Paraphenaliad

The room was lined, floor to high ceiling, with shelf upon shelf of seemingly archaic tomes, which offered the peruser enlightenment in any number of fields, and cultural imbuement by every artist from Sophocles and Virgil to Tolstoy and Joyce. Any imaginable pillar of High Culture shouted modestly their name from the spines of those volumes, while within each of those thousands of covers, the poetry, prose and promised good gave way to the sophistry of solid, durable cardboard.