Books you are proud to have on display...

[Justcallmemissstupid]

I’ve bought a lovely new bookcase for the living room. But I’ve come to realise my taste in books isn’t something I’d like to display 😆 think Bridget Jones etc.
I’d like to fill up my bookcase but I’d also like to expand my reading. So can you give me some titles that wouldn’t make you cringe if visitors were to see them? 😬 and that are a good read also

[speakout]

It is bonkers buying a bookcase and filling it with books you don't like simply to impress people.
What is the point?

[Justcallmemissstupid]

@speakout

It is bonkers buying a bookcase and filling it with books you don't like simply to impress people.
What is the point?

That’s not the reason though, I specifically said I wanted to expand my reading.

As well as filling the bookcase 😬

[impressivelycunty]

I would recommend (and these are all great reads):

The Goldfinch
The Heart's Invisible Furies
Dracula
Queenie
The Midnight Library
Bunny
Where The Crawdads Sing
The Magic Mountain
Dark Matter
So You've Been Publicly Shamed
The Family Upstairs
Fingersmith

I could go on... !

[LunaNorth]

I only put books I really loved on my living room bookshelf.

There’s everything on there from Stephen King to Ngozie Adichie Chimimanda to Nabokov to Wodehouse to Neil Gaiman.

Upstairs is for the works in progress and self-help books. Nobody needs to see that I Am A Woman Who Loves Too Much

[MrsMomoa]

I wouldn't be friends with someone who judges my book collection, nor would I let them in my house!
Book snobs are dicks!

[felineflutter]

I used to have 100s of books from Bukowski through to Proust. I couldn't really care about book snobbery. I now only have books I am currently enjoying, rewilding forests, allotments, The Walker's Guide and lots about birds. Should people think less of me now than 5 years ago?

I hate people who look at people's bookshelves tbh

[glasshouse]

My bookcases are filled with Terry Pratchett, the books that I can read and read again and again. I tend not to judge people for what they are reading but just prefer that they have books. I'm always up for recommendations on new authors.

[LunaNorth]

I always look at people’s bookshelves. I’m like a moth to a flame.

And there’s always the hope it’ll give me something to talk about.

[FleetwoodRaincoat]

It doesn't matter which books you have, so long as they look like they've been read! Nothing worse than a bookcase full of pristine books.

My recommendations for reading, not just for display, would be:

The Keeper of Lost Things
The Great Alone
Notes from a Small Island
A Town Like Alice
Dracula

[StCharlotte]

The point is you have books.

[EmmaJR1]

The count of Monte Cristo is a fantastic read. But honestly just put Bridget on the shelf where she belongs.

[Ellmau]

Jane Austen.

[BettyAndVeronica]

My DH proudly displays his footballer biographies on our living room shelf.
So anything goes here.
Our female friend wrote an 'erotic' novel (self published) also on the shelf. Proud of her, even if it's not my cuppa tea.
I proudly display my Harry Potter collection, His Dark Materials Trilogy and my Stephen King's.

Love displaying our travel books (Lonely Planet types) and love when other people display theirs, always a conversation starter! And enjoy having a look through

[79andnotout]

We have bookshelves in every room! They've got a vague theme. The living room has mostly novels and gardening books. I'm about to start rereading the Oryx and Crake trilogy by Margaret Atwood as it seems quite relevant in pandemic times. Her books are very prescient!

[Justcallmemissstupid]

@EmmaJR1

The count of Monte Cristo is a fantastic read. But honestly just put Bridget on the shelf where she belongs.

She bloody well does belong there, doesn’t she?!

I remember reading Bridget Jones as a teen. And while the book has negative connotations nowadays in regard to her lifestyle & obsession with weight, etc (which I kind of agree with), it was one of the first ‘adult books’ I enjoying reading.
So yes, Bridget can perch her 9 stone bottom on my bookcase!

[Justcallmemissstupid]

*enjoyed reading, not enjoying

[ItsNotGreenItsBlue]

I’m proud to have all my books on my bookcase. Books are a personal choice, doesn’t matter what you display you’re not likely to impress someone that has different tastes than you. And your home isn’t a show house, why would you care what someone else thought of your books

[Chicchicchicchiclana]

I don't have any bookshelves downstairs in my house. We don't have a constant stream of new visitors who might want a nosey on my bookshelves but if we did they would be bitterly disappointed if that's what they're hoping for. If they think I'm a philistine - I couldn't give a toss.

I did the proud displaying of Mervyn Peake and HG Wells novels on my bookshelves when I was student. Have grown up massively since then.

[EmmaJR1]

@Justcallmemissstupid Bridget is a great comedic comfort read, what's not to like. And as a PP said if a person judges your reading material they can carry on walking out the back door!

[RusholmeRuffian]

Just get one of these but don't forget to iron it twitter.com/bcredibility/status/1347873657348100097?s=21

[Jobsharenightmare]

My books are displayed in a colour blocking format, not by author or title or genre. This might help you if your taste is an embarrassment as I guess it may distract from the titles and is a nice feature.

I have lots of classics, a self improvement book, business books, some spiritual books, geological books, reference books, a couple of autobiographies, lots of Victorian fiction and two chick lit books but that's not because I'm embarrassed, I just don't read them much! I also have several childhood classics and love them.

[Springfern]

How about some Marquis de Sade, next to Mein Kampf

[Ch3rish]

@impressivelycunty

I would recommend (and these are all great reads):

The Goldfinch
The Heart's Invisible Furies
Dracula
Queenie
The Midnight Library
Bunny
Where The Crawdads Sing
The Magic Mountain
Dark Matter
So You've Been Publicly Shamed
The Family Upstairs
Fingersmith

I could go on... !

But there's no such thing as an intrinsically good read, people enjoy different books.

In fact the first book on your list was rounded slated on a thread I read about the worst books you've read.

It's entirely personal choice, read what you enjoy OP, life is way too short to feel under pressure to read books other people tell you that you should enjoy.

[Ch3rish]

@LunaNorth

I always look at people’s bookshelves. I’m like a moth to a flame.

And there’s always the hope it’ll give me something to talk about.

Do you go to people's houses for your job? In pre-covid times I can't remember being in the position of going to someone's house where I wouldn't be friends with them already and would need to find topics of conversation

[BettyAndVeronica]

And there’s always the hope it’ll give me something to talk about.
Do you go to people's houses for your job? In pre-covid times I can't remember being in the position of going to someone's house where I wouldn't be friends with them already and would need to find topics of conversation

• lunch with DH's friend and partner who I barely know, who he hasn't seen in years
• Invited over by a school mum as DC having a play date
• Invited in for a drink by neighbours
• Having dinner with a work colleague and her partner who I don't know

4 examples from the last 18months or so where a conversation starter such as this has / would have been useful.