Bookshelves!

I recently became aware of the subreddit called /bookshelvesdetective. Ostensibly, the idea is to post a full photo of a bookshelf (either your own or an acquaintance) and then ask the community to ferret out the persona behind them from the aggregated titles and decorative bric-a-brac. It's entertaining as a reader on several levels: mildly voyeuristic, intellectual dong-measuring-contest, genuine curiosity. It's also quite obvious that many of the posters are showing off. Or trying to, anyway.

But isn't that what most people who have bookshelves displayed use them for? Maybe "showing off" isn't quite the right phrase and instead more precisely it should be trying to signal their interests, tastes and so on. Think of a the salesperson's office festooned with books on "winning" by ex-pro athletes, shitty volumes written by assholes like Jack Welch and so on. Heck, remember the COVID days of public intellectuals appearing on Zoom? We got to look at their home office bookshelves and I distinctly remember internet wags occasionally spotting a book that looked rather incongruous with the person's public image. But that was a brief moment in time - after a while it was obvious that the shelves appearing as backgrounds for people were being curated and there were far fewer oddities. And those one-offs were being deliberately chosen.

There is a vast gulf between office/working bookshelves and displays. Some people have both. Think about houses with built-in shelves in the living room with just a few select titles on display and then finding your way to the home office to discover another bookshelf overstuffed with everything spanning professional reference texts to trashy fiction. And it gets even deeper than that nowadays with e-books. Perhaps the modern equivalent of a display bookshelf is Goodreads?

In a way, I think it's more interesting to consider what people deliberately exclude from their reading lists and displays, particularly in the modern era of the e-book. Having a physical copy of a title makes a statement in and of itself. If they are younger than say, 60 years old, they have probably read at least something on an e-reader. Let's think about ALL the books a person has ever read. They probably fall (more or less) into the following categories:

1. Paper books you own - self-explanatory
2. e-books
3. Books you read on paper but subsequently discarded, lost, gave away or returned to the library
4. e-books that you subsequently purchased a paper copy of
5. Paper books you still own but are in storage or hidden from display 

That last category really fascinates me though. They represent an intersection of books that a person values but feels would be embarrassing to seen to own within their social circle, whatever that circle might be. These are the stereotypical erotica titles that a judgy conservative person might own. Or stuff that you've just plain outgrown but still hold a weird sentimental pull because of time & place when you read them. 

There are other examples of hidden books, and this is where e-readers and curated Goodreads lists exist. Think of a politically charged title like White Fragility. Amongst the politically left, it is (or was, anyway) practically dogma that this book is good and true. But in reality it is poorly reasoned hot garbage. There are plenty of fine liberals who believe this to be true and will say so - but only in private with very trusted friends - but will not display the book or even reveal they have read it in public because it's such a lightning rod.  

Then of course, there is the dreaded paper copy of a book you've never read. Sometimes, of course, those are aspirational acquisitions. ("I really should read [insert very important book here]") Other times, they are well-intentioned gifts that fell verrrrrry wide of the mark. ("I know you say you despise science fiction, but this science fiction book is different and I think you'll love it.") But then there are those psychos who think - not incorrectly - that people will perceive them to be intelligent or well-read because they have a good selection of Very Important Books. 

The books you display on your living room shelf tell people who you want them to think you are. The books you hide tell us about your hidden passions and insecurities. The books in a home office tell us a little more. I have reason to believe Goodreads functions in much the same way for e-readers, except the performative aspects to it are even more magnified since you don't have to invite someone into your home to show them how well-read you are. But even there, unless you have no friends on the site (like me), you're still showing off. In the end, it's as much about the books hidden from sight as it is the ones front and center for the world to see.