Rare Book Monthly

Articles - January - 2025 Issue

Trending Now - Books

The reports of books' death have been greatly exaggerated. This is no doubt a difficult time for many booksellers, particularly smaller ones and those in the business of selling high-priced classics. Very old books in Latin which almost no one can understand don't have as much appeal to younger generations. What that does not mean is that books have no such appeal. The reality is very different, the trend being the opposite.

 

Architectural Digest published an article online on December 13 last entitled Book Clubs, Book Bars, and BookTok: Examining Why Everyone Suddenly Wants to Be Perceived As Well-Read, by Sydney Gore. The subhead is From the sexy librarian aesthetic to bookshelf wealth, immersing in the literary world has never been more on trend. What is leading an exclusive publication such as Architectural Digest to make such a claim?

 

Ms. Gore explains that despite underfunded libraries and book bans, “reading remains a beloved pastime for so many Americans during these unprecedented times.” She cites several examples. There is the Booktok phenomenon on then hugely popular (and maybe soon to be banned) Tik Tok website and its Booktok subset. It quite literally has millions of visitors who go there to hear other readers describe books they have read. Its audience is primarily younger, mostly women, and avid readers. They may not be reading “great books,” it's more light romance novels, but they are reading books, as opposed to glued in front of a TV set like many older people.

 

Then there is the “bookshelf wealth” phenomenon. This involves stylishly arranging bookshelves to be aesthetically appealing. The shelves aren't limited to displaying books, but books are an essential ingredient. While aesthetics are important to bookshelf wealth, it is not supposed to be all about pretty looking covers but also about books the owner has read or at least have some particular meaning to that person. They should say something personal about the owner. It is somewhat reminiscent of the trend for important people being interviewed at home for TV appearing in front of a bookshelf. The books are meant to illustrate the intelligence and seriousness of purpose of the speaker.

 

The author also cites the rise of book clubs. She is speaking particularly of New York, where some of these clubs also list celebrities as members. Of course, book clubs are nothing new, but these are in-person events that are bringing young people together rather than just older, retired book collectors. Then there are online book clubs too that also draw in notable people. The author asks rhetorically, “If you’re not an active member of a book club are you even relevant?” Online book club Library Science features cover images of numerous popular recent books, but among the covers is Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray. The great writers of an earlier generation are not totally irrelevant after all.

 

Other trends include the appearance of book bars, sort of gathering places for bibliophiles to talk while enjoying something stronger than coffee, with snacks or even a meal. Gore asks another rhetorical question, “What could be better than getting buzzed on books and booze? Now that’s what I call paradise.”

 

What is particularly reassuring about the current trend is the rejection of those that only appreciate the exterior aesthetics of the book, with no regard for its substance. It has no use for fake books, those with pretty covers but literally nothing inside, no pages. Color coding, shelves with red books or blue books is rejected. Books by the foot wouldn't make the cut. Jordan Santos of Seen Library opines, “It [the trend] makes me happy to think that people can be influenced to buy more books instead of more things they don’t need.” Ryan McCarthy, founder of Spencer's (a spa that displays books), says “If a perception of being well-read is what it takes to get good books back into the hands of the people, then so be it. Engaging in good literature is engaging in good literature… I think the net-net is all positive.”

 

Here is something that jumps out at me from reading this story. It is the absence of even a mention of electronic books. E-books became the rage a decade or so ago and are very popular for their convenience and accessibility, but claims that they would completely replace physical books were unfounded. It turns out people still want physical books. Everything in this article is centered on things that involve physical books. A little while back, Vermont State University's President announced that all physical books would be removed from their libraries, everything becoming digital. The uproar from students and faculty was so great that the plan had to be scrapped and the President resigned. This is a message for libraries that keep paring their physical book collection to support their electronic editions. E-books are fine as a supplement to physical books, but not as a replacement.

 

There is also a message for those in the collectible book trade. The people described in this article may not think of themselves as book collectors, but many effectively are and others are becoming such. People usually collect things that are a part of their lives, and as long as physical books play a part in our lives, they will be collected. It may require an updating of inventory, but that is part of the process all merchants face. Book collecting is not dying, it's just evolving. Booksellers need to evolve too.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: The Shem Tov Bible, 1312 | A Masterpiece from the Golden Age of Spain. Sold: 6,960,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Ten Commandments Tablet, 300-800 CE | One of humanity's earliest and most enduring moral codes. Sold: 5,040,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: William Blake | Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Sold: 4,320,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: The Declaration of Independence | The Holt printing, the only copy in private hands. Sold: 3,360,000 USD
    Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: Thomas Taylor | The original cover art for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Sold: 1,920,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Machiavelli | Il Principe, a previously unrecorded copy of the book where modern political thought began. Sold: 576,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Leonardo da Vinci | Trattato della pittura, ca. 1639, a very fine pre-publication manuscript. Sold: 381,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Henri Matisse | Jazz, Paris 1947, the complete portfolio. Sold: 312,000 EUR
  • Bonhams, Apr. 8: First report outside of the colonies of the American Revolution, from American accounts. Printed broadsheet, The London Evening-Post, May 30, 1775. $20,000 - $30,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 8: Joyce, James. The earliest typescript pages from Finnegans Wake ever to appear at auction, annotated by Joyce, 1923. $30,000 - $50,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 8: Joyce's Ulysses, 1923, one of only seven copies known, printed to replace copies destroyed in customs. $10,000 - $15,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 8: ATHANASIUS KIRCHER'S COPY, INSCRIBED. Saggi di naturali esperienze fatte nell' Accademia del Cimento, 1667. $2,000 - $3,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 8: Bernoulli's Ars conjectandi, 1713. "... first significant book on probability theory." $15,000 - $25,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 8: Aristotle's Politica. Oeconomica. 1469. The first printed work on political economy. $80,000 - $120,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 8: John Graunt's Natural and political observations...., 1662. The first printed work of epidemiology and demographics. $20,000 - $30,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 8: William Playfair's Commercial and Political Atlas, 1786. The first work to pictorially represent information in graphics. $15,000 - $25,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 8: Anson's A Voyage Round the World, 1748. THE J.R. ABBEY-LORD WARDINGTON COPY, BOUND BY JOHN BRINDLEY. $8,000 - $12,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 8: La Perouse's Voyage de La Perouse autour du monde..., 1797. LARGE FINE COPY IN ORIGINAL BOARDS. $8,000 - $12,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 8: Francesca Woodman's Some Disordered Interior Geometries, 1981. Untrimmed publisher's proof sheets. $4,000 - $6,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 8: Charles Schulz original 8-panel Peanuts Sunday comic strip, 1992, pen and ink over pencil, featuring Charlie Brown, Snoopy and Lucy as a psychiatrist. $20,000 - $30,000
  • Dominic Winter Auctioneers

    April 9
    Printed Books, English Bibles, Maps & Decorative Prints
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Johnson (C.). A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most Notorious Pyrates, 1724. £3,000-4,000
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Ordonez de Cevallos (Pedro). Viage del Mundo, 1st edition, Madrid: Luis Sanchez, 1614. £1,000-1,500
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: North America. Merian (Matthaus), Virginia..., 1627 or later. £1,500-2,500
    Dominic Winter Auctioneers

    April 9
    Printed Books, English Bibles, Maps & Decorative Prints
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: World. Waldseemuller (Martin), Tabula Nova Totius Orbis, Vienne: 1541. £2,000-3,000
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Erasmus (Desiderius). The ... paraphrase of Erasmus... 2 volumes, 1st edition, 1549. £3,000-5,000
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Bible [English]. [The Bible and Holy Scriptures conteyned in the Olde and Newe Testament, 1562]. £3,000-5,000
    Dominic Winter Auctioneers

    April 9
    Printed Books, English Bibles, Maps & Decorative Prints
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Smith (Lucy). Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith the Prophet, 1st edition, 1853. £1,000-1,500
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Derain (Andre). Pantagruel, signed limited edition, Albert Skira, 1943. £2,000-3,000
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Austen (Jane). Pride and Prejudice, illustrated by Hugh Thomson, Large Paper edition, 1894. £1,500-2,000
    Dominic Winter Auctioneers

    April 9
    Printed Books, English Bibles, Maps & Decorative Prints
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Ellison (Ralph). Invisible Man, 1st edition, New York: Random House, 1952. £200-300
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Taschen Collector's Edition. Annie Leibovitz, limited edition, 2014. £1,000-1,500
  • Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 1: Bob Dylan, his high school classmate's yearbook with his senior portrait, signed and inscribed to her, 1959. $10,000 to $20,000.
    Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 4: Various entertainers, Group of 30 items, signed or inscribed, various dates. $1,500 to $2,500.
    Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 27: John Adams, Autograph Letter Signed to Benjamin Rush introducing Archibald Redford, Paris, 1783. $35,000 to $50,000.
    Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 36: Robert Gould Shaw, Autograph Letter Signed to his father from Camp Andrew, Boston, 1861. $10,000 to $15,000.
    Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 53: Martin Luther King Jr., Time magazine cover, signed and inscribed "Best Wishes," 1957. $5,000 to $7,500.
    Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 127: Paul Gauguin, Autograph Letter regarding payment for paintings, with woodcut letterhead, 1900. $6,000 to $9,000.
    Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 169: Suck: First European Sex Paper, complete group of eight issues, 1969-1974. $800 to $1,200.
    Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 173: Black Panthers, The Racist Dog Policemen Must Withdraw Immediately From Our Communities, poster, 1969. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 187: Marc Attali & Jacques Delfau, Les Erotiques du Regard, first edition, Paris, 1968. $300 to $500.
    Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 213: Andy Warhol, Warhol's Index Book, first printing, New York, 1967. $800 to $1,200.
    Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 215: Cookie Mueller, Archive of 17 items, including 4 items inscribed and signed. $3,000 to $4,000.
    Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 249: Jamie Reid, The Ten Lessons / The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle; Sex Pistols, chromogenic print with collage, signed, circa 1980. $20,000 to $30,000.

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