There is a great deal of doom and gloom these days over the fact that fewer people seem to be reading than has been the case in recent history, but an article in The New York Times indicates that books are nevertheless still in high-demand … as decorative accessories.

Thatcher Wine, a former Internet entrepreneur who operates out of a warehouse in Boulder, Colorado, has amassed a thriving business securing tailored-to-order book collections for clients looking to fill the shelves in their condos, homes, or businesses with items that denote prestige and erudition. Charging anywhere from $80 (U.S.) to $750 (U.S.) a foot, Wine will outfit a room with books by specific authors, in specific subject areas, and wrapped in specific covers. And he is not alone. The Strand bookstore in New York City has a by-the-foot business that now accounts for five per cent of the store’s total sales, according to the Times article.

For people who already possess libraries of their own, designers are also retrofitting them to make them more attractive. The Times quotes designer Peter Pennoyer:

A book is a meaningful, sensory experience, he pointed out. If we buy [our client] all new Trollope, then she’s suddenly looking at a volume that’s foreign, that doesn’t smell right or have the typeface that’s familiar. If she doesn’t have the memory of having read the book, it’s not going to mean the same thing. My thought is to elevate all these mismatched bindings and put them in these containers, so it all looks uniform and pretty, but the client can keep the books she’s loved for decades.

And what is the rationale for all this collecting and curating? According to the Times, it’s exactly the kind of object fetishization that was predicted with the advent of digital reading:

Ann Mack, director of trend-spotting for JWT New York, the marketing and advertising agency, noted in her trend report for the coming year that objectifying objects, she said, would be a trend to watch.

Quoting from her report, she added: Here’s what we said: ˜The more that objects become replaced by digital virtual counterparts “ from records and books to photo albums and even cash “ watch for people to fetishize the physical object. Books are being turned into decorative accessories, for example, and records into art.’ 