Enormous library desk made of books

A reader writes, "Books are reused to create this enormous piece of library furniture at TU Delft architecture bibliotheek. Because the books are stacked rather than dismantled, this desk is true to its origins as well as its function."

Library information desk

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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Devi

There are people who would be horrified and possibly angry about that desk. I work in a library and learned that books are not sacred objects that should be kept and preserved no matter what. Lots of people will never learn that. They give us their old books thinking we’ll put them into circulation since a book is a book or so we can get rid of them and they don’t have to deal with the horror of putting books in a recycling bin.

I love that desk. It’s a good thing my stacks of books I keep for art projects aren’t large enough to cover furniture. Yet.
Anonymous

Looks unstable.
mst3kmoxie

Cool!

Now a bookshelf made of books would be awesome, albeit perhaps confusing. ;-)
ROSSINDETROIT

Speaking as someone who has had to clean school libraries, that desk is a maintenance nightmare. The ones at the bottom edge are going to get dirty fast and it will look like hell. And how would you clean them, an eraser? There’s a good reason most circulation desks I see are fronted in Formica.
WaylonWillie

beautiful! i would like to know if the books are glued together…. anyone?
Anonymous

no glue, they’re just neatly stacked with a glass plate on top.

Before the old faculty building burned down, we had a cool MIR spacecraft espresso bar made of old washing machine parts:
http://www.wallpaper.com/directory/347
Anonymous

I would like to borrow the thirteenth book from the top, seventeenth book from the left, on the north-facing side. Thank you.
TeamTaylorTyler

What a great idea! Here is a way to recycle old, used and outdated published material. I can look at my shelves and quickly see books that would make end tables. What a fun way to memorialize an era, for instance, childhood favorites, college texts.
EH

Shoulda made it out of cards from discarded card catalogs.
timbearcub

Be careful of bookworms…
paboo

Amazing. Love it. Found some detailed photos here. http://www.flickr.com/photos/ellf/with/3870217390/
hungryjoe

Previous BoingBoingBibliophile outrage here:

http://boingboing.net/2008/09/06/furniture-made-out-o.html#previouspost

and here:

http://boingboing.net/2010/09/03/jewelry-made-from-la.html#previouspost

I like books as much as the next person, but I also recognize that we can’t keep ‘em all. This is a neat use for the otherwise throwaway books. Can anyone tell what they used for the surface? Looks like maybe a translucent acrylic panel?
RonKaplanNJ

Kind or like building a stone wall. Are there directions for this anywhere?
Anonymous

This is a university library in the Netherlands. I can be positive that none of these books are anything close to rare.
Anonymous

Depending on their authors, these books give another meaning to the term “dry stack”….?
Anonymous

Important tip: make sure that the spines are NOT visible. Otherwise somebody will find a title there that the despratly want to check out and will be become very frustrated when they discover that the book is permanantly glued in place.
Anonymous

I also like how they’ve used folios for the corners, maximizing strength.
hungryjoe

Outraged bibliophiles in 3…2…1…
- mgfarrelly
  
  Nah, speaking as a bibliophile (and a librarian) I think it’s wonderful. There are many books that end up discarded (out of date, damaged, whole runs of encyclopedias superseded every year!) so making use of them in a work of library art is brilliant!
  - Anonymous
    
    I buy many of those sorts of books to replace the ones that I lost in two separate incidents of total destruction. I currently only have a couple of hundred to replace the 8000+ that I have lost.
    
    This is both cool and a little sad for me.
- sapere_aude
  
  I can’t see why any bibliophile would be outraged by this. These are worn out books that would otherwise have been discarded. And I’m pretty sure that none of the books used to make this desk was a rare first edition, or the only surviving copy of some obscure work. If you’re a book lover (as I am), wouldn’t you rather see worn out books made into a beautiful piece of furniture than dumped in a landfill? I’d love to have a handsome piece of furniture made out of old books (something much smaller than this, of course). A small table, cabinet, or desk made out of books would look great in my home library.
  - Anonymous
    
    I think I see a 1st edition Darwin book in that desk!!!!