Rabbi Judah ibn Tibbon offered the following advice: “Make books your companions; let bookcases and shelves be your pleasure gardens and orchards.” He said this in 13th century Provence, but this adage has been taken to heart for ages. Jews love books.
The new blog BookshelfPorn shares our obsession. The site hosts hundreds of photos of lavish, unusual, and gravity-defying bookshelves, updated most days and with breathtaking variety. Some are creative–a staircase reconfigured into bookshelves, or a sculpture constructed entirely from books. Others are in homely-looking apartments or used bookshops. Some, like the Havana Library of Capitol, are just plain gorgeous.
As for us, we’d want to hang out in any of these places. Books are a treasure; finding a beautiful, comfortable place to read and display them is the equivalent of stumbling upon a treasure chest. Once again, ibn Tibbon said it perfectly: “Then your desire will renew itself, and your soul will be satisfied with delight.”
