Books by the Foot

Is your country estate lacking a certain something? Do your friends think you're an intellectual lightweight? The good folks at bookdecor.com can help you out. They're selling antique leatherbound books--most of them written in Danish, but also in French and German--by the foot and by the yard.

I'm oddly in tune with Book Decor's sales pitch. "If you want a book that you can read, enjoy and then toss aside," they say, "then head to your nearest bookstore." Amen. "If, on the other hand, you are in the market for beautiful antique volumes whose appearance is more important than the actual text, then you've come to the right place."

But isn't this just shallow pretension? No. "Home libraries are often more about decorative splendor than they are functionality." Silly me, I read my books.

Ah but the best joke of all on the site has to be the prices. Old-world charm doesn't come cheap.--David E