“You’re a reader; your hobby is organizing your bookshelves.” —Anne Bogle

Raise your hand if your favorite piece of furniture is a bookshelf. Raise your hand if you think bookshelves are only for books and not for displaying pointless knick knacks or fine china. Raise your hand if you’re reading this in a public place and people look at you funny.

OK, you can put your hand down now. Thanks for participating—I told you reading was active.

People don’t just love reading books. We love talking about books. We love writing books. We also love displaying books for the pleasure of ourselves and others. It makes sense. Books are beautifully designed things, and they also demonstrate how very smart we are for having owned them.

Bookshelves are the best places to put books—that is specifically what they’re designed for. Every piece of furniture was designed with a specific purpose: beds are for sleeping, chairs are for sitting, tables are for eating (on; don’t eat the table).

The purpose of bookshelves is for books. It’s a place to store and display literature. A surface to stack bound sheets of paper for easy access and visibility. You can try sleeping on, or sitting at, or eating a bookshelf. But it won’t work. Because bookshelves are for books.