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

crayfish you're being sarcastic yeah?

It's not that they're just bookshelves, it's the way they are crammed in with books at all angles, including horizonally on top. Such a refreshing antidote to curated pintrest sterile rooms with zero personality (especially if it's that awful monochrome grey look)

I have to laugh at the suggestion that world class experts are trying to boast about being clever by showing everyone they have books in their house! Of course they're bloody clever and well read that's why they're being interviewed. Surely their long list of qualifications is more impressive than having purchased a book case and some books to put on it. Having books in your house is very very normal, not some kind of statement of intellectual superiority.

Although will always be the best talking head interview ever!

Pre-babies, the little bedroom was a study and had the desk and bookshelves facing eachother, so that's the look I'd have got from my desktop computer.

You'd have got a view of Harry Potter and The Urban Order

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.

Why? What’s wrong with guests knowing you read the Shopoholic series?

I find it strange how people fetishise books in this country.

I read 45+ books a year, I borrow from the library, buy from charity shops (then donate straight back) and use a Kindle.

We have 2 large book cases in the sitting room, full of reading books, reference books, cookbooks, DIY and design books etc.

Then in the study, there is a large bookcase filled with craft items and files, and a smaller bookcase in a nook with my craft books and patterns and stationary supplies.

In DD room, there is are 2 shelving units filled with her school books and notes. And a small bookcase with reading books.

So pretty much any room that we are likely to be doing video calls in, have bookcases that are likely to be in the background.

Although there is the room I am using, which is normally the spare bedroom, that we managed to reassemble DD's old desk to fit into, and I have my files piled on the floor and the wall behind me is a large print of the sea where DH and I grew up. But I do very few calls via video.

@SueEllenMishke
Not at all.
I'm going to look super sophisticated with mine at my next zoom meet, I'm going to add a pineapple.
And all my dd's certificates.

I’m loving the bookshelf porn of the lockdown. There’s nothing like a well stocked shelf

crayfish whatever floats your boat 🤷

I really don't think it's too difficult to understand that lots of people have lots of books in their house and that some of these might be housed in a study where people work and are therefore visible.

Bookcase Credibility twitter page: twitter.com/BCredibility

That twitter is very funny

That's a great twitter - I love Simon Schama's bookshelves - he definitely wins!

I don’t have bookshelves in the living room these days - we do have piles of books, books in every crevice in the bedrooms - and a room of books at MILs plus boxes of them in my sisters barn. Sadly we are a family of bookworms and not a lot of space!

My background would be a pile of laundry and a clothes horse.

I suppose seeing a politician doing an interview with one of those next wall art things "home is where my heart is", or other such rubbish, we'll you just wouldn't take them seriously, would you?

DD is having to have her music lessons via Skype from our dining room. We usually go to the teacher's house. His first comment was about all my books. I hadn't even given it a thought. Bookshelves on one wall, desk opposite. In a small house you are limited in where you can put the furniture.

Everything I have seen recently has been the presenter's lovely big pristine kitchen.

We had a thread on this a while back! Couple of people mentioned the microbiologist on sky who seems to sit in a bare front room with a sad little "university of reading" poster on staircase! I wonder if he read the thread as now for anything in the evening he is on a sofa with a habitat style lamp behind.

My in laws have all the family's doctorate theses in their library

A couple of nice fat PhD theses are ideal for raising the height of a monitor or laptop, but obviously renders them invisible.

I had to see my doctor via phone camera and so I placed a chair in front of my book case. I thought why not, everyone does it on TV. I did check to see what titles were in the shot - made sure Stephen King's 'The Stand' was visible.

I always use the background choices in Microsoft Teams

Am slightly puzzled by Matt Hancock's office at home. May be a distortion, but comes across as very narrow leaving me wondering how he managed to get in

I use the backgrounds too. DS has online school and has made his own greenscreen and devises relevant backdrops for each subject which is keeping him amused!

My books aren’t on display. The bookshelves are where they live

I also have my work calls in my office which has bookshelves in.