Color-Sorted and Color-Coded Libraries

There a distinctive difference between color-sorted and color-coded libraries. However, the second may be a subset of the first. But in any case, we’d like to talk about libraries sorted by the colors of their books’ covers today.

What reminded me of that topic is a new teen TV drama The Politician made by Netflix. Setting its qualities aside, the library of the protagonist’s father was something that caught my attention.

Yes, this library is color sorted. Supposedly, this means that neighboring books may have nothing in common besides the color of the cover or dust jacket.

Reminds of this famous meme:

I don’t see myself using this sorting system, as I prefer sorting by theme. But I can see how this method may be useful for a person with superior visual memory and absolute knowledge of their library.

And then there are color-coded libraries. As there’s Gwyneth Paltrow in the still shots above and we have already mentioned dust jackets, it’s an excellent cue to discuss her library. As it appears, she’s a fan of both color-sorting and color-coding.

Her library is curated and organized by Thatcher Wine, a bibliophile and the founder of Juniper Books — a company that not only plans private libraries but also creates some very special dust jackets for the books.

Want all your books to have plain color-coded dust-jackets? Not a problem! Prefer to turn your bookshelf into an artful print? Easy! That’s what Juniper Books does. Here is their short introductory video:

Well, color-coding with dust jackets is something I can consider. Even while I’m not a big fan of dust jackets in general.

By the way, the idea of rebinding whole libraries to be in the same style or to match with house interiors isn’t something new. It was something quite popular among the well-off book collectors of the 19th century.

What do you think about that? Is it just an expensive fad, or something you could consider for your library?

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