In a storied old building on the Upper West Side, the CEO of a bank lives in a freshly renovated apartment with a two-story wood paneled library holdi

Inside the Picture Perfect—and Highly Lucrative—Business of Book Styling

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2023-01-27 18:00:04

In a storied old building on the Upper West Side, the CEO of a bank lives in a freshly renovated apartment with a two-story wood paneled library holding about 2,300 books. The ceiling is eighteen feet high. There’s a large fireplace, an emerald green tufted sofa, plush armchairs, a fainting couch, ruby red carpeting and drapes, three gold-toned chandeliers, and a few depictions of the Buddha interspersed throughout. The banister encasing the second story is the same color as the light fixtures that sit above each bookcase, casting a cozy downward glow. Even those with an aversion to hard liquor might suddenly find themselves craving a scotch neat to sip while reclining with a Henry Miller novel.

One full bookcase on the upper level serves as the canvas for an image of the Chrysler Building amid the New York City skyline at night. Directly across from it, on the other side of the U-shaped second level, another bookcase of identical proportions displays Notre Dame at dusk. On the main floor, one wall of bookcases is filled with hundreds of old leather-bound hardbacks with notched spines and metallic lettering. Elsewhere, four shelves of books have nude paintings printed across the anonymous spines—soft pink flesh of women’s bodies luxuriates across them.

On the opposite wall, a depiction of Central Park stretches over another isolated shelf; I asked if it was tied to a theme, expecting that’s where one might find some classic New York novels or memoirs. Unsure what was there, the library’s owner leaned in to squint and read off the small faint titles printed at the bottom of each spine. “This is stuff like Dahl’s collected stories, Walden, Arcadia. So, it’s a little bit connected.”