Bookish Objects on the Bookshelf

Abstract

Bookshelves tend to be associated with books, but many more “things” go on bookshelves besides books. This chapter focuses on “bookish objects” on the bookshelf (Pyne Bookshelf. New York: Bloomsbury, 2016; Pressman Bookishness: Loving Books in a Digital Age. New York: Columbia University Press, 2020); those material things that are adjacent to book culture but not quite books. The popular plastic funko pops, mugs with quotes and motifs, Penguin toys: these are the material “things” that fill the home bookshelf. Presenting data from my 2020 research into digital bookshelves and my 2021 survey on Australian home bookshelves, I examine the impact of these bookish things on the ways we think of books. Recent studies have examined bookishness (Pressman Bookishness: Loving Books in a Digital Age. New York: Columbia University Press, 2020), but this chapter examines book culture in the semi-private and everyday setting of the home. This chapter presents an interdisciplinary approach through the combination of print culture and material culture. It draws upon case studies from children’s fiction and literary fiction with analysis of Harry Potter and Penguin bookish objects. I introduce the concept of the “messy” bookshelf, which epitomizes the new, rule-breaking interactions people undertake with book culture. The tension between books and bookish objects captures the transition of books from revered print objects to a part of the converged media landscape.