When perusing a library or bookstore, after admiring the initial books on the tables for display, one is met with shelves of books filed with their spines out. Though today we might not think anything about this choice of organization, this method of storing books is relatively new. Historically, books were stored in various ways, like horizontally, with fore-edges out, on lecterns, and many other ways, except for spine facing outwards like we see commonly today. The shift to storing books vertically and with the spine out came out of necessity during the mid-sixteenth century as more books were being printed and bought. As books became more accessible, one’s collection of books was not enough to show off wealth, intellect, and power. Instead, money was spent on binding book collections in a beautiful and uniform way, with the only way to show off these indicators of high status being through the book spine. 

The purpose of this essay is to explore how books are and remain status symbols. Books were, and still are, objects that require lots of labor and money. Owning books when they were more scarce was enough to place someone on the social hierarchy ladder, but with Gutenberg’s printing press, books became more accessible, and people were able to build their collection. Within the next century of the Gutenberg press, book storing methods changed to have the spine facing outwards, showing off one’s uniform collection. In this new method, one would not only be showing off their wealth, as books were bound in leather, gilded, and decorated, but also showing off their intellect and worldliness. Today, this idea is still put into practice through shelfies as people curate their online personas.  

This project will be presented as a research essay that includes works like Walter Benjamin’s “Unpacking My Library,” The Book by Amarath Borsuk, Henry Petroski’s Book on the Bookshelf, The Book by Keith Houston, and Dr Pressman’s Bookishness to explore how the organisation of books have changed and has become a reflection of personal personas. I could turn this essay into a book and bind it myself, but I think I’d rather concentrate on the research going into this essay.