doing this with a selection of books that people give away for free on the street. My wife shot the idea down by the time I'd reached book number four. I still pick up books on the street though.

 

[Rich.]

a book table

They do this at my kids' school to get the little ones into reading -- covers are far more interesting than spines. And it works, too.

 

[Rich.]

I still pick up books on the street though.

Excellent.

 

[Sedayne]

We have a book table in the waiting room at work. Patients can borrow or swap or make a donation for books.
It is more visually appealing than scanning spines on a shelf.
It's a marketing tactic in bookshops too of course - the tables as you walk through the door catch the eye. But it's far more interesting with a mix of older titles.

 

[Bloo]

Thanks for the pics. I browsed the books and found only one I've read - Frankenstein. You've given me an idea for a coffeetable I want to build someday.

The A-frames look like Ikea, BTW. Maybe the glass, too ?

The park outside looks peaceful.

 

[Pamela Jo]

In my grandparents day it was called a library table. I still have the one that was beside my grandparents bed when I was growing up. Going back before the ultra rich philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie founded public libraries in the US a table like that with your assortment of books was a status symbol.

It reminded me to check my sauerkraut. And I remember when it seemed every other woman in NYC was reading, The Red Tent. QUITE an eye opener. And it gave me such a pang to see Thurber. That cartoon opened a slew of memories.

Finally I had to do a search and now have another book on my wish list.

The Flavor Thesaurus: A Compendium of Pairings, Recipes, and Ideas for the Creative Cook​

Unique, beautifully written and ceaselessly imaginative, The Flavor Thesaurus is a completely new kind of food book-inspired, as author Niki Segnit explains, by her over-reliance on recipes. "Following the instructions in a recipe is like parroting pre-formed sentences from a phrasebook. Forming an understanding of how flavors work together, on the other hand, is like learning the language: it allows you to express yourself freely, to improvise, to cook a dish the way you want to cook it."

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Now got to investigate the Psoas muscle...