Sunset Magazine has published a series of do-it-yourself books. I had (and de-acquisitioned) vintage books on making mosaics and building outdoor furniture. The one book I kept was the one above on building bookshelves; its contents are useful, but mostly unstylish, even for 1974, when it was published.
So when I found the Sunset booth at BEA, I was excited. They’ve updated many of the DIY books, and Book Expo would be a great place to promote one on building bookshelves. The place was filled with book lovers, many of whom were lugging around bags stuffed with dozens of advance copies of books — copies that have to go somewhere when they get home.
The booth’s staff was puzzled. What book was I asking about? No, they weren’t familiar with a bookshelf book. Would I like to see a bathroom book? It’s a brand new, very beautiful bathroom book, they told me. No, I replied, bathrooms are not great places to store books.
(That’s why we call them bathrooms. Not libraries).
Finally they came up with an upcoming book about built-ins. They showed me a one-inch high picture of its cover; it seemed to be geared for built-ins to hold TVs and media (but books could go on those shelves, too, they shrugged).
How sad that nobody at Sunset — a publishing company whose products are books — has thought to create a lovely new bookshelf book. I’d buy it.
