Laila Lalami blogged this observation about her recent move to L.A.: “There’s a café that calls itself ‘literati,’ because it uses book spines as wall decor.” Reminded me of a reception for poets (!) I attended many years ago at rich couple’s house in Denver. I wandered into the “library” and went to pull down what looked like a beautiful edition of Don Quixote, only to find that the bookcase was a wall of fakes. Nothing but ersatz spines of classics. Decoration. Here’s an idea for some smart PhD candidate—a study of the intellectual poverty of the upper one percent….