/lit/ - Literature

>>14275331
In English, I agree. Not the best one on a worldwide scale though.

>>14275331
I'll never understand certain people's obsession with curating homogenous bookshelves like these. If you see a book you really desire, but there's not an Everyman edition, do you just simply not buy it? It seems like a massive act of vanity to collect only books that look how one would wish them to look. Not to mention the fact that this obsession with looks is effectively no different from the obsession a brainless Apple-consumer has with making sure all his gadgets come in Rose Gold. Walking into a room were the bookshelf is comprised entirely of lookalike editions from a single publisher is probably the single greatest sign that someone is not a real reader.

>>14275358
>implying
>implying
>implying
>implying
>implying
Low IQ post.

>>14275331
I will not change your mind, because you are right

>>14275358

It's an aesthetic thing. Aestheticism thrives when the world is ugly. Look at Fin de siècle France.

It's probably the best collection in terms of the selections and their physical quality, but the translations in the collection are hit-or-miss.

>>14275331
>>14275358

Agreed.

Also, when all the spines are aesthetically uniform, it looks like the person just ordered them all in bulk online. When the spines are different, there's a deeper sense of personal history, as though the person got the book from all sorts of different places.

>>14275358
>but there's not an Everyman edition, do you just simply not buy it?
This. Wtf do they do?

I buy based on the quality of the translation, if it's native English then I buy based on price; I only need my books to last as long as I do.

>>14275331
Best for classics I agree. Penguin Modern Classics (the older Helvetica designs) are best for 20th century lit.

>>14275331
I like their books but this shelf makes you look like a brandwhore

>>14275358
once your bookshelf starts to fill up, you become more aware of color-clashing spines, and begin to desire a more harmonious display. its not an act of vanity if it soothes your mind to see the shelf. it relaxes you rather than assaults you with its visual noise. it becomes less of a utilitarian bookshelf and starts to become a library; you start buying reference material even, just to have it. i used to think like you until i actually started trying to make a nice, aesthetic place for myself to live, with real furniture and decor. you can turn your home into a place of refuge from all the noise of the outside world and it will have a major effect on your overall sense of serenity. there's really no point in depriving yourself of that refuge, least of all for a sense of (ironically enough) vain superiority to those who don't.
in some, there's also a desire for longevity; maybe they want to be able to pass on the collection to their children. EL is relatively cheap compared to other higher-end editions, yet are still produced with a high degree of quality compared to a penguin or vintage classics paperback.
it could also easily just be the case that the man has other shelves and chose to line up all his everymans together for the sake of appearance.

https://kevinfromcanada.wordpress.com/2009/07/01/an-essay-kfcs-everymans-library-project/

>>14275358
I completely agree.

>>14275331
The books are like $6 on ebay cant be caught with something so cheap

>>14275331

I do like Everyman books, but I enjoy my hodgepodge bookshelves. Secondhand thrift shopping and selection of specific translations makes for a comfy mess.

>>14275358
>>14275535

This. A uniform bookshelf is for stores, not looking libraries. It's kind of got a consumerist narcissism to it.

>>14275630

They'd be better off organizing by color.

>>14275331

um, no

>>14275358
I think the publisher, but the books are hugely inflated price wise. The only greater inflation is folio society.

>>14275358
I arrange my bookshelf by editions out of autism/OCD, though it's not universal (some Penguin editions, for example, are on the top shelf while a couple are closer to hand-level). It also depends on what I consult more often.