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

Angela Rayner had just 2 books on display on Marr.

Catch 22
Hard Times

Love the choice of those books. Sent a message

And I still don't know why I might be Australian?

having a study is a boast - it's the smallest bedroom of 4 - we don't live in a mansion - I often work from home plus have my own PT business - I need a place to work and store shit

eldest child moved downstairs into what had been the study/dinning room

again baffled why having a work space is boasting

Totally off the point but this thread has reminded me of the time I had to report that I had lost my handbag, containing my and DH’s passports, to a police station in a French city. We were ushered into a rear office for details to be taken, which was a bit daunting, in another country etc, until,I saw a life size model of Darth Vader in another office!

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

How is it a boast? They're probably reasonably successful people or they wouldn't be being interviewed on TV! Most people with successful careers have a work space at home. I don't think people should have to pretend they live in a bed sit and only read trashy magasines.

Having a study/home office/work space isn't a boast. I live in a 3 bed terraced house with two reception rooms ( typical of Victorian terraces) lots of people use that room as a dining room or playroom. We use it as a study as I WFH regularly.
Yes I'm lucky but I also have a tiny garden and no off road parking 🤷

Paul Merton did a HIGNFY with shelves full of dvds behind him.

It all looks better than a chairdrobe.

Yes, my bookshelves are always the backdrop on video calls from my home office because it's just the way the room is laid out. In DH's office (man cave) it's computer games though

This is so weird. There are two of us in this house, in our late forties, with careers and interests in specialist areas, about and for which we have loads of reference books, as well as being avid readers. We have amassed a house full of books and have floor to ceiling book cases On at least one wall in both our offices, spare room, living room, dining room and kitchen, because THOSE ARE OUR BOOKS. I don’t care what anyone else thinks about it. I wouldn’t dream of staging anything on a video call with people I’ve worked with for 20 years, but literally whichever room I chose I’d have books behind me. Living with this many books is normal if you read!

iving with this many books is normal if you read

Unless you have to move house regularly and get rid of a lot of them to declutter

Another one who would never think of this as a thing. People read, people have booked, especially in the study. Our last house had bookshelves in every space they could - so one in our bedroom, one in children’s, two in hall, two in front room, and a spine in the living room to have books accessible there. I’m moving house and will have to pack some books into the garage, but there is still at least one shelf in nearly every room, including the study of course.

I'm always uneasy in houses with no bookshelves. It almost puts me off wanting to view a house when there are none in shot.

Thankfully, I live in a university town so almost every house we viewed had some book space allocated.

Husband doesn't have books behind him on video calls but this is the car crash of his work space. It was already set up for occasional home working and daily gaming prior to all this. The room itself needs gutting - that alcove was a very damp cupboard when we moved in - and lots of woodwork also ends up happening in there because of the floor space and lack of concern about ruining anything.

The coke bottle is full of bird seed, btw.

Is this a fucking joke?! Haha. Why do incredibly well- read, intelligent bloody scientists who are advising countries on how to deal with this pandemic have books in their study?

Bloody books in a study... who'd have thunk it?
🙄😶

If you were filming me at home, I'd be in the sitting room with a large cat draped on the sofa behind me.

This is probably why nobody has bothered to film me at home.

“Living with this many books is normal if you read

Unless you have to move house regularly and get rid of a lot of them to declutter grin“

We’ve been there, though, moving several times and up and downsizing each time. When we moved in here we brought 67 boxes of books, and finally had space to have them all on shelves, rather than just my work ones and a selection of the rest, with the remainder in storage. (I am never moving again, just because I can’t face dealing with the books!)

Okay. Now I have to be concerned that the people I was on a zoom meeting with yesterday think I'm boasting. I didn't realise that I'm supposed to not be in a room with books in it.

I'm really bemused that people are assuming it's staged. Surely it's bloody obvious that most of these people will have an office or study at home. And those tend to have books in them if you're an expert on anything, a journalist, or even a politician.

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

Or in the case of COVID experts, dead clever with lots of reference books?
I've not watched the these interviews but I'd expect some of the larger shelves to be filled with box files and folders.

Our house/book case is like that.
We really enjoy seeing inside their houses and rating the book shelves. Sad but in lockdown you have to find your own entertainment

We were trying to work out where we'd sit if we had to be interviewed for TV. Came to the conclusion the only logical answer was to sit on teen DSS bed, in front of her newly painted wall as it's the only one without scuffs/photos/a dog tearing about in the background.

It's dark gray sparkle, but might add a bit of mystique

(Needless to say, not expecting the BBC to come knocking anytime soon, so not a major concern right now)

I have just checked. There is one wall in my house that doesn't have any books on it. Not all of them are full of books, obviously, but all the others have some books, on shelves, on a dresser, over the desk, on the wide door frames above the internal doors etc. Most of my books are actually at my office (not in my house) or on my kindle, but there are still books all over the place. I really don't think that's weird.

It'll just be a quieter part of the house where you have room to set up a laptop and webcam. Other options are kitchens, messy bedrooms, the lounge where your family are probably hiding out...

You’d have to be a real philistine to think that someone talking in front of bookshelves was staged to make themselves look clever.

I've worked at home for several years now, with a bookcase behind me so on view on my zoom calls, I set it up like that some I can grab my job related book easily, presumably for a lot of them it's for the exact same reason it's their home office.

I work in the dining room and if I put my cam on for Lync calls (we don't), the chances are the people on the other end would see a clothes horse full of pants

We are bookshelf free in our house. I can't stand clutter. We barely have any ornaments, just looking here in the lounge, there aren't any. I work in a technical job and all my reference material is digital, as it means I can get to it wherever I am in the country.