A Book Store for the Rest of Us

Today the NYT Home & Garden section profiled an architect/designer named Kelly Wearstler. Kelly has a love of out-of-print books. She frequents several high-end book stores that carry these and other hard to find design books and scours them for ideas.

I could launch into the typical why-aren't-libraries-the-cool-place-to-be refrain, but that's not the point.

I'm glad folks like Kelly point me to the $3,200 out-of-print books available in boutique shops. More than likely I can dig up the book somewhere in my state and through inter-library loan, I just might be able to get a copy for myself.

I wish Kelly and other's like her could experience what I experienced when I was a student working at The Ohio State University Main Library. Shelving books in that cavernous, 14-story building introduced me to more information and ideas than any boutique book store could hope to.

I wonder what sits next to David Douglas Duncan's Goodbye Picasso on the shelf at OSU?