Come Inside Our Library
Full Tour, All the Sources, and What Makes a Room Feel Like Somewhere You Might Finally Read Proust
The library is nearly finished, which means I’m at that dangerous stage of declaring things done while simultaneously ordering just one more lamp.
I like the idea of giving you a tour before the final coat of paint goes on the new mantle, because houses are rarely at their most interesting when perfectly finished.
My fantasy involved reading chairs, lamp light, and nowhere to be. I wanted a room that felt as though an English novel and a New England whaling captain’s house had produced a bookish child. I wanted a room so comfortable, and stocked with such a varied collection of books, that someone could be shut in here for a week and emerge happy.
Welcome to my library, where I come to ignore everyone.
Yes, I hide from my family here. Yes, it provides emotional support. I read, I brood, I avoid practical duties and modern life. I think every house deserves a library—even a tiny one—in this era of attention collapse.
So come in.
The first thing you’ll notice is that we covered as much of this not-quite-15-by-15 room as possible with bookshelves. This sounds obvious, but one would be surprised how often rooms meant for books seem oddly reluctant to contain them.
The effect is cocooning.
