Keith Richards, Librarian?
From firstmausi, comes a link to a article showing off the home libraries of twenty celebrities, including Mr. Richards who would make, pun intended, a rocking librarian.
Click here to be amazed and envious.
All of these spaces are gorgeous, but I prefer the ones where it looks like their owners use them for reading as well as photo ops.
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Perks to Being a Children’s Librarian
It takes a special person to be a Youth Services librarian, someone with infinite patience, kindness, shoestring-budget creativity, puppets, and a certain resistance to stress- based anuerysms.
Which is why, and I’m speaking from experience, I’m not one of them.
But you do get to do amazingly cool programs:
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A Librarian’s Rainbow-Colored Nightmare
I’ll admit that when a patron asks me for “that one green book,” I can occasionally figure out which one is meant without any other information—seven out of ten, it’s the Township Atlas—and when I can’t leave the desk, I’ve directed people to the shelf “under that set of blue books right there.”
But seriously? Color is not a good basis for classifying books, even in a small, personal, single-subject library.
Case in point:
My FIL, who was a professor of mathematics, had huge textbook-stuffed bookcases lining his university office. The books and papers were organized by subject and class and a personal system of organized disorganization that had worked for him for years. He could reach out and snag whatever book he needed, almost without looking.
Once during a family gathering, I overheard him telling my Dad about the time he came back from a week-long conference to find that one of his grad students—an English major, it should be noted—had rearranged all his books by color and size.
According to my FIL, he sat down in his chair for a moment and when he had recovered his powers of speech, he looked at the young man and said, “All right. Very funny. Now put them all back where they were.”
He said the look on the kid’s face was almost worth it . . . but not quite.
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How to Pass a Tax Levy
Do the ends justify the means? Hell, yeah.
(Thanks, Mike!)
Earful of Cider 
Nigella Lawson’s library was the only one I found inviting. I’ve never read anything of hers but that picture makes me want to run right out and get a book of hers. I love how she keeps a vase of tulips on the floor. No one ever does that but it looks fabulous.
I do like her library! It’s the only one resembling my writing space. And if she’s anything like me—and I can’t imagine she is—those flowers are on the floor because she’ll knock them over, otherwise.
I’ve read EVERYTHING of Nigella’s, and I loved getting this peek into her library. It’s exactly what I would have imagined: a library of books which are read. The libraries with matched volumes make me deeply suspicious.
Like they’ve ordered shelf-fillers though Books-by-the-Yard? 🙂
I love those home library pictures! GAH! Isn’t it funny how just by looking at them you can tell who are readers and who are doing it as a statement? I wonder if Oprah has another library, a real one, with books that don’t match and aren’t part of a set. The one that surprised me the most was Keith Richards. You could tell that he is a man who love books and who has actually read them. That library was filled with love.
I’d like to think that Oprah’s office is more like Ms. Lawson’s—that must be where she keeps all her book club books . . .
I wouldn’t have pegged Mr. Richards as a book lover—guess you can’t judge a reader by his stage persona!
Nigella Lawson’s was the best. Just like our own. The cat knocked over the flowers. He is lurking in there some where .
Absolutely!
Flowers? Did the hurricane lamp incident teach us nothing? 😀
The stuffed animal sleepover was AWESOME. I can’t imagine how much fun they had doing that!
Imagine the possibilities!
I aspire to have a library like William Randolph Hearst, or Jimmy Stewart, but my reality is more Nigella or Keith Richards. Diane Keaton’s room is ok, but she needs some comfy places to sit and read.
I can’t imagine actually trying to use a library that was arranged in “rainbow”, and one should NEVER try to organize someone else’s space without their consent and input.
That library campaign was inspired. If there were more like it, perhaps more people might engage in the political process.
Nineteen years of marriage has taught my husband to think before he moves my stuff—which is part of why we’re still married.
And while I don’t like that people have to be manipulated into taking part in their right to govern themselves, I’m not adverse to giving them wake up calls!
I just saw the white rabbit on Mr Steward’s couch – can’t stop smiling. XD It was one of my favorite childhood films.
The campaign for the library was incredible. Just thinking of burning books makes me shudder – thank God, many people feel the same.
Thanks for supplying the link! 🙂
I think the only way I’d ever burn a book is to keep alive in severe cold . . .
Also, I have to admit that I sort by books by color. {covers head} This is not intended to be a design statement, though they do look pretty that way. It’s because color is what I remember best, more than title or author, and I’ve never organized my books in any way in all my life and could never be bothered to carefully replace a volume where it should go {covers head again}, so this is what passes for order in my house. And no one else reads them, so . . . so . . . {runs from room}
I love you anyway, Averil, no matter what crimes you commit.
No, seriously, my points are that organizing a public collection that way is a bad idea and never reorganize anyone else’s books. 🙂