I don't trust people who don't have any books in their houses.

[WayHarshTai]

I think they are a bit evil.

My sister and her DH only have a couple of Jamie Oliver books and THAT'S IT. Freaks.

I get a bit twitchy if I visit someone and I can't see their bookshelf, I have been known to snoop on the pretext of finding the loo or something to put my mind at rest.

I think it shows trerrible character and possibly criminal leanings to not have hundreds some books around the house.

AIBU? I know i'm not really, it's just common sense.

Not having books - just about ok. Could be kindle people, dyslexic audio-book lovers like my dad.

No books EXCEPT FOR TWO BY JAMIE OLIVER. Scary.

Our children won't be able to hate non-book owners because it will all be just kindles and tablets by then, won't it? They'll view books as we view C60 cassettes. They'll go round for supper and have to find a way to rifle through the kindle.

I have a bookcase downstairs for all naice books that I've read, and a much bigger one upstairs where I hide all my trash and horrors.

I bloody love my books

Thanks to Amazon Cloud, when we bought DS aged five his own Kindle all my guilty-secret books appeared on it

We have hundreds of kids books? Everywhere

I don't think I have actual paper books anymore but have the kindle app on my phone, I read around 4 books a week - in bed, on the loo, on the bus, at the school gates, when dp is watching porridge/on the buses type rubbish.. you can't see them but I have them, I love reading.

I married a man who didn't read; then I divorced him.
I remarried, a man who did read. We celebrated twenty years this year.

DSD came home traumatised...she stayed at a friends house - and they had no books - she had no idea that homes like this existed! It must have made quite an impact on her as she talked about it for ages

My XH when storming out used to say, "and I'm even taking my BOOK!"

He'd had it for years and hasn't finished it to this day.

I have lots of cook books because I like gastroporn, including all the Jamie Oliver ones apart from his most recent one which I am boycotting and actively trying to hide in bookshops. This is very tricky to do in a supermarket.

See, i don't trust people who don't like animals - i recognise that this is irrational however.

Sorry OP, unless I have missed some sort of "in" joke, your post is a bit, well, um, sanctimonious.

I have loads of books in my house, i don't tend to have them on display though, its quite an eclectic collection From neurobiology text books through building regs, through cat in the hat, dostoyeski and 50 shades of grey! I think people who display their books are a tad pretentious, but i tend to judge their trustworthyness on their actions.

God, yes. We have a "library" completely lined with floor to ceiling bookshelves (it's the dining room really ), as well as bookcases in every other room in the house.
Thery're the only thing I'm really precious about; couldn't care less about most stuff but can't bear to part with books even though we're practically drowning in them and we all have a Kindle.

Yes LEM

LOL at vault trying to hide JO books, i might do that too - in fact, we should all do it - we could put it in the social policy section or something.

I don't have many books after moving, because I had to store them for a while and they got water damaged.

The ones I do have are in cupboards because I just don't like them on display. I prefer digital books now. You can have an infinite supply in a tiny amount of space.

LEM do you think calling bookless people a bit evil and of having criminal leanings in her OP might slightly give away the jokey nature?

oh YANBU! I will make exceptions where a kindle is lying on a table top, clearly well used and definitely not under a coating of dust.

Personally, I live in a mess of books. I hoarde them like they're made of gold and I swear some of them have started reproducing behind my back.

I like to judge people on the strength of the books they have lying out. In a friendly manner, of course - you can tell a lot about someone by the books they read, though I don't mean that certain types of books are innately more valuable or that those who read them are in any way superior.

I am reminded of this quotation from John Waters:

?We need to make books cool again. If you go home with somebody and they don't have books, don't fuck them.?

My house is built from books,

Do I win.

But OP I don't have a big enough house for a bookshelf. I have a wee tower by my bed and the rest are in a random cupboard in the porch. What would you make of me?

I judge my friend who only owns Stephanie Meyer and Martina Cole books

I actually am more perturbed by people that have only about four books on display than none at all. Especially if one of them is an autobiography by a shit sleb, one is something a misery memoir, and one is the Yellow Pages.

I am equally distrustful of people whose entire CD collection of about ten consists of things like Now That's What I Call Music style compilations, Bat out of Hell by Meatloaf and Madonna's Greatest Hits.

Not really, I sell all my books at the car boot.

got loads on my kindle though.

LEM that's a very good idea

The supermarket stands containing hundreds of them are too heavy to move but a good few can be hidden whilst "browsing" if you're careful.

i don't 'trust' people who have no cds or records to look through. i don't trust people who download everything onto a i thingy