The 'Bookstand That Is 81 Degrees Short of a Right Angle' I Want to Share with Bookend Refugees

I love books.

There are surely countless people who love books more than I do, but I love books.

Once, when I bought a bunch of books at Junkudo and was riding the train, a total stranger asked me,"Why did you buy so many books?"and so on.

I buy books often enough for that to happen.

And, inevitably, I end up lining them up on my desk or bookshelf.

The thing you use for that is, well,"bookstand"
bookend—that L-shaped thing everyone knows, also known by that name.

Bookends.

Without these guys, books can sometimes fall over like dominoes.
All that awaits them where they fall is the floor.There isn't a shred of the excitement you'd get from a Rube Goldberg machine.

"Ah..."

After a moment of silence, only the depressing task of tidying up the books with bent pages awaits me.

It's true that thin books can't stand on their own, and sometimes you need to sandwich them between bookends from both sides.

However, personally, I am not a fan of thesebookends.

To stabilize the books, they can bequite tall or heavy.

Because of that, for some reason, theyexude a strange presence.

I'm holding these books up so they don't fall over, you know.
You can't even tidy up your books properly without me, can you?

It might just be my imagination, but I can almost hear voices like that (it is my imagination).

I suppose that's inevitable due to their function, but I've always wondered if there wasn't a better way.

That was when Mr. Miyake from Company Y proposed this to me.

SOGU 9° BOOK STOPPER it was.

Speaking of Mr. Miyake, he is the man who would go and make a tray for keeping copy paper neatly aligned.

However, the iron plate he introduced was different from the bookends I am used to seeing.

It's tiny.

And it's not a right angle.

The product name says 9° BOOK STOPPER.

In other words, the angle is 9 degrees. It is quite short of a right angle.

As I stood frozen in front of the iron plate, Mr. Miyake explained it to me using the diagram below.

"If you use this plate to give the book a 9-degree angle, the book becomes a bookstand!"

"・・・Ah"

"・・・・・・I see, I see"

"・・・・・・・・・Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!"

The excitement of products from Mr. Miyake's brand, 'SOGU,' usually comes with a delay.

It took me a little while to understand that this is a product that perfectly solves my problem.

That's right.

If possible, I want to display the book at the end tilted in a natural way, just like in the photo.

As if to say, it just happened naturally.
I wasn't even thinking about it...or something like that.

However, having spent my previous career doing interior displays every day, I know better.

When you arrange books like this, before you know it, they fall over and collapse.

Just like stacking stones at the Sai no Kawara.
The books fall, I fix them; the books fall, I fix them.

I used to struggle with this, calling it the 'Sai no Kawara Problem'. What kind of bad things could I have possibly done in a past life...

And eventually, it becomes too much of a hassle, so I give up.
It's annoying to set up L-shaped bookends, so I just stop them with some books I've stacked horizontally.

The thing that allows you to intentionally and continuously create that state where books fall over is the 9° BOOK STOPPER.

A 9-degree angle is the angle at which books stabilize when naturally tilted.

Instead of pressing them down like a bookend, you simply place the books.

Rather than a bookstand, it is a 'tool to make books stand'.

SOGU, the brand name, is said to originate from the word 'sogu' (to shave off/strip away).

The designer, Mr. Miyake, said, 'I wanted to make this 9° BOOK STOPPER even if it didn't sell.'.

I understand that meaning well now. There is probably no other product that conveys a brand concept so powerfully.

As a result of stripping away unnecessary elements from a bookstand, the right-angled iron plate that presses down on books has disappeared.

What was born in its place is a book stopper that fades into the background like a stagehand at the feet of the books.

It is the ultimate supporting role that brings out the best in the books, which should be the stars of the bookshelf.

To call something a supporting role sounds as if it is inferior to the lead.

However, even if the leads were Tom Hanks or Harrison Ford, you couldn't make a movie if all the supporting actors were just extras.

There are professionals in supporting roles, too.

The 9° BOOK STOPPER is truly a professional supporting actor.

Right now, this professional supporting actor is said to be used even at Tsutaya stores, such as the one in Daikanyama, which has become synonymous with stylish bookstores.

Mr. Miyake told me that there, the 9° BOOK STOPPER is also being used in a new way when placing books in front of others to showcase their covers.

I see. By using it this way, books won't fall off the shelf.

And it makes the books stand out as much as possible.

I am constantly amazed by the supporting role power of the 9° BOOK STOPPER. The Stationery Girls Expo is great, but perhaps we should also hold a
Supporting Stationery Expo.

I am personally convinced that at that time, the 9° BOOK STOPPER would be near the podium.

To everyone who has similar worries, please give it a try.

9° BOOK STOPPER please try it out

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You can see articles about other SOGU items here.