HOUSE AND GARDEN 
February, 
1910 
This combination of fireplace, seat, window and bookshelves, designed 
by Lawrence Buck, architect, is very near the ideal 
of books, but does it proclaim the true book-lover any more 
insistently? Which of the two impressions would you prefer to 
have your own library or fire-corner convey? Let us admit, then, 
that the actual quantity of books is a negligible factor in the 
success of our efforts to make those we have appear to best 
advantage. 
With that question out of the way there are several other 
factors that will have more weight in determining the strength 
of the impression our library will convey to its visitors — accessi¬ 
bility of the books, shelf-room that is too small for the volumes 
in hand rather than too large, and the matter of protection. 
As to the first factor of these three, have your books within easy 
reach. Nothing is more conducive to making the most of odd 
moments for reading than immediate accessibility. 1 would 
almost rather have some of my books in the attic than stacked 
away on shelves up just under the ceiling. Imagine, if you can, 
getting down a book from one of the two shelves over the door¬ 
way in the library illustrated at the bottom of this page. You 
wouldn’t get it down, you would select another book nearer at 
hand. Do not run the shelves all the way up; have longer cases 
and make them lower. A top wide shelf about five feet above 
the floor is wonderfully useful. 
Not nearly so inconvenient but at least somewhat unhandy 
is the common practice of having bookshelves extend down to 
an inch above the floor. There is a very easy way around this: 
have the lower foot or two filled by cupboards or drawers. You 
undoubtedly have a lot of drawings, photographs, maps and such 
unwieldy things that need a known resting place. Lockers with 
doors hinged at the bottom and held fast when partly open by 
chains make wonderfully convenient receptacles for such things. 
Then there is the choice between open shelves and glazed doors 
to be considered in this matter of accessibility. Open shelves 
have two advantages: they are cheap and they extend a more 
cordial invitation to come and look over their varied burden. 
On the other hand, they compel frequent dusting. Glazed doors 
are just the reverse — they seem to shut one out from their contents 
even though they do take better care of these. It seerhs to me 
that there should be both kinds of cases in the library—open 
shelves for the good old thumb-marked favorites, glass ddcirs for 
the better dressed though perhaps less loved volumes. 
Then we come to the matter of the amount of shelf-room as 
compared withj'the number of volumes. Few things are more 
The shelves are set back into the wall here, and there are no shelves set 
uncomfortably near the floor 
Putting bookshelves up over'doorways may be wall decoration, but it is 
surely not library convenience 
