Il caffè deve essere lasciato cadere ad un'altezza diversa dal vino: il team di Berlino che fa sembrare i libri ben letti

In a Berlin bar's back room last Sunday, a group of literary experts transformed unread books into visually convincing well-read volumes, bringing to life a concept once imagined by Irish writer Flann O’Brien. The event, organized by Cabinet Magazine, a literary quarterly, offered patrons the chance to have their books professionally handled with meticulous attention to detail, ensuring they appeared aged and thoroughly engaged with. The service, priced at €5 per book, included a range of treatments designed to mimic genuine wear and annotation. These ranged from a “professional” spine break to the addition of underlined passages and marginalia. One particularly elaborate option involved mauling the edges of the book with a drill and sandpaper, guided by specialists in abrasion techniques. A fluid dynamics expert was also on hand to apply stains using substances such as coffee and wine, with the crucial insight that coffee needed to be dropped at a different height than wine to achieve an authentic appearance. Among the 40 books processed during the event was an unread volume gifted to a woman by her mother just three days prior to the mother’s upcoming visit. Another visitor sought to replicate the appearance of a lost copy of Walter Benjamin’s 1,000-page Arcades Project, aiming to match the level of engagement displayed by the original. The process required careful consideration, as noted by Michel Chaouli, an underlinings and marginalia expert. He recalled being inspired by a long-ago reference to Flann O’Brien’s proposed Book Handling Agency, which had sparked his current project on underlining in literature. Chaouli described the task as both challenging and enjoyable, noting that while giving the annotations logical coherence proved more difficult than anticipated, the overall experience was a blend of humor and scholarly rigor. He likened the activity to a fusion of Flann O’Brien’s wit and the absurdist humor of Monty Python, highlighting how even serious academics can find joy in unconventional tasks. Sina Najafi, editor-in-chief of Cabinet Magazine and organizer of the event, emphasized the emotional resonance of the activity. For him, the session was not only exhilarating but also deeply moving, underscoring the personal histories behind unread books. “We all have unread books,” he remarked, “but the history of why those books are unread is more fascinating than any of us knew.” The success of the Berlin event has already prompted plans for future sessions, with the book handling agency set to return for an autumn fundraiser in New York. This initiative continues to explore the intersection of literature, performance, and the art of making the unseen visible. As the agency gains traction, it invites readers to reconsider the stories hidden within the pages of their own collections.