Bibliostyle: How We Live at Home with Books

by Nina Freudenberger, Sadie Stein, Shade Degges (Photographer)

Overview

A visual delight and an inspiration for every bibliophile with a growing home library, this dream-and-drool design book features some of the most jaw-dropping book collections of homeowners around the world.

NAMED ONE OF JO’S FALL FAVORITES IN MAGNOLIA JOURNAL

Interior designer Nina Freudenberger, New Yorker writer Sadie Stein, and Architectural Digest photographer Shade Degges give readers a peek at the private libraries and bookshelves of passionate readers all over the world, including Larry McMurtry, Silvia Whitman of Shakespeare and Co., Gay and Nan Talese, and Emma Straub. Throughout, gorgeous photographs of rooms with rare collections, floor-to-ceiling shelves, and stacks upon stacks of books inspire readers to live better with their own collections.

Praise for Bibliostyle

“Featuring enviable private libraries and packed floor-to-ceiling shelves, this beautiful volume makes a compelling case for books as décor.”—New York
 
“Freudenberger spotlights the splendid, enviable personal libraries of literary figures whose owners obviously care about their book collections and have actually read them, too.”—The Boston Globe

“This is a coffee table book that makes you think as well as admire and desire.”—Sydney Herald
 
“Offers a look into the fabulous homes of book lovers the world over, showcasing how their interior design is built around the tomes they love most.”—CN

“The photographs of rooms with rare collections, floor-to-ceiling shelves, and stacks upon stacks of books will inspire readers to live better with their own collections.”—Publishers Weekly
 
“Nina Freudenberger teams with Sadie Stein of The New Yorker and photographer Shade Degges of Architectural Digest to showcase beautiful photographs of the private libraries of book lovers from all over the world.”—BookRiot

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780525575443
Publisher:	Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed
Publication date:	10/22/2019
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	280,097
Product dimensions:	8.10(w) x 11.00(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Interior designer and founder of Haus Interior, Nina Freudenberger is the author of the bestselling design  book  Surf Shack:  Laid-Back Living by the Water, which was featured in Architectural Digest, Vanity Fair, O: The Oprah Magazine, Vogue, and Martha Stewart Living. She lives with her husband and two young boys in Los Angeles, California.

Read an Excerpt

INTRODUCTION

I have always been most interested in the question of what makes a house a home. What are the elements that move a house beyond its physical structure and provide the warmth that we all crave? In my fifteen years as a designer, I’ve come to understand that the answer is simple: It is about surrounding ourselves with things we love.

While exploring homes around the world for my first book, Surf Shack, I came to the conclusion that if you start with your passions, beauty will follow. And in this case, the beauty comes from the owners’ love of books.

Books are beautiful objects in their own right—their bindings and covers—and the space they fill on shelves or stacked on coffee tables in colorful piles add balance and texture to any room. And just like any other part of a home, books require maintenance: They need to be dusted, categorized, rearranged, and maintained. Our relationship with them is dynamic and ever changing.

But our connection to them goes beyond the material. In each house we visited, the libraries were the heart of the home, meaningful to the collectors’ lives. In this book, we tried to capture what they brought to the home—the life and spirit books added. Some subjects have working libraries they constantly reference; others fill their shelves with the potential pleasures of the unread. When we visited the homes, many people could find favorite books almost by osmosis, using systems known only to themselves.

In choosing our subjects, we were not merely interested in the beautiful and perfectly curated rooms, the most extensive collections, or those shelves filled only with rare first editions—although there’s plenty of beauty on display. This book is not about unattainable libraries, any more than it is about perfectly decorated homes. Rather, it’s about the power of books to tell stories, in both the literal and figurative sense. As we found repeatedly, surrounding yourself with books you love tells the story of your life, your interests, your passions, your values. Your past and your future. Books allow us to escape, and our personal libraries allow us to invent the story of ourselves—and the legacy that we will leave behind.

There’s a famous quote attributed to Cicero: “A room without books is like a body without a soul.” If I suspected this before, I know it now. I hope you’ll find as much pleasure in discovering these worlds as we did.

Editorial Reviews

A look at some of the best book-filled interiors around the world . . . we couldn’t help taking a little personal inspiration from the tome ourselves.” —Architectural Digest

“Any book that combines our love for home decor with our love for books is a surefire winner. Bibliostyle shows off the real at-home libraries of home owners around the world, including writer Emma Straub and novelist Larry McMurtry.”—Real Simple

“Nina’s latest foray into the investigation of gorgeous interiors proves both beautiful and full of substance. As a designer, researcher, and writer, there is nothing I love more than a juicy library. This book took me into passionately personal places, spaces, and collections and made me not only want to decorate but also grab a great book. In this digital age, the analog library is not only truly beautiful but has enduring importance.”—Christiane Lemieux, founder and CEO of The Inside and author of The Finer Things and Undecorate 
 
“In this Instagram age there are few books that are visually juicy and engaging to get me off the couch, but Bibliostyle succeeds in a surprising and super fresh way. Here is a book that focuses on books and libraries, but communicates something so intimate and ineffable about the home that you can’t stop turning the pages. This is the most perfect coffee-table book for this new age.”—Maxwell Ryan, CEO and founder of Apartment Therapy Media and author of Apartment Therapy
 
“Nina Freudenberger’s first book Surf Shack was and is one of my all-time favorite design books, so I couldn’t be more thrilled with her new book Bibliostyle. As an ardent lover of books, and certainly collecting them, I found countless inspiration in the pages of Bibliostyle on beautiful built-in bookcases and designing and displaying book collections as art and decor accents. Bravo on another inspiring book!”—Victoria Smith, founder and publisher of SFGirlByBay
 
“Nina’s new book reminds me of the joy books have brought me throughout my life. The visual display of knowledge a library brings—and how much I have to learn and can learn—inspires me. This book celebrates that love and the tangible romance of books. Get ready to fall in love all over again.”—Rebecca Atwood, textile and wallpaper designer, author of Living with Pattern and Living with Color
 
“Nina has done it once it again—and in a real genius way at that. From a design perspective, books are a nonnegotiable styling element that I’ll incorporate into any space by layering and stacking to mix colors and textures, and Bibliostyle perfectly captures the rich meaning of why books are integral in our homes and to our world.” —Amber Lewis, founder and principal designer of Amber Interiors design studio

From the Publisher