Book Nooks: Inspired Ideas for Cozy Reading Corners and Stylish Book Displays

by Vanessa Dina, Claire Gilhuly, Antonis Achilleos (photographer)

Home is where the books are. This inspiring home decor book is brimming with photos of cozy places to read and creative ways to display books at home.

For stylish bookworms and bookish stylists, this covetable home décor book merges the literary appeal of Jane Mount’s bestselling Bibliophile with the aspirational allure of Emily Henderson’s bestselling Styled. Discover beautiful bookshelves adorned with lovely objets d’art, handsome home libraries with snug armchairs, reading areas for kids that ignite the imagination, and cookbook corners in quaint kitchens—and learn to replicate these in your own space.

From bedside tables to bar carts, leather-bound collections to color-coded shelves, here are book nooks and styling techniques for every room and aesthetic. Reading lists from Gillian Flynn, Jasmine Guillory, Alex Elle, Joanna Goddard, Nik Sharma, and more offer plenty of recommendations for stocking your shelves (and your TBR list).

In a stunning package with a tasteful hint of gold foil on the case, this sumptuous book is perfect for browsing, displaying on a coffee table, or gifting to the reader, book lover, designer, or creative in your life. Filled with clever design ideas and dreamy spaces, Book Nooks is an irresistible invitation to curl up with a book, whether this one or another.

BOOK NOOKS FOR Organized by type of book nook—from cookbook nooks to kid nooks, gardener nooks to neutral nooks—and featuring a range of home aesthetics, including colorful, contemporary, cozy, and whimsical, there is plenty of inspiration here for all readers.

BEAUTIFUL TO GIFT AND Book Nooks makes a lovely gift for design enthusiasts and book lovers. Not only is it filled with original ideas for styling your book collection, but it acts as an eye-catching décor object itself. Display it on a coffee table alongside a candle, decorative tray, or book-themed vase.

INSPIRING AND The styling ideas included in these pages are original yet easy to recreate at Fill a nonworking fireplace with paperbacks; stack oversized books to create a stool or end table; turn your book pages out for a neutral shelf; frame vintage cookbook pages for one-of-a-kind artwork. Discover tons of ideas that can be incorporated into your home, no matter the aesthetic or budget.

READING LISTS FROM LUMINOUS  In addition to beautiful interior shots, you’ll find book lists, including Gillian Flynn’s favorite mysteries, Alex Elle’s most trusted books on healing and self love, Jasmine Guillory’s must-have romance novels, Nik Sharma’s most used cookbooks, PEN America’s recommended banned books, and more. Fill your shelves with their book recs and discover a new favorite!

Perfect enthusiasts, book lovers, and book club membersDesign aficionados, stylists, people interested in home decorFollowers of BookTok and people who post "shelfies"Fans of Bibliophile, Bibliostyle, Styled, or Art of the Bar CartShoppers looking for a birthday, housewarming, or anytime gift for a bookish friendReaders of Cup of Jo, Book Riot, Downtime on Substack, Design*Sponge, or Dwell

Genres: Nonfiction, Books About Books, Art, Design, Interior Design, Photography, Coffee Table Books

145 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 17, 2024

Reviews

[Ron Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

My wife and I aren’t even trying anymore. The books in our house are stacked in crazy Seussian piles in almost every room. But we still dream of elegant bookshelves showing off well-curated collections.

Vanessa Dina and Claire Gilhuly know that longing. They’ve published a work of design porn titled “Book Nooks.” It’s packed with photos by Antonis Achilleos that show drool-worthy home libraries of every size and style.

“The fact that books are thought-provoking and attractive makes them the ideal piece of functional décor for any room in your home,” they write. “Styling a book nook is an art, but it’s one that can be imitated — and eventually learned — quite easily.”

I’ve got a messy 40-year history that proves that’s not true, but I do like looking at these....

To read the rest of this review, go to the latest free issue of The Washington Post's Book Club newsletter:
https://s2.washingtonpost.com/camp-rw...

[Madison Warner Fairbanks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book Nooks: Inspired Ideas for Cozy Reading Corners and Stylish Book Displays
Vanessa Dina, Claire Gilhuly, Antonio’s Achilleos (photography)
Books as decor shown in multiple ways around the home. Beautiful settings and practical placement for every room. Options, lists, and styling techniques. Ideas for displaying your books as well as various reading lists.

A beautiful coffee table book itself, this will give you many ideas on where and how to display your books.
The displays skews toward hard back and high end homes but I found several ideas that could easily be incorporated into a practical busy family home.
It’s a gorgeously photographed statement of: I love books.

I received an ecopy of this from NetGalley.

[Maggie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Perhaps it's just me and the expectations I set for this book, but I was expecting the complete opposite. For the record, I requested to read this book on a whim purely because like many avid readers I have far too many books and am not sure how I want to organize them. I was expecting a book to provide inspiration and pretty pictures with fun, new ways to explore a love of books. I was expecting to learn how to take a jumbled shelf of books and create a cohesive space in your house - or room - that enhances the beauty of the books you already have.

This book wasn't really that. This book had the opposite perspective.

While it was very pretty - I will give it that - and it might be a nice coffee table book for someone to buy, peruse through once, and stick under some random Home Goods knickknack on your credenza, it's not terribly useful for actual readers. Most of the inspiration ideas about hobby books, books of certain colors, etc. expected you to pick a theme and then buy books that fit that theme. It expects that the reader will curate a collection of books around their aesthetic value, and not their actual content. This is fine for some people, I suppose, but I think it will completely lose most of its readers.

I've never been one to decide on how I want a space to look before I have the items to put in that room - so I think this is where the book totally lost me. My possessions have special meaning and function - something I think anyone living in a small space can relate to - not purely aesthetic value. I love having pretty items as much as the next person, but if they don't meet either of those previous criteria, I'm not interested. This book is certainly one of them.

Thank you to NetGalley and Chronicle Books for a free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[MKF · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am not a fan of destroying books for art or damaging book no matter how old the books are. This author says to color the edges of book pages, tear out pages for art, or old spines as bookmark. These and other reasons is why I wouldn't follow this woman's decorating advice especially based on her ideas on ways to create book nooks. These ideas are mainly uncreative and almost all are variants of stacking books in piles.
One idea is turning a pile of books into a stool a terrible idea because even with a wooden base like the one shown, book are not meant to hold a person's weight. Then there's the idea of cramming books with the spines facing inward into a fireplace. Adding to the damages of doing that it's one of the areas where she recommends coloring the page edges to match your decor. Based on these I find it doubtful that this author is actually a book lover like she mentions. This is obvious in her list of ways of decorating with books such as leaving a book on the top of a pile opened. I can just imagine the damage to the spine leaving it open and also from being bumped or knocked over.
For a small book I had expected more ideas and I also expected more creative ideas instead of stacking books in piles. What's also weird is that the author includes book lists from some trendy authors for filler and even recommends books for themes. So you end up with a book on how to decorate books in piles and what books you could add. If you really need ideas for creating book nooks there's a lot of places that have better ideas.

[Jackie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like pictures of books, and that's pretty much all this is. It's not going to give you inspiration for your own home. The books are either in very specific architectural features that you almost certainly don't have, or are artistically piled on the floor which you presumably already know how to do. The photography is nice; this is just more in the vein of eye candy than of helpful design ideas.

ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley

[Jessica (Odd and Bookish) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book for free from the publisher (Chronicle Books) for promotional purposes.

This was a fun book filled with lots of book nook inspiration!

The book is laid out fairly simply. It is divided up into sections for different book nook types (Small Space, Kids, Gardener, etc.) The tips in the book aren’t necessarily groundbreaking but there were some that I liked. The most memorable tip was in the Kids section and it was to covert an armoire into a reading nook (pg. 68). It gave me major Narnia vibes!

Interspersed throughout the book are reading recommendations from various genres, which I found to be a fun touch.

At the end of the book, there’s a short spread on Free Little Libraries, another one on classic libraries from around the world, and one with recommendations of banned books. I liked the callouts to libraries of all sizes because libraries are so important and not everyone can have their own home library. I also loved the inclusion of banned books because literature is crucial to democracy and free thought.

Overall, I recommend this book if you’re looking for inspiration for your own home library or if you just love books about books! Plus it functions well as a decor book for your very own book nook.

[Laura · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you have no interest in books other than stage decor, this is the book for you. If I were Chronicle Books, I would be embarrassed. Young children’s room books include The Compleat Squash (squash variety encyclopedia), Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch and Hemingway. Design suggestions for plant lovers include using the books directly under the plants—mold-tastica! No fewer than three designs used Caroline Eden’s (excellent) Black Sea cookbook. Really, when you’re serious about writing a book for bibliophiles about decorating and living with books, call me (or any librarian or bookseller) up.

[Claire · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is more of a "Using books as decorations" book than a "Create a cosy spot for reading" book. The author seems intent on destroying books, using them as stools, coffee tables, stuffing them in fireplaces, painting the exposed pages, cutting out their middles. It's a (book) massacre.

[Hannah Faye · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who doesn’t love daydreaming about their perfect book library. This perfect book gives its reader the dream library and practical ways we can create our own perfect library for the space we have. A great gift for those that love to read and love interior decor.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you NetGalley and Chronicle Books for sending me this ebook for review consideration.

[Lizzy · Rating 1 out of 5]

How to leave your books in messy piles and pretend it’s decor. This isn’t for readers and cozy nooks, this is for people who use books to project an image in their interior decor. Half the book is like organize by color! Shove the books under furniture or houseplants! Wrap them in pretty paper. Everything looks so messy and cluttered and some of it made me laugh at how awful it looked. The book chair!!! And then to fill up the page count there are random book recommendation lists by popular authors. This book is laughably short. I was expecting details about lighting and comfy chairs and making space for reading, not how to pile books in purposeful looking piles. Also, such genius tips as: put your books on bookcases or in built in shelving, or under other furniture.

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had hoped that this book might be more about how to build book nooks. This is just a book of pictures of pretty house decor into which people have piled books, and not in a particularly usable way. This would make a pretty coffee table book but I would not suggest it as a gift for a reader as the description suggest. An actual reader wouldn't be able to find their books in a lot of these displays. And there are far too few books in the set ups!

Just not for me.

[Literary Redhead · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun collection of creative ideas for book nooks! It's just missing a section for minimalists who hate clutter and love clean orderly lines. Nonetheless, I would recommend this for readers looking to design or update their special reading places.

[Victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great for any book lovers! There are tips for creating different kinds of book nooks to match any theme or room type. There are ideas for every reader of every age. The photos are fantastic and made my book lover heart very happy. I would recommend this for all bookworms! Special Thank You to Vanessa Dina,Claire Gilhuly,Chronicle Books and NetGalley for allowing me to read a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.

[*ੈ✩‧₊˚Sassy Little Hippy˚₊‧✩ ੈ* · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.3 ⭐️
This books is aesthetically visual, filled with vibrant pictures of book nooks large and small. It almost feels as if this should have been a blog series, this isn’t something I would get much use out of keeping on my bookshelf. It offered some tips on how to color coordinate or pair like books with like topics (like putting cookbooks in the kitchen) and how to use some as decor. Nothing novel, as you could find all of this and more on Pinterest, but it was visually stimulating so I’m sure there is a suitable audience out there for this.

Thanks to NetGalley, Chronicle Books, Vanessa Dina and Claire Gilhuly for providing me with a complimentary ARC to review!

[Mary Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

A cute quick read to check out at your library. Suffers from a misleading title. Basically just a book on styling books in a design-oriented home. I enjoyed the lists of books from well-known authors and the book’s layout was great. Nice photos. For those who like to read about the art of styling domestic interiors.

[Syd · Rating 2 out of 5]

went into this book thinking it would be about fun ways to create book nooks for people who love reading and instead I got suggestions about how to wrap your books in black paper for aesthetic reasons. this book is definitely for people who just want to use books for styling purposes and almost zero functionality.

[reading is my hustle · Rating 4 out of 5]

i will gladly look at bookshelves, book stacks, reading corners, & books thoughtfully displayed for as long as i live. read from start to finish at powell's today.

[Amanda Shaffer · Rating 1 out of 5]

vacant

Took 10 minutes to flip through this picture book about using books as colorful objects. A waste of nine minutes

[Lily Laverton · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although this book showed ideas for book nooks what drew me in was what other authors had to say. The two that stand out for me are listed below.

Gillian Flynn's list of favorite mysteries, which I'm listing here so I remember to look for them at the library:
Kate Atkinson, Case Histories
Agatha Christie, An Then There Were None (my note - loved it when I was growing up and want to re-read)
Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White
Daphne du Maurier, Don't Look Now
Thomas Harris, Red Dragon (my note - saw both movies Red Dragon and Manhunter, this is on my bookshelf to read)
Patricia Highsmith, The Talented Mr. Ripley (my note - saw both the movie The Talented Mr. Ripley and Ripley on Netflix - both excellent)
Shirley Jackson, We Have Always Lived in the Castle
Dennis Lehane, Mystic River
Ross Macdonald, The Drowning Pool
Eilen Raskin, The Westing Game

I also loved what Joanna Goddard had to say, "Sometimes I imagine people walking down a street in New York City. If you're a toddler, you notice the dogs and gate latches. If you're a a teenager, you see only teenagers. If you're a graphic designer, the typography of street signs. An arborist, the trees. A driver, the potholes. The same world looks very different to different people."

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

I don’t buy many books, but I got so many ideas from this one that I think I’ll have to make an exception.

Update: the first half was fun and unique, the second half was more trendy and flat.

[Cynthia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m surprised by the low average rating on this one. I thought it was packed with adorable ideas, some practical and some creative. I especially like the idea of using book stacks in a functional way, and this is going to help me rethink my overflow piles. Aesthetically, I was especially attracted to the color matching display, as well as the vintage cookbooks mixed with cute vintage hard goods (like vintage Pyrex!). The included book recommendations from various authors was a nice addition!

I am immensely grateful to Chronicle Books and NetGalley for my copy. All opinions are my own.

[Caitlin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This wasn't quite what I was expecting. I picked it up hoping to get some ideas on creating a cozy book nook and it's more in the realm of different aesthetic ways to display your books. It's very visually appealing with great photographs but I'm not sure it's worth an entire book. I agree with other reviews that this might have been more useful as a blog post.

It does have different categories to theme your bookshelves around but it feels very centered on social media posts about your collection and less on creating a nice space to read in. Overall, not a bad book and I can see some folks getting value out of it but it's less useful for me personally.

[Spudpuppy · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is for people who don't actually read and also don't actually have to live in their houses.

Some of the brilliant ideas here include:
- make a big pile on the floor (they use this one a lot, like every 5ish pages there's just another pile on the floor. I guess these people have maids so the mopping isn't their problem.)
- make piles on your steps so you can trip over them and snap your neck (for extra fun, they have pieces of coral sitting on top of the piles of books on the stairs. Imagine how that's gonna feel when you stumble over it!)
- shove a bunch of books into your fireplace instead of using the fireplace or the books
- use a pile of books held together with a strap as a step stool, which will also probably cause you to fall and snap your neck
- put a pile of books in your bathroom. it's not like humidity does anything to paper, right?
- scatter board books on the floor around your baby
- put a bunch of books right next to the kitchen sink, because apparently nobody in that house ever does dishes so that's fine
- pile books on and around chairs so you can't actually sit in them

tl;dr this book is a bunch of pictures of things that are cool and chic when rich people do it, but trashy if anyone else does so ymmv but I hate it

[Mollified.Moments · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book lovers, this one is for you. This beautiful title explores and inspires creative ways to incorporate literature into your living spaces. The stunning photography offers plenty of ideas for #bookstagram photos, showcasing the elegance books can bring to any home.

While visually appealing, many of the ideas are impractical for actual readers. Suggestions like stacking books on kitchen counters or placing them under bathroom planters may look lovely but can damage the books. The designs seem catered more to those wanting to appear well-read rather than true bibliophiles.

In conclusion, this coffee table book is a visual delight and a great source of inspiration for home decor. Just be mindful of the practicality if you truly cherish your books.

[Callie Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone with 1100+ books organized by color, I was very intrigued by this book. I love looking at book collections of any kind, and the pictures in this book were so aesthetically pleasing. I found a few ideas for book decor throughout the sections.

I absolutely loved the lists of Author's favorites in the genre they are known for, especially Gillian Flynn.

This book is perfect for book lovers of any kind, but those who consider books as decor will particularly enjoy this collection.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was hoping for more of an "art" book, with far more pictures. Because most of the photography is gorgeous, with colors that really pop off the page. But it really falls down in the "advice" department - there are only 1 or 2 real suggestions for each type of situation (living room, baby's room, etc.) and seems really only applicable to people who have quite small collections of books. This has no advice for those of us on the 1000+ volumes end of things. So it doesn't feel as inspired as I would have liked.

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful coffee table book and an ideal gift for a book lover, with some practical and good advice on how to create 'book nooks' as an interior design feature in your home. I also liked the book recommendations dispersed throughout the book. Missing one star due to one impractical chapter about creating book nooks in bathrooms .... you know, typically rooms where a lot of water and hot steam is generated, not exactly ideal for products crafted from paper? And no mention of how to avoid your books getting mildew and mould on them - yuk! Otherwise, a coffee table book I'll be keeping.

[V · Rating 4 out of 5]

The photos are lovely, however this is not what I expected. I wanted to see suggestions for cozier book spaces, instead this book has a lot of cluttered ideas. It’s fine if you have the room for random clutter. If you love and collect books, like I do, I wanted suggestions and more of a work around to eliminate the overstacked piles of books.

Otherwise, a pleasant read and nice photos.

[Linda 😊 Tam · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was expecting a book on how to set up a cozy reading nook! It only has a couple of photos like that. There were some good ideas for decor, but the saving grace for me was the book recommendations from authors scattered throughout.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is such a fun coffee book for book lovers! It was enjoyable to flip through and see the different inspirations for styling books in your space. I think I may have enjoyed it even more if there was more innovative recommendations but none the less it makes for a cute gift.