Although I have a big built-in bookcase, there always seems to be books floating around my apartment; either there’s no room (because books – like food -are the purchases I make weekly), or they are books I am currently using.  They need a place and a way to be that isn’t a mess, but is accessible and nice looking. My solution is to stack them on “stands” that I’ve found on the street, and that are to me, pleasingly elemental, like the three above.

I found the solid wood block outside of a store in Soho that was going out of business (I imagine it had been part of a display).  The chunk of black pipe came from a construction site.  Since I have a thing for rusted metal, I hauled home the two 3-sided boxes I found outside a house that was being renovated.

In my foyer where my horizontal bookcase is, I use the wood block to make a growing vertical stack.

The floor itself is a fine place to stack books.  For the bottom book, which might get dusty sitting on the floor, use a book that you don’t care about: last year’s phone book or a catalog, with the binding turned to the wall if it’s really readible.