If the pictures are any indication,

then home library design has taken a horrible turn for the worst.

Right at Home: Personal libraries are retreats

Despite the text of the article indicating that people still want spaces to read (both a print book in the hand or electronically), and how shelves can be designed to integrate books into the home that can be innovative rather than merely traditional, the pictures that accompany the article are, well, awful. For one, there are hardly any books to be seen. For another, the shelves are mostly ugly. Three, the one picture with a good number of books has all the books set up so their blocks are set in geometric patterns but the spines are hidden, meaning the books are there for show and generally unusable. I despise books for show, like when people used to build the 'Downton Abbey' libraries mentioned in the article and then fill it with old books that were totally unread, and merely because the weathered covers looked good in the room. As someone who has something in the neighbourhood of 3,000 books, and in a 750-square-foot apartment at that, I relish good private library design that integrates the books into the environment cleanly, reflecting the personality of the owner. A friend has even more books, and he has had built-in bookshelves from floor to ceiling, painted white, put in several rooms, combining two small rooms into a true private library at one point. It's very inviting, and guess what, you can see all the books and while not yet catalogued, they're all in order and you can find one in a very short time. Mine, sadly, are not quite in order; my goal this past year was to get them all up on shelves, and then this year I can actually put them in some semblance of order. The history, fantasy, religion, philosophy, writing, and children's books are in their areas--it's mainly other non-fiction and literature that need help. In my apartment I used fairly decent-looking stacking, folding bookshelves that can easily be taken down and moved, even though I've lived in the same place for over 10 years.

My point is, libraries, even personal ones, are meant to be used. They can be decorative, but shouldn't merely be so. If you do not read, or have no real love of books, skip the home library. If all you do is use electronic books or a computer, a study with a few books in it and a comfy chair or computer is fine--but it isn't a library. Places should be designed around how they are used, not just to be something for the sake of design. (That goes for regular libraries, too, which are often designed with things like flat roofs that will contribute to flooding the stacks later, etc. Architects rarely seem to actually talk to the librarians or patrons who use the library to determine what would work well for them. They should. Then they can be as innovative in their design as they want, but there should be a practical side, as well.) That's my opinion, anyway.