Intensely Focused

This was an interesting book to read. I had the same problem with it that I have with books about interior design though, much of it what they were showing seemed at least somewhat impractical for daily life. I do own some books that could be put in an area that's not easily accessible, but it's a relatively small amount. Even if there's a book that I don't think I'll be rereading soon, there's a good chance that a friend will want to borrow it.

I really liked the idea of painting a speaker to look like books on a shelf so it blends in.

The pictures are gorgeous and provide excellent examples of the ideas the author is talking about. However, I noticed a lot of the books on shelves were faded with pale or lightly colored spines whereas my own books tend to have dark spines.

Also, I love the idea of a shelf in the bath for reading and keeping the book dry. But I very much disagree that it should be installed to make bath time "more productive." Reading in the bath should be a pleasure, not just another opportunity to work.

So again, there are some interesting ideas but a number of them are impractical for anyone who does not have a nonstandard architecture home (many of the homes in the book were either designed by well known architects or were built hundreds of years ago) or for a person who wants ready access to most of the books in a large collection. Still, it's fun to go through and look at the different ways people display and store their books.