Comprar livros a eito, aos 400 de uma vez, para decorar estantes

 

Uma casa sem livros é uma casa sem vida. Escusaria de dizer mas, ainda assim, digo: com isto, refiro-me, claro, a quem tem a sorte de ter casa e a quem tem a sorte de poder ter livros.

Quando estou numa casa, mesmo que involuntariamente, reparo nos livros, na quantidade e no género de livros. Uma pessoa que lê, transporta, em si, muitos mundos e os livros que escolhe falam alto sobre si.

Claro que se a pessoa mal tem dinheiro para pagar a casa, a roupa dos filhos e a comida para pôr na mesa, o mais natural é que não tenha disponibilidade para comprar muitos livros. Mas se a pessoa tem dinheiro para ricas casas, grandes carros, brutas férias e altas comezainas, se quase não tem livros em casa é porque, simplesmente, não gosta de ler. Nada contra, é o que é.

Agora o que nunca me tinha ocorrido é que a alguém passasse pela cabeça comprar de atacado 400 livros apenas para parecer bem numa sessão fotográfica. Mas passa. E ao ler sobre a insólita situação dico a saber que não é caso inédito. 

A quem tenha curiosidade, aconselho a ler:

Shelf-promotion: the art of furnishing rooms with books you haven’t read

Ashley Tisdale admitted she’d bought all her books for a photoshoot – and as Adele and Gwyneth Paltrow will attest, her hankering for a brainy backdrop is anything but novel

(...) “These bookshelves, I have to be honest, actually did not have books in [them] a couple of days ago,” Tisdale said. “I had my husband go to a bookstore, like, ‘You need to get 400 books.’” (Her husband’s alternative plan, of “collecting books over time, and putting them in the shelves”, Tisdale promptly dismissed.)

(...) According to MailOnline, Adele spent more than £1,000 in a spree at Daunt Books before the pandemic, “pulling books off the shelves without even looking at the spines or reading the blurbs”.

At least Adele bought them herself, points out Miles de Lange, an interior designer at Potterton Books, a specialist book supplier. He says interior designers are often charged with supplying books for clients. “They are props, just like you buy a little objet.”

(...) If you do have the budget to splash around on books you won’t read, there are dedicated bookshelf curators such as Thatcher Wine, whom Gwyneth Paltrow hired on finding herself some 600 books short after a home renovation.

Gwyneth Paltrow’s home library in L.A., curated by Thatcher Wine.

COURTESY JUNIPER BOOKS

Inside Ashley Tisdale's Self-Designed Family Home | Open Door | Architectural Digest

Today Architectural Digest is welcomed to Los Angeles by Ashley Tisdale for an inside look at the stunning new home she designed for her family. Tisdale and her composer husband Christopher French moved into their current home when she was around seven months pregnant, at which point the High School Musical alum dove headfirst into decorating. The talented Tisdale was well prepared for the undertaking, considering she launched her design passion project, Frenshe Interiors, last year. “I went with the mentality of falling in love with every piece,” she says. “I fully love this house. I love every piece of everything I’ve done here, and I’m really proud of myself.”

Mas a casa é bonita, lá isso é.