Practical tips on how to get maximum enjoyment out of your home library


Book lovers all over the country will agree: Whether you live in a Central London mansion block, a penthouse in the City or a rural country estate, your home library is a very special place. Sure, it’s a place of learning and contemplation, but it’s more than that. It can be your sanctuary; it’s where you come to escape from the hectic pace of everyday life to enjoy peace and tranquillity.

Whether your passion is antiquarian books or rare first editions, modern fiction or reference books, you will want to make sure that your treasured tomes are well looked after and easy to find.

Here, interior design commentator Liam Houghton has shared the lessons learned from joinery specialist Artichoke Ltd. Providing some practical advice on how to organise, care for and, ultimately, enjoy your home library.

How do you organise your library?

The larger the volume of books in your home library, the more difficult it becomes to find anything – unless you have put a system in place to help you. Organising and classifying your books and documents is a very personal thing. Will you follow traditional conventions, or are you more of a free spirit?

· Book stores and libraries everywhere tend to use the conventional approach of sorting fiction alphabetically by author, while non-fiction is organised first by subject, then by author. This seems a sensible approach, but there are alternative methods.

· If you’re a creative person, how about organising your books by theme? Take the topic ‘Fire’, for example, and incorporate cookery books (e.g. ‘Feeding the Fire: Recipes and Strategies for Better Barbecue & Grilling’, by Joe Carroll), modern fiction (e.g. ‘Ashes of London’, by Andrew Taylor), classical fiction (e.g. ‘Pale Fire’, by Vladimir Nabokov) and reference books (e.g. ‘Sell Your Book Like Wildfire: The Writer’s Guide to Marketing and Publicity’, by Rob Eagar) – you get the general idea.

· For visually inspired and design aware home owners, you could organise your library by colour – based on the colour of the spine. Proceed in rainbow order (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet) or create contrasting blocks of colour for real impact. Depending on your interior colour scheme, choosing to limit your books to certain colours or hues may work best.

How do you deal with oversized books?

Books come in all shapes and sizes, but adjustable shelving usually takes care of accommodating the normal range. However, if you have a large collection of outsized atlases, art or design books, arranging them vertically may not be the best way to store them.

· Stacking your oversized tomes horizontally will lessen wear and tear on the spines and prolong their lives. Make sure the stacks are not too high or too heavy, so that you can still have easy access. For maximum support, it’s best to arrange tall books by size in descending order, with the smallest book on top.

· For particularly heavy or oversized books, and to show off your real treasures, have you considered a modern book stand or ornate lectern? Not only does it make it easier to turn individual pages, it also gives you the opportunity to ‘feature’ all your biggest prized possessions in turn.

How do your care for rare and valuable books?

If you’re a serious book collector with a passion for antique rarities or priceless first editions, appropriate storage of your treasured tomes is essential to protect your investment. Even slight wear and tear can have a dramatic impact on the value of a rare book.

· Wash and dry your hands thoroughly before you handle your valuable book collection; gloves are generally not necessary unless there are special circumstances. Many museums and venerable libraries advise wearing gloves (nitrile or vinyl) if there’s a risk that mould or arsenic could be present on the pages, and clean gloves (vinyl, nitrile or lint-free cotton) are also recommended for handling books, photographs or albums that contain metal or ivory parts.

· Keep valuable books away from direct sunlight – it can bleach the covers. Exposure to direct sunlight can do untold harm and may even destroy the financial value of a library! Similarly, wear and tear can occur as a result of dust build-up. Closed bookcases with protective doors or shutters or display units with UV filter glass doors may be worth investigating.

· Be gentle when you take a delicate antique book off the shelf. Push neighbouring books in a little to expose the book you wish to read, then grab it by the centre of the spine – don’t pull it out from the top. Place the book on the table and only open it as far as it wants to go. It’s important to protect the book binding and don’t crack the spine open.

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