Books: Do you look for them when entering somebodies house for the first time ?

[Shosha1]

I must admit I do. I love to see what people are reading. It always gives me a sense of them.
Absence of books make me feel uneasy for some reason.
Which is absolutely stupid, as you wont find one in my house.
I cant hold a heavy book now as Lupus has affected my hands, so I read on a kindle, but most of my 500 odd books are on audible.
DH has all his on audible too.
We do have childrens ones for DGC tho.

I love a cluttered bookshelf

“ shelf upon shelf of books not being read”

Do you mean that haven’t been read, or you need them all to be in active circulation all the time?

Most people seem to be talking about books as though they are all novels. "I read on my kindle" or "once I've read a book I give it away" does no one else have reference books? In the kitchen we have cook books. In the sewing room, sewing references. The living room shelves hold gardening books, travel books, dictionaries and history books...

Absolutely - my husband and I have all our academic books in the study, because we need to refer to them, I have crafting books in the spare room where my sewing machines are etc

@MrsCastielI love Town Like Alice. My parents had all Neville Shutes books and I read them as teenager. That one in particular resonated as at the time, 1970s, I was living in Singapore.

@Shosha1 ha it resonated with me as I was a young, single woman travelling the world. I liked the stark contrast with my cushdy life. I also had a friend who's mum had been a POW in Indonesia and was made to march, so it was pretty shocking to see her story almost documented, albeit in a fictional piece of writing.

Most of my reference books are on my Kindle. I have a lot of physical books too, but I prefer to have recipe books as Ebooks because they take up so much room.

When I was youn, we had an encyclopedia that took up a whole shelf (multi volume). Now we have the internet. So general reference books are disappearing too.

My DD has half a shelf of books about dinosaurs... I reckon she would have loved that encyclopedia.

OP, I'm the same as you.

I JUST got rid of my last bookcase. Always had a few in the house, jammed full. I did a big declutter and realised I hadn't touched some of the books in years. I purged and got rid of at least a hundred. Even the cookbooks. I kept my faves and put them in a basket on the floor. Looks so much tidier.

@IvinghoeBeacon, I mean books that I've read that I will not read again.

If it's a book I want to read, I read it and it will go on the shelf until it has been found a new home - either friend /family or charity shop. So I lied, there are probably 3 or 4 books at a time on the shelf that are waiting to be resigned away from my shelf 😁

I totally forgot that I also have about 15 cookbooks, but they are used regularly. They're not on display, they're kept in the pantry.

I'm soon to move in with my OH and he keeps all his books and DVDs. I'm going to have to change my way of thinking!

Love nosying on people's bookshelves. It's like the charity shops - you never know what gem you might come across.

Yes I am the same.

We have books in every room. Much less than we used to since having DC but have kept all of the old favourites. Novels, non-fiction, cookbooks, reference books, children’s books.

I like things neat and fairly minimal but I do enjoy a bookshelf with a bit of personality, not too neat.

Oh I love books but if you were to judge me on the titles of my books on display... you would get it all wrong!
I love old books pre 1920's if possible. I like to collect books on history, crafts and some travel accounts, some I just own because they are peculiar or have a beautiful binding... its a bit of a library of forgotten books! But, although I am aware of their contents and have looked at the pictures, I haven't actually read a single one!! Modern, reading books are kept on my kindle, and have to be very special if they ever make it as a hard copy to my bookshelf!

Mine are mainly centredon various issues like accounts of natural and manmade disasters, war, dictatorship and prison, concentration camps survival, windrush biographies and accounts, etc no romance novels in my house.

I love books. I have several bookshelves scattered about my house. I don't notice if people don't have books when I visit but I always notice when they do! I don't look for them I'm just drawn to them I guess.

@Frenchfancy I don't see the need for a physical dictionary, as I have access to online.

If I need to reference something regarding gardening or crafting, I do a search online. I have trusted sources that I go back to time and again.

I am early 40s, if that throws any light on it - grew up with the very exciting world wide Web, everything at your fingertips in a few taps (disregarding the old clunk click whizz of the old modems!!)

Sorry for me bombarding the thread with replies everyone. I've just checked back for the first time since this morning and clearly the lockdown is getting to me, I need adult conversation goddammit! 😂

Books are not clutter.

I have bookshelves in almost every room, some built in. They look wonderful and make a home attractive far more than crushed grey velvet sofas and awful canvas photographs on the wall.

Sterile interior design belongs in offices.

I’m early 30s!

What a strange thing to do. If you came to my house you would be very disappointed as there are no books downstairs so you would probably come away thinking we are illiterate heathens.

Our library (housing many classics) is upstairs. But I probably wouldn’t invite someone so small-minded to my house anyway.

I must admit, I notice in magazines when people colour-code their books, and I judge a little bit.

Otherwise, I don't think I'd notice there not being books but I might be tempted by a well-stocked shelf.

I try not to judge, though. I hide my work books but the titles are things like Rape, Rape, More Rape, Rape and Trauma, Lesbians, Rape, Lesbians Again, Killing the Jews ... it sounds as if I am a horrible person (I'm not: I'm a historian working on gender, sexuality and race). Our HV clocked them when she first visited and double-took in a way I don't think indicated her approval.

Sterile interior design belongs in offices

Both my offices, at work and at home, are filled with thousands of books. I like my living space to be minimal. What works for you is not universal law.

We have books almost in every room. We have a large sitting room and one wall is covered in bookshelves where we keep the classics and poetry as well se some general knowledge and some of the Victorian/Edwardian books and music, architecture interior design and art books.

Cookbooks in the kitchen.

In the bedroom, a bookworm shelf by Ron Arad (the curved one) holds what we are reading at the moment.

'functional/professional books are in the study/office and the kids have their favourite books in their rooms.

So, yes, I look at people's books but I realise not for everyone books are such a principal component of every room/their life.

Years ago I did, but less now we use kindles. Board games have replaced books in our house.

I worked for a decade in publishing - it is well known that people use different types of books differently. My husband is a teacher and has a whole library of books for his subject which he uses as resources and lends to pupils alongside online resources and ebooks/journals in libraries. I am studying and have the same - physical books and access to academic libraries but the resources are often used differently in different circumstances

We have got three huge bookcases full of books, plus stacks of additional ones piled up. Visitors are unlikely to see them as they are all in the spare room which serves as a home office / library.

Yes, anyone who said they kept their books ‘upstairs’ either lives in a mansion or doesn’t read much. I don’t keep every book I read, some are crap and others I circulate/swap, but I have a copy of every special one.