A well-stocked bookcase has been the most romantic sign of intellect for centuries, yet little is known about its origins. The bookcase likely got its start thousands of years ago, but only came into high demand after the invention of movable type in 1040 and the printing press in 1440.
It’s clear now with devices like the Kindle and the iPad that the bookcase is going the way of the LP. It will be a slow death, with paper enthusiasts holding on for decades. While the LP lived for less than 50 years before it started to be dwarfed by newer technologies, the book and bookcase had an extraordinary life.
The bookcase served three main purposes to us humans: to show status, store knowledge and help people express themselves.
Now that it’s possible to order any book with a few clicks of a mouse for a bargain price, a private library of books doesn’t show much status in life. The knowledge contained in dozens of bookcases can fit on a Kindle, if it’s not already searchable on the internet for free.
Yet there’s no replacement yet for the expression one can make with a bookcase. Showing off what books you read tells the world your interests, politics, philosophy and even religion. It’s acceptable for any houseguest to peruse your bookcase and even yank out a few books, while snooping around your Kindle or iPad at length would be intrusive.
To combat the risk of being too sentimental as we humans often do at sad times like these, it’s worth remembering that the bookcase as a form of self expression has always been paradoxical. Too many people left books they hadn’t read or didn’t like on their bookcase. If a book was really good, you’d have sequestered it to your bedside or insisted that a friend take it to read rather than greedily stockpiling it on your shelf. The best books didn’t last long on a bookcase. But the bookcase’s flaws are besides the point, it’s the best we had and we will miss it.
While remembering what a good and long life the bookcase had, we can do it no higher honor than to invent its successor. Innovative purveyors of electronic books such as Amazon and Apple have not made it easy to promulgate the library of books we’ve read. If you want to get to know someone, you can view their last 20 tweets in an instant, but you might need to hack into their account to know their longterm reading habits. Moreover, borrowing an ebook out of its device is impossible.
We won’t find a replacement for the bookcase at Ikea, but I think that the bookcase would have appreciated this irony. We’ll need to use our minds to devise a new way to showcase our intellect.
Photo credit: Writer’s Retreat by Gianni Botsford