Things that seem to go with books and libraries

Odd, seemingly unrelated things that go well with books

When we think of books and personal libraries, certain objects can come to mind. For some of this I'm not sure of the origin on it, but it ends up making sense and going together naturally.

I'll keep adding to this list as I get the brain cells working.

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Ships and Libraries

Ship Picture I took at Lakeland Library in Lakeland, FL

I don't know about you, but I've seen models of ships, ships in a bottle, and pictures of ships in personal and public libraries growing up, whether through movies or personal experience.

It makes sense since reading is so associated with armchair adventure. Getting away from it all in the form of a book's story. While designing my mini living room library, I have a large picture of a sailboat that I'll hang on the wall, and I'm still looking for that ship decoration.

There's something about ships that goes with reading rooms and dens/studies that have a mix of books in dark wood bookshelves, a large desk, with that ship on the shelf.

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Globes

St Johns College Library Globe

Continuing the theme of adventure and exploring far- off places, libraries are filled with globes. It makes sense especially in public and school libraries because of the educational value, but globes of all shapes and sizes have become staples in personal libraries as well for decoration purposes. I received a small one for Christmas for my living room/library renovation project, and love it. It's small but it's adorable.

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Drinks!

This may seem simple - do a hobby, drink something while doing it. But drinks and reading just seem to go together. So many bookstores - and even some libraries - have a coffee shop inside. Late night studying with textbooks seemed to go with coffee and caffeine cramming. There are even some blog names that embrace this, such as A Book and a Latte.

But why stop at coffee? Tea is a huge contender, especially when thinking of reading cozy mysteries. Again another blog embraced this as Books, Biscuits & Tea. Iced tea seems to go with southern comfort novels and beach themed reads.

People who enjoy instagram and Tumblr pictures often take photos of their books with a drink - I do this myself. It seems to be the #1 prop with books!

Liquor, particular in gentlemen's libraries in films, often make a scene, especially with fancy drink ware and a mini bar.

Finally, romance novels and steamy beach fiction is often seen pictures with wine glasses filled with red glasses. People like to join this with a read when relaxing alone at night.

Drinks and books seem to go together more than the average hobby.

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Cats

I've been reading the non-fiction collection of essays for the book My Bookstore: Writers celebrate their favorite places to read, browse, and shop. In one essay, an author amused me by focusing on liking a bookstore because of the absence of cats, which he says seems to pop up at almost any book associated location he's been in.

People love taking pictures of cats at their personal home library, but they are also associated with small independant bookstores and even libraries in general. I have this non-fiction book to read sometime to help illustrate a point, Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat who Touched the World.

More to come as I think of them.