This story originally appeared in the March 1994 issue of ELLE DECOR. For more stories from our archive, subscribe to ELLE DECOR All Access. In the beginning was the word: words engraved on clay tablets, inscribed on papyrus and vellum scrolls, written on parchment, and, by 1455, thanks to Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of moveable type, printed on paper. Today, while it sometimes seems that electronics have taken over, Barnes & Noble continues to build superstores from coast to coast. We haven’t lost our love of books, and one of our favorite rooms is the library. For a lot of us, though, a single room devoted to books is just not…