Rainbow bookshelf from book blog A Beautiful Mess. Blogger Elsie Nelson had these shelves custom-built and collected books to fit the rainbow aesthetic. https://abeautifulmess.com/elsies-rainbow-bookshelves/
Book bloggers and instagrammers show off their carefully curated rainbow bookshelves, hold coffee and pose while reading in front of a scenic background, and curate book cover aesthetics to show off their latest purchases. None of these activities necessarily relate to the stories contained within the books that they read – instead this pleasure and obsession with books is linked to a more basic capitalistic desire, the desire to collect, curate, and luxuriate in your possessions.
Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit describes desire as a lack, something that can only be permanent when the lack is also permanent. I’m interested in how desire is expressed in bibliophilia, which Merriam Webster’s defines as “enthusiastic or extreme interest in collecting books.” Acquiring books is only one desire that drives bibliophiles – they also exhibit the desire for curation, display, and luxuriating in their collections. I hypothesize that a bibliophile’s desire achieves permanence because their desire is only an outward indicator of a deeper, inner desire for success and stability that is unachievable for most people. Wishing to collect books on a whim feeds into the desire for a disposable income and for the stability of homeownership. The desire to have a rainbow bookshelf masks a desire for free time to spend organizing something you enjoy rather than making money or taking care of your immediate needs. These goals may seem so impossible as to be unthought of, or at least not something you can directing visualize or relate to your everyday life but manifest themselves as the desires of a bibliophile.
New Book Pages candle by ChiCandle on Etsy. It smells like paper, fresh ink, and amber glue, and it has 117 reviews and a five star average rating.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/614322097/new-books-new-book-pages-8-oz-glass-jar?source=aw&utm_source=affiliate_window&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=us_location_buyer&utm_content=258769&awc=6220_1651107733_2e81eecfb3bcc6808d8ab8200d0737c8&utm_term=0
Bibliophiles don’t limit themselves to the books themselves. There’s an entire book-related market, encompassing t-shirts, teas, candles, posters, perfumes, cosmetics, mugs, coasters, embossers, stationary, paper napkins, and egg cups. Whether it’s collecting books or book-related objects, book lovers who may consider themselves above such basic impulses are simply reenacting self-perpetuating consumerist desires.