The Wonderful Everyday Book of Calm

According to the IKEA website: “The IKEA Catalog was retired – but IKEA brochures are here to make finding affordable furnishings and awesome inspiration easier than ever!” Alas, I neglected to seize a copy of the final 2021 paper “catalog”, so the pre-pandemic 2019 one will sit forever on my bookshelf (Billy of course!) alongside Shakespeare, Milton, Blake, et al. Last night I flipped through it: tea-stained and dog-eared though it is, page after page of horizontally-oriented furniture, vistas of household linens in shades of non-challenging taupe and teal and slate-grey, redolent of sea and sky and forest. I could mull forever over those endearing wooden toys that look as if a master craftsman has spent hour upon hour fashioning each one, yet aware they are very definitely mass produced – brochures go hang! Who needs a Tibetan monastery when you can foray at will into the wonderful, everyday book of calm that was the IKEA catalogue?