The other morning I was drinking coffee, minding my own business, when a message popped up on my computer screen — a friend had sent me a link to an ad for books. These weren't just any books, but "real authentic books" of "varying colors" that were "tastefully weathered"; books, in other words, not meant to be read but meant to be used as decoration.
For $65, the ad proclaimed, the buyer will receive between eight and 10 books weighing in at somewhere between 11 and 19 pounds. Titles? Not important. Authors? Not important. Subjects? Not important. These are "authentic books" and that's all you need to know.
That link led me to other links and I was soon down a rabbit hole — sites that sell books by the yard, by the pound or by the color (call before ordering if you have "specific color needs"); minimalist sites that sell only white, beige or black books; sites that sell books in lots of green, or red, or, for the daring, "mixed-color vintage." Like zinnias!
