Period Rooms at the Met
As the daughter of a writer who spent her formative years in independent bookstores, I have an ambivalent relationship with Amazon.com — on the one hand, anything that gets books into the hands of readers is a great thing. On the other hand, I’ve seen the thinning of the range of titles most bookstores carry, independent or not, as the more obscure titles are now solely purchased online. This thinning has diminished one of the true pleasures of a bookstore — browsing. However, every now and then, Amazon’s suggestions will provide me with the serendipitous experience of browsing in a good book store, which is finding an unexpected pleasure. Case in point: Period Rooms in The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
I bought the book immediately because the period rooms at the Met fascinate me — I’m a new comer to much of the Met, discovering it in pieces as classes at school require me to delve into uncharted territories (French ceramics, German architecture, American silver) and my some of my best experiences in the Met so far have been getting lost in the period rooms, which always seem empty.
