【Italy】

How many takes will it take to kill the backwards bookshelves trend?Italy

I don't know. But that won't stop me from tryin'.

#Backwardsbooks is a recently reemerged design trend where books are flipped to hide their colorful spines. The effect is neutral and monochromatic and, I guess, pleasing to the minimalistic Crate and Barrel elite.

It's also violently boring and offensive to traditional bookshelf design values -- principles my living room was built on.

The backwards bookshelf fad first emerged sometime in 2009. At the time, it was believed to a reactionary movement against the growing and equally heinous "organize by color" bookshelf aesthetic.

A post shared by Frostbeard Studio (@frostbeardmpls) on Sep 24, 2017 at 8:52am PDT

There was little room in the bookshelf community for thematically-oriented readers, or anarcho-syndicalists who didn't believe in any bookshelf organization at all.

"Seems like a sleek way to display those books you've read but can't bare to part with — and don't need to locate any time soon!" Apartment Therapy opined about backwards bookshelves, with just a hint of design-induced melancholy.

The #backwardsbooks trend is the latest iteration of the neutrals trend and people on the internet love to hate it! So I tried it out with my own bookshelf and I want to hear your reactions! Love the neutral look? Or hate the inefficiency? Cast your vote in the comments! #📚#📔 (📸and design are my own) #interiorjoy #HowYouHome

A post shared by Annabel Joy (@interiorjoy) on Nov 17, 2017 at 6:25pm PST

Shortly thereafter, the trend went into a prolonged and much-needed hibernation. Many of us thought that the backwards bookshelf had died for good. We'd battled so hard to strip the trend of its agency, whether by composing angry Facebook posts or making catty comments in people's subpar living rooms.

Monsters of iniquity. #minimalist #backwardsbooks #parisreidhead

A post shared by Jono Macfarlane (@jonomacfarlane) on Jan 10, 2018 at 2:31pm PST

But the scourge kept resurrecting itself, partially thanks to platforms like Pinterest and Instagram, where bad trends go to live forever. It's hard to deny the immediate commercial appeal of backwards bookshelves -- for one, it doesn't require book owners to organize rooms chromatically around them. The uniform beige aesthetic had a high-end suburban mall Pottery Barn feel.

Please don't do this. It makes us sad... #backwardsbooks #itsjustwrong #netde #delagram #lewesbeach #librariesofinstagram #booksaremorethandecoration

A post shared by Lewes Public Library (@lewes.library) on Jan 10, 2018 at 4:50pm PST

It's also a fast and dirty way to look quirky, the most overrated of all the personality characteristics.

So perhaps it's not surprising that #BackwardsBookshelves are trending again in 2018, and in the sort-of words of the great Boyz II Men, I'm asking you -- begging you please -- to kill this fad for good.

Your bookshelves deserve to be organized spontaneously, without regard to color or content or form. There is no better feeling than the feeling of someone walking into your living room and critically judging your books by their covers.

Without those spines showing, no one will ever know that you've read The Power Brokeror Infinite Jest or the latest insufferable Maggie Nelson novella.

Goals ☝🏻🙌🏻for my next unplugged weekend, backwards 📚 books all displayed in my library. After our recent trip to Highpoint we noticed this trendy take throughout the showrooms of NC at Market 💁🏼 📷Bloglovin . . . . #goals #weekendprojects #backwardsbooks #library #display #bookworm #reading #allfacetheback #novels #rainydays #unplugged #diy #weekendwarrior #organize #display #trendy

A post shared by Red Bean Interior Design (@rbfurnitureshop) on Oct 18, 2017 at 6:44pm PDT

You have worked for their approval. You deserve to show off.

And if you must go vintage, consider using the great Dewey decimal system. You can even throw in some Etsy-inspired typewritten catalog cards -- by all means, do whatever it takes to give yourself a firm design boner.

Just don't go backwards. Books should live freely, without shame, their spines open to the sun and the wind. We can be forward thinkers in a #ForwardBookshelves world.

Turn this trend, and those book spines, around.