Bespoke Libraries




	Who are we? A small independent consultancy set up to assemble custom libraries for private individuals. How does it work? We interview you, hand-pick books for a collection based on your interests, and deliver them to your home. From the days of scrolls and papyrus, on into today's preferred form, the codex, consultants have had a hand in assembling many of the world's most renowned private book collections. We would be pleased to work with you on yours. Here at Bespoke, we love books. We love the joy and excitement of reading them, whether frivolous or serious, inspiring or comforting. We love the way they look on a shelf. Satisfying. Companionable. Luxurious. To visitors, our books are a statement of who we are and what we stand for. In the words of Marcel Proust, 'books do furnish a room'.
	Selection & Acquisition & Display

	Selection: we will select books after interviewing you about your interests, and your intent for your library, compiling a list of titles chosen specifically for you. Acquisition: we source the books for you, handling all ordering procedures. The books are delivered to our facility. We then deliver the books to your home, by pre-arrangement with you, at your convenience. They can be delivered all at once, or over time, in tranches. Display: once we've brought the books to your home, we then display them for you, on your existing bookshelves. We have a lot of experience in shelving books to show them to their best advantage. With or without an intermix of your favourite tchotkes. The bookcases pictured here are from the home of Dinah Shields, our fearless leader. Once we're done, you will have your own unique library. And for once the word unique is, here, used accurately. One hundred books? One thousand? Many, many more than that? Of course. No one else on the planet will have the same collection. Gifts of Books We also offer a gift service. We work with you to devise a very special gift of books for you to give to someone else, whether friend, family member or business associate. For instance: perhaps your spouse or colleague is retiring and their first action is to buy the boat they've always wanted. Give us some pointers as to their specific interests (sail? power? historic sailing voyages?) and we will find books that will completely wow them. A first edition of Richard Henry Dana's Two Years Before the Mast? No problem. A signed copy of Joshua Slocum's Sailing Alone Around the World? Very nice. Maybe an unforgettable baby-shower gift... books from birth to, say, twelve years old? Children's books are so exciting we can hardly breathe. Even the endpapers are beautiful. We also compile corporate gifts. No more boring paperweights! Existing Collections... ... can be weeded and augmented. About Shelves Bespoke does not install shelves, but we will consult with your designer or builder about correct structural and climate requirements.
	bespokelibraries@cox.net 949 735 5519

What We Don't Do

Common practice in the decorating world is to hit the thrift-stores and second-hand bookstores and come away with boxes of used books to fill the client's - your - empty shelves.

Bespoke does not do that. For some very specific reasons.

One is that we supply new books carefully matched to your interests, not just random titles whose dust jackets happened to be in decent condition.

Another is that we are long-time book collectors, and we know that damp is a book's worst, worst enemy.

There is always a chance that randomly-sourced books have, for some part of their lives, been stored somewhere damp, perhaps in a garage, or a damp attic. You just never know. Here's the thing about moisture in books: it leads to mould. Mould is a fungus. It lives inside books. And eats them. Literally. (They're bad for your lungs, too)

That musty smell in older books comes from mould spores. Even if the tell-tale brown marks (called 'foxing' in the trade) can't actually be seen yet, the smell tells you the spores are present, and the foxing will become visible any day now. And it spreads easily to adjacent books.

High-humidity, poorly ventilated storage also leads to bugs, usually silverfish. We're very sorry to be telling you such a disgusting story here, but it's true.

This is why the only used-books Bespoke handles are those classed, in the trade, as 'rare' titles, bought from a reliable, known-to-us source, preferably one affiliated with one or more of the various national and international antiquarian booksellers' associations. For example, ABAA, the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America. Or ILAB, the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers.

We would never put anything on your shelves that we wouldn't put on our own.

bespokelibraries@cox.net

949 735 5519


	Our Bookfreak-in-Chief is Dinah Shields, who has worked in one area or another of the book industry all her life. She loves books. She eats, sleeps and breathes books. Always has, always will. If you want books, she has the skills and background to select titles that are just right for you. She's a published author (Simon and Schuster, Random House) in both fiction (novels) and non-fiction (gardening). Has done editing of various sorts. Has taught gardening and creative writing. Has written for newspapers. She is also a rare book dealer, specialising in signed first edition first printings of mysteries and literature. She volunteers teaching ESL, and taking care of the lending library at a nearby senior centre. And here's the part that most directly lead to her starting Bespoke Libraries: once upon a time she had her own independent bookstore, on the east coast. But these days she finds herself living in southern California, in a town that already has two very fine such shops. So she needed a new, but still bookish, direction in which to turn her efforts. Thus: Bespoke Libraries.
	bespokelibraries@cox.net 949 735 5519 Minimum library contract 100 books (covers about ten feet of shelving). Minimum gift-of-books contract $500. Nota bene: we are very sorry, but for various reasons, we cannot help you dispose of (sell or donate) an existing collection.
	Copyright © 2009 Bespoke Libraries. All rights reserved. Photography by Rick Lang.