Color has been on my mind lately, and that’s because I’ve been reading Alexander Therous’s The Primary Colors and The Secondary Colors. Each book is contains three essays, one on each color. Blue. Yellow. Red. Orange. Purple. Green. The color is explored in a stream of consciousness essay that roams farther and wider than you could ever have imagined—food, nature, prose and poetry, animals, society, sex, cultural symbols, seasons, history, smells, people, minerals, fortune, emotions, manufacturing, art. Theroux’s literary wanderings make fantastic reading, pulling the reader along in a melodious journey of interwoven thoughts.

Yellow is a color for all its dramatic unalterability, with a thousand meanings . . . It is the color of cowardice, third prize, the caution flag on auto speedways, adipose tissue, scones and honey, the nimbus of saints, school buses, urine, New Mexico license plates, illness, the cheeks of penguins, the sixth dog’s livery in greyhound racing, highway signs, Pennzoil, and the oddly lit hair before adulthood of all Australian aborigines.

As a color, yellow can accommodate size. It is the color of pyramids. Huge buildings. Ten-wheeler trucks. And heavy machinery. Earth-moving equipment. Cats. Bulldozers. Cars, as well . . . It is also delicate and light. Daffodils. A kernel of corn. The umbels and anthers of flowers. And although Emily Dickinson in several poems treated yellow flowers—owned that it was her domestic task to “make the yellow to the pies [presumably knead the dough] and bang the spice for cake,” and mentioned several times that it was her only brother Austin’s to walk about rakishly sporting “a yellow-brimmed planter’s hat—she also in a chromotological moment took notice to point out:

Nature rarer uses Yellow
Than any other Hue.
Saves she all of that for Sunsets
Prodigal of Blue.
Spending Scarlet, like a Woman
Yellow she affords
Only scanty and selectly
Like a Lover’s Words.

As you know if you have been reading this regularly, I have acquired a couple of customized bookcases. They are simple, made of pine painted white, and attached to the wall with long screws (I live in earthquake country). One is five feet wide, eight feet tall and thirteen inches in depth to accommodate some of my art and fine art photography books on the lower shelf. The other is about four feed wide, six feet in height and only seven inches in depth. It’s limited to books that are no longer than six inches wide. The books are in no particular order for the most part. I love the idea of having all my biographies or classical literature or American culture in one place, I would need more shelves to accomplish that. (They’re coming, but only as the budget allows.)

And I’m not sure having them in genre categories is the way I want to go. (As I am a primarily nonfiction reader sorting by author name is impractical.) I tend to read eclectically, as my moods dictate. And I like the idea of finding things I have forgotten I own when I search a shelf.

One of the things I have long since learned about myself is that I have an extreme sensitivity to color. I can identify the tiniest differences in shades and tones. I also strongly favor jewel tones. I cannot stand the muted colors found in most homes, the tans, beiges, off-whites, and browns. I’ve never believed that it is best to have an overall neutral look and save your favorite colors for small items such as decorative pillows. I like the colors I love to dominate. Thus, in my home you will find lipstick red carpeting and bright white paint.

Probably not surprisingly, I have been considering re-sorting my bookshelves according to color. This has been done to gorgeous effect, once even in a bookstore. (Though this would solve the problem bookstore employees complain about—customers who know only that the book they want has a blue cover—it would cause problems for anyone looking for a book by genre, author or subject matter. But its beauty is undeniable.)

San Francisco’s Adobe Bookshop became famous when they allowed artist Chris Cobb to rearrange their books by color. It stayed that way for only a week but what a week! Shortly thereafter, the ColourLovers blog had a post, Organizing Bookshelves by Color—and I was instantly hooked. “Bringing color into a living space isn’t just about painting the walls,” the blogger noted. “It’s also about paying attention to the way the objects in a home relate to one another. A full spectrum of color resides on most bookshelves, but it takes a good eye to make an average shelf into a work of art.”

I agreed. But what disturbed me was this next line: “If you’re really lucky, you can find a complete set of color-coded books at a thrift store.” Uh, no. That’s the sort of advice interior decorators give to non-readers who want to look literary and artistic at the same time. If you are a genuine book lover, you use the books you have like Bearded Joe. Going out to find a set, any set, of books based on their color scheme is as repugnant to me as buying books by the foot. You aren’t buying books when you buy this way, You are buying decorations. No, my idea is to arrange by color the books I read, the books I love, the books I buy for what they say. (That said, there are some collections—Penguin (classics, crime, Bond, etc.), Persephone, and Travelman's box set—I wouldn’t mind having that would make lovely monochromatic shelves for that color. But they would be ones I'd want to read as well as admire their aesthetics.) Still, that image of those colorful books on dark shelves behind the white sofa is breathtaking.

What I do not like is the next image of the far too neat and jacketless books in the next picture down. There’s something too perfect about them that creeps me out. They are not only arranged by color, but by height and apparently even by width. And where are the titles? Nowhere I can see. These could be and probably are fake books, covers with something other than written stories to hold them apart. The precision in this picture seems almost sinister. Stepford books anyone?

The next two images, while not nearly as “neat” as the previous ones, are real. You can tell that these are genuine, much loved books that while generally sorted into colors don’t line up perfectly. Some jackets have multiple colors. A color has multiple tones. It’s slightly messy. But it’s real.

And I’m sorry, but all those National Geographics (scroll down) freak me out. I’ve always wondered why anyone would keep them given the likelihood that once they go on a shelf like this they don’t come out again until the inevitable garage sale—as seems to be the case here.

For those who like the look of books but don’t read—do you know anyone like that?— this, uh, idea might be something to pass on. Artistic? Yes. Weird? Definitely. Bookshelves are for books. Arrange them any way you want. I plan to try the color approach. You can choose size, genre, author, subject, ISBN, publisher, or any other arrangement that suits you best. But in all cases, use only books meant to be read.  

Upcoming Book Festivals:
Book lovers in California, Texas, and Virginia are in for treats in the next week or so. On Saturday, September 20, Santa Rosa’s downtown becomes a book city when the Sonoma County Book Festival happens with readings, presentations and book signings by numerous authors, panel discussions and other book-inspired activities, staged music and art, children’s activities, and more than 50 exhibitors with wares to please everyone.

On September 20-21, the Latino Book & Family Festival will take place in Houston. Co-hosted by actor and activist Edward James Olmos, these are an incredible event that include books and authors (naturally) as well as vendors in career and education, crafts and travel, health, and home ownership. They have several stages, food courts, an art exhibition theatre, science, and a writing exhibition.  

New York is Book Country returns on September 21. It’s changed, though. It will be located in lovely Central Park. No panels, talks, presentations, stage entertainment (other than the Bestsellers Brunch at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on September 28) will be included. Instead, a group of three dozen vendors including book and magazine publishers, self-publishing authors and experts, the literary publication Kirkus, and a number of bookstores will tempt fairgoers. 

From September 21 through September 26, Fairfax hosts the Fall for the Book festival. This week-long event includes lectures, talks, receptions, readings, a used book sale, music, children’s entertainment, all of which revolve around writing, reading, books, current events and more.

Of Interest:
Are you a fan of hardboiled mysteries? Perhaps you enjoy the look of their classic covers? Do you use blank books for keeping track of your thoughts, your book wish list, or just your to-do chores? Are you a writer of thank you notes or short, amusing letters to surprise friends? If so, look here.

Potter Style is a division of Random House that puts out beautiful bookish gifts: journals, note cards,  labels, pocket pads, and calendars covering every book lover’s interests. What came to my recent attention are two journals just issued this month: The Big Sleep, The Postman Always Rings Twice, and The Maltese Falcon. (The small stickers seen on the covers of these images are easily removed.)

Well . . . these are gorgeous! Who hasn’t heard of The Maltese Falcon, the book or the movie with the darkly passionate images it conjures? This journal has that same feel. The classic cover, the odd and intriguing endpapers of an Art Deco design, what would be the title page now displaying a short biography of the writer and the book, and the lined pages, clean and spare. You can order them through any bookstore or buy them directly from Random House here, here, and here. While you are there, be sure to check out their other items such as these B&W Pocket Pads, Trout Note Cards, or the coming Brontë Sisters Journal.

This Week . . .
I received an email this week from Shari Kantrow, librarian at the Child Development Center in Bloomfield, New Jersey. This is a private, not-for-profit special education school that specializes in educating children and young adults between the ages of five and twenty-one with serious emotional and/or behavioral difficulties.

The school’s library is in poor shape, and very few if any of their students have books at home. The public library is not an option as most of them live or would have to pass through dangerous neighborhoods to get to one. I am asking BiblioBuffet’s readers if they have any unwanted books in good condition to consider donating them to the school. Here are some specifics from Ms. Kantrow:

By “high interest, low level” books, I mean books that would interest students to get them to want to read, yet the text is not too difficult. Subjects may include celebrities, sports, and other topics of interest to the students. Current teen novels, such as Twilight and Harry Potter series are also appreciated, to get the students interested in reading more. Our students also seem to like action, adventure, and mystery.

We need all levels of reading books. We have approximately five elementary classes,  five middle school classes, and five high school classes. Each class contains about 6-7 students. However, the majority of our readers fall between the second to fourth grade levels.

Any genre that would be appropriate for school is accepted. However, I cannot think of anything that would be off limits, unless it were too graphic in any way. Our library is a very colorful, child-friendly environment, but the collection of books is quite limited, some too old and outdated, and many are in disrepair or missing. Our shelves need restocking to provide students with current authors and relevant information. Students can check out two books (for a two-week period).

Shari Kantrow
Child Development Center
60 West Street
Bloomfield, NJ 07003