If you are a bookish person I doubt you can stay impartial to this table/bookshelf/bookmark. Booken by Raw Edges, designed for Italian furniture brand Lema, is every bookworm’s wet dream. It uses books as building material and in turn provides an attractive display for them. It also allows you to recycle the volumes you’ve read once and have no intention of coming back to. “We were inspired by the fact that people do not re-read the novels that are so often on the shelves,” designers explain. “Most books are usually read once and not re-read, and then we thought, why not use the volumes as if they have a plan? Of course you can always remove the book and read it, but at the same time the books take on a new role.” I also remember that Shay Alkalay of Raw Edges has been toying with the idea of a bookcase like that for a few years now, even built one for his personal use. It is pleasing to see that commercial birth has been finally given to this concept. Booken is displayed as part of Lema’s exposition at this year’s IMM Cologne.

(spotted on If It’s Hip, It’s Here)