Ex Novo bookcase

The EX-NOVO project was developed in collaboration with Akrat Recycling, a social cooperative whose primary task is to create a working reality linked to re-use. The Novo bookcase, made up of trapezoidal modules, which work on the single inclination of one side, is an answer to the reason why most of the furniture is thrown away, the lack of adaptability and flexibility with respect to the spaces. Each module has different sizes, but the same proportions and the same inclination of the longer side. This derives from the use of furniture surfaces of different sizes and materials from which more or less modules can be made, creating a sort of patchwork of different woods and colors, an aesthetic trait that makes this object always unique, which changes according to of the different combinations.
Jacopo Coen

Book Boards

Groups of vertically stored cutting or serving boards crafted from reclaimed woods. The board’s proportions are informed by the many standard book and paper formats giving them an archetypal and satisfying weight and feel. A small group forms an interesting and useful feature in the kitchen, individuals comfortably add to your collection of other boards or they can even join your cook books on their shelf.
Sebastian Bergne

The Real McCoy

Today is almost the halfway point of Claire Cock-Starkey's blog tour for her latest book, the excellent The Real McCoy which will certainly appeal to readers of Bookshelf - it's 150 of the most interesting eponyms in English (those words named after individuals). As Claire says: "The Real McCoy is the perfect addition to any wordsmith’s bookshelf." You can read more about Claire and her books (the others are also all well worth a read) at www.nonfictioness.com and on the Twitter where she is @nonfictioness.

Urban bookshelf

Iliada Ndoci

Pumpkin library bookshelves

The pumpkin, carved by local children and decorated by library staff, features several Lego people sitting in the comfort of their own mini-library under a tangled string of lights. For Halloween, the Lego people will even be adorned in costumes.
Boston Globe and Truro Library

The Writers Game

I've been working on this concept on and off for the last three years (readers with good memories will remember that I tried to crowdfund it with Unbound) and now The Writers Game is 'published' today by Laurence King. It's essentially literary top trumps, good wholesome fun for all the family in a rather snazzy box. Here's what LK say about it:

Who had the most commercial success in their lifetime, Ernest Hemingway or Agatha Christie? Whose work has the most adaptations, F. Scott Fitzgerald or Franz Kafka? Who courted the most scandal, Colette or James Joyce? Pit 32 of the world’s greatest modern writers against each other with these beautifully illustrated cards. An ideal gift for the book lover in your life.

Oyster bookcase

Aylin Özdemir

Shelf Life

As some of you know, away from the world of bookshelves, I also write books (frequently on bookish subjects). The latest is out today, Shelf Life, published by The British Library. Here is some bumph about it:

Books; reading, collecting and the physical housing of them has brought the book-lover joy – and stress – for centuries. Fascinated writers have tried to capture the particular relationships we form with our library, and the desperate troubles we will undergo to preserve it. With Alex Johnson as your guide, immerse yourself in this eclectic anthology and hear from an iconic Prime Minister musing over the best way to store your books and an illustrious US President explaining the best works to read outdoors. Enjoy serious speculations on the psychological implications of reading from a 19th century philosopher, and less serious ones concerning the predicament of dispensing with unwanted volumes or the danger of letting children (the ‘enemies of books’) near your collection

Available from all good bookshops (please buy local if at all possible) as well as the usual suspects online.

Books on Prescription for World Mental Health Day

Books on Prescription helps you to understand and manage your health and wellbeing using self-help reading. The books are chosen by health experts and people living with the conditions covered. People can be recommended a title by a health professional, or they can visit their local library and take a book out for free. The scheme is available in 98% of English library authorities.
More at Reading Well here and here

ASCIUTTO bookcase

Wooden bookcase
Silvia Fabris

Sedbergh Book Shelter

Bibliophiles in the community, which claims to have the most books for sale per head of population anywhere in England, have created what is believed to be Cumbria’s first ‘Book Shelter’. The ‘novel’ facility makes use of a redundant bus shelter in the town’s Main Street where locals and visitors have access to four shelves of books. The Book Shelter can be used as a mini library where books can be borrowed and returned or as a book exchange.
The Westmoreland Gazette

 Incidentally, I shall be doing a book signing at the Sedbergh Book Festival this weekend.

Cloud shelf

The Cloud Shelf is Little Grey Cells' debut product. Created by Lauren for her own little boy, Tom, to complete a rainbow painted in his room. It has a classic rounded shape and is a motif evocative of those fuzzy childhood days we remember.
Little Grey Cells

Robin Ince's 1000 Book Purge

Book Shambles co-host Robin Ince is a well known bibliophile. The problem with this is it means his house is in danger of collapsing under the weight of books. So he set about trying to part with 1000 books he's never going to get round to reading. So one day, he and producer Trent tried to load 1000 books onto the back deck. It was painful.
Book Shambles

Bookshelf Kirk

MDF, welded steel construction, spatula, polyurethane lacquer protected with Anti-Scratch cover Height: 185 cm Length: 130 cm Depth: 40 cm
thisisminimal

How 'The Bookshop' was stocked

Tracking down a first-edition copy of Vladimir Nabokov’s 1955 classic “Lolita” isn’t too difficult. But for her latest film, “The Bookshop,” set in 1959, director Isabel Coixet needed 250 of them. "It took us about a year to get all those books,” the filmmaker tells The Post, adding that she and production designer Llorenç Miquel settled on a mixture of actual vintage tomes and convincing reproductions of the real thing. “It was really important for me to have details that really belonged to the moment of the film — from the food, to the landscapes, to, of course, the books."

More at the  New York Post

Minimal bookshelf

A minimal bookshelf with gaps at both ends. Slot a book in it and it acts as a bookend.
Chan Hwee Chong

Mosquito table bookshelf

Screw and glue - less furniture. The design came from the pursuit of stability and balance without the need of any physical or chemical unions.
Bruno Suraski

Expired library books photo series

Photographer Kerry Mansfield shows old, well-worn library books with titles ranging from Charlotte’s Web and Madeline in London to the Babar series... For photographer Kerry Mansfield, library books are full of stories and are part of a disappearing shared experience that deserves to be studied and chronicled. Her photo series Expired captures former library books, showcasing the unique traits they’ve gained during their time in circulation. Mansfield photographed over 180 books to create the 175 photographs in the series. (She plans to shoot 75 more.) Seventy-three of the images have been collected into a book, each copy with its own library check-out card and envelope in the front.
Architectural Digest

Library bus

Peter Callesen has recently been working on the decoration of a public library bus, which is a commission work for the Danish Art Council in collaboration with the Borough of Guldborgsund, at Falster in the southern part of Denmark. First Peter Callesen has photographed around 500 different books from the local library, He then asked the local residents of the area to come up with their own titles for books, which he afterwards exchanged with the old titles. This has resulted in around 500 different authors and made-up titles, which now embellish the exterior of the bus in a mosaic pattern of books in different bright colors. Some examples of the book titles:

Daniel Holst Kjeldesen : The Frog With No Hand
Laust Kjæp Dengsøe : Jelly Wars
Kine Torstensen : I Wish I Were A Professional Cinderella
Ramses II : My Life In A Coffin
Eric von Zoo : Singing with Animals
Tom Jerne: As Far As I Remember
Inger Malling: Don't Miss Out On Anything
Dirk Sværte: I always give up

Peter Callesen

Bookshelves in the IKEA Reading Rooms

As the boundaries between our work and home lives become more blurred, it’s become harder to switch off. Our homes aren’t the haven they once were. Yet reading for just six minutes a day can be enough to reduce stress levels by more than two-thirds. That’s why we’ve created a series of reading spaces dedicated to pure relaxation at IKEA Wembley. Curl up with the finest fiction from The Man Booker Prize 2018 longlist. Book a slot from Tuesday 31st July – Sunday 5th August and get some well-earned time out.
IKEA