Why would anyone pile books in front of a perfectly good piece of furniture? Another reader wondered what the “point” of the stacks of books might be. I had obliterated my radio with these distracting books. It looks like there is a beautiful, old radio behind it just waiting to be discovered! Too bad we can’t see it.” And from someone else: “The stack of books in the entryway is a distraction. “The pile of books right when you open the front door throws me off a bit,” wrote one reader. Who’s going to get down on their hands and knees to pick out a book off the floor?” Others were concerned about the piles of books in the foyer, as if their presence in this liminal space might block one’s easeful movement into the domestic sphere. One person was convinced that I was destroying the books: “I get that some people are nuts about books (I keep my collection around 50, ‘1 in 1 out’ style), but you might as well take care of them and give them a chance at a longer life.

I have moved lots of books to my office on the college campus where I work, but lots remain. Among my stuff are many books-some on shelves, some in stacks. I like to spend Sundays at flea markets and antiques malls. I like a lot of things in my field of vision. I’m a collector, and I live in an unabashedly stuff-oriented house. I was reading the comments section of the “House Tour” of my North Carolina home on the design site Apartment Therapy. “I would go completely bonkers with the books stacked everywhere,” said another. “I don’t think book towers would work for me,” wrote one reader.

Stacks of books pictures