#book boxes

getting anyone to read the book you've written is so much harder

to the point that I sometimes fantasize about paying people to read my work

the reason I don't do that: in a capitalist system, people don't value things unless they pay for them. no one would take my book seriously.

i wrote a short story about this and then rysz actually read my work and wrote a response short story and then dale did too and somehow this spiraled out of control to make this anthology with a demon's butt on the cover

if you would like to show your appreciation for this book in a capitalist system, we're selling book boxes with SWAG and also with THE BOOK and you can TOTALLY READ IT and i will be eternally grateful, buy it here, any proceeds with go to Médecins Sans Frontières because really and truly we just want the readers but also I love making book boxes because I'm a craft-nerd and selling them lets me make them

So over the years, I wind up moving my library around a lot. This usually involves packing my books into cardboard boxes, and then unpacking and re-shelving them in the new location.

It would be nice to simplify that process, by making book boxes that also serve as display shelves, an idea inspired by campaign furniture. I say "inspired by" because campaigning British officers did take books with them, and there are some examples of traveling bookcases. But none of the examples I could find did exactly what I wanted -- probably in part because while campaigners did take books with them, they apparently didn't take libraries with them. Who'd have thought?

So I basically designed these to be stackable book boxes, with hinged doors/tops. They're short for bookcases (only 24" wide in the interior space) because books are heavy -- I'm pretty sure the box would hold together with a yard of books in it, but picking it up might be a problem! I added handles and features to allow them to stack and hold together. All of this was somewhat experimental, and I regard these as usable prototypes --- I'm using them under the desk in my office, in fact. But they're made out of pine and you'll notice that the two of them are not the same, which they really should be if they're going to be a set.

For example, if you look at the lifting handles, the top (first) box has what are actually intended as drawer pulls as handles. This looks good, and fits with the campaign aesthetic (which was driven by practicality -- campaign furniture frequently traveled in a closely fitted protective box, which is why the fittings are frequently recessed). It also, in principle, allows the top/front to fold back flat against the sides, which turned out to be a problem for a different reason.

But the biggest problem with drawer pulls as handles is that I don't think they'll stand up to being used as book box handles very well, and they're not really comfortable for the hand with a lot of weight on them. So the second (bottom) box substitutes chest handles, which I think will work out better in the long run.

I also modified the way the door/lid works, moving from a full face pair of doors to a set inside lips formed by the top and bottom. This gives some protection to the doors, which are probably the weakest part of the box, and allows corner protectors on all eight corners of the box, which is both stylish and practical.

I'm not happy with the latch solution, however. The latches interfere with the doors laying flat on the ends, but more importantly, don't allow the boxes to be stacked in a "opening up" traveling configuration. I need to find a better solution here.