To wonder why all the 'WFH' COVID experts, journalists, MPs etc are filmed with bookshelves behind...

[Dances]

I mean really, in MN terms, it's a book boast

Doing Bookshelf Bingo now

Very bemused by this thread. Not sure if my books are on view when I’m teaching or having meetings at the moment but given that I teach at a university, my first degree is in Literature and I’ve always been a bookworm, my home is naturally full of books.

I certainly don’t purposely display books or arrange shots to try and look intellectual. They are just part of my life and “live” in the rooms most suited to teaching online or meetings. I didn’t realise people were so judgemental about it!

I find it strange that anyone would suspect that the books are some kind of boast. These are experts, FGS. My home is full of bookshelves with numerous books piled onto them. We read a lot. It’s really not a big deal.

It is very much 'look at my books cos I am dead clever'

Do you really think so?

They are in their home office so of course there'll be books on bookshelves.

There is an awful lot of book boasting on this thread.

Weirdly I always look to see if anyone has a sneaky Harry Potter on the bookshelf.

Camilla does.

Yabu, they are probably working on their computer in the study.

Our study/boys room has all the book cases in, I would imagine a lot of computers are based in the study. when my husband is on a conference call with camera, he has books behind him.

I find it weird to go into any house that doesn’t have shelves of books.

Because the book shelf is in the office?

I'm a journalist WFH and I'm in my dining room in my tiny 2 bed flat with a book shelf and plants behind me...

DP has the office as he has more calls, there are bookshelves behind him.

We have 7 bookshelves in our little flat because I read a fuck tonne of books. Most journalists, being that they are writers, also love books.

I am totally baffled by this thread - since when was having books boasting?! It isn’t weird to have loads of books, you just kind go accumulate them over the years 🤷🏻‍♀️

And a study with books in? Well I never...

I'm not really an expert on anything but I have agreed to be filmed for something covid related.

I don't have a home-office. Or I didn't, anyway.
My work pooter is set up in my left-home son's bedroom which is full of Lego, model paints, peeling paint & random clutter. Walls seriously need a lick of paint.
No books on view. We have mostly decluttered books, tbh, books are dust traps. Read, enjoy, release for others.
I think my PhD is one of the few printed things I've kept.

I'll be damned if I'm rearranging this room dramatically.

I often secretly hope one of D-Cats might cameo, mind. :)

Actually counting book-filled areas rather than pure bookshelves we have 10

Also owning books doesn't make you 'dead clever' it makes you someone who likes reading....

Even the friends I have who only read every month or so have a bookshelf in the office (mostly full of books I've lent them and they haven't returned lol)

Jason Manford was just on the Big Night In thing with bits of paper with 'Bookshelves' written on them taped to the walls behind him. I think it's quite funny, if I had to film myself it would be at the kitchen table with a knife rack on the wall behind me and the bread bin on the worktop. Classy.

I spend hours on video calls every day now. I'm using a garden office which is quite small and cluttered so I have arranged it so the bookcase behind me is tidy and there aren't any piles of rubbish in shot. Nothi g to distract from my sea monster face!

I have my bookshelf behind me in my office. It’s full of Harry Potter and Bridget Jones though!

I did move barrack Obama’s autobiography into view 😂

There is an awful lot of book boasting on this thread*

Absolutely bizarre. The only people making a big deal of the bookshelves are those who are ridiculing it.

TBH I see my home full of books as the norm. Yet I don’t criticise anyone whose home does not feature them.

I see reverse snobbery here.

Love this! Crack on reporters!

I’m ashamed to say the bookcase in my living room is only home to attractive antique books where my guests will see them.

All the Ben Eltons, George RR Martin and Shopoholic books are in the bedroom.

And the spare room is where my DHs games go to retire.

Anyone who pops in for a cuppa will hopefully believe that I only read George Orwell and Primo Levi, all hardback only and mostly Folio Society editions.

It's really sad that having lots of books is seen as boasting. It's really not. Some people just have lots of books 🤷

Where should their books be that would suit you better?

I don't think it's boasting, if I was filming in my house I'd probably sit in front of my bookcase too. It's nicer than a blank wall and I wouldn't want too much of my room in view.

In Ireland early on in the pandemic one of our TV presenters presented her show from her shed. It wasn't a fancy shed, it was just an ordinary wooden shed. I can't understand why she did that, I was thinking to myself 'does she not have a nice bookcase she could have sat in front of'. Even a blank wall would have been better than a shed.

in every room, bookshelves on every wall?

They might not have books on every wall but they're quite likely to have them on the wall of their home office which would be the natural place to conduct an interview!

I'd rather see books in the background than someone's husband's bum!

It's a uniquely British form of anti intellectuallism that you can't have just have bookshelves in your house without it being boasting! Would it be better if they conducted the interview with the toilet in the background? Or a pile of dirty laundry?

When I have to go on a video call I go into our study which (gasp!) has books in it. It's a quiet room where I can shut the door and those I'm trying to communicate with can't hear my children or husband and where I can have peace and quiet. What good would doing a conference call or tv interview in the main rooms of the house be?

I'm really surprised that people think that having books in the background is some kind of boast. Surely books in a home is normal??

Gerald I think it's having a study that would be a boast, not having a shelf of books!

in every room, bookshelves on every wall

I have books on two Welsh dressers in the kitchen, under the table in the living room, in a bookcase in the hall, in a bookcase in my bedroom and all 3 kids rooms plus my study - so yes - apart from the bog

I am also baffled that 'having books' is boastful - totally baffled