Fake books?? Wtf

[LawnFever]

I keep seeing these fake books posted online, which I’ve always thought were pretty odd but I’ve only just found out they’re sometimes more expensive than real books - like they’re £25 for a blank book with a fake cover, what’s the bloody point?

I was on a FB page, a few people posted a link to where to buy them and some sets of three were £100 +

Why on earth are people paying more money for fake books than they could just buy a real book for? Even if you’re not planning on reading them and it’s for ‘decor’

Aibu to think people could just buy real books?

It's for people who want an instant backdrop for their Insta, or Zoom if they're WFH. No-one wants to show off the Live, Laugh, Love 3D lettering that normally adorns their shelving and everyone's savvy to the bog standard backgrounds for Zoom, Teams etc. I was at a Teams meeting recently when every single person had the "white walls, potplant, black window frame" background - they looked like they were all in the same building but stacked up on different floors.

Well that's tacky as fuck isn't it?!

shaniac 🤣

It's not a new phenomenon - you used to be able to buy fake leather-looking books when I was young.

@Ihatefish 😂😂😂

@NotCornflakes couldn’t agree more.

It's for people who want an instant backdrop for their Insta, or Zoom if they're WFH

But why not just buy an actual copy of Chanel the Collections or whatever. Presumably you’d even get quicker delivery from Amazon!

Or even a 2nd hand bookstore then it looks gently worn or like you’ve actually looked at them without actually having too.

I don’t get it. Unless it’s a tidy place to store the billion pictures my kids draw me.

Utterly tragic.

Does anyone remember MFI in the 80s? A whole palace of fake books!

Are they not storage boxes? We have 2 fake books on our shelves (and lots of real ones!) The fake books store bills/batteries/small cables up out the way of the DC.

I've not seen this but your picture looks like an ornament rather than books, are they meant to be displayed in pile like that?

@AllThatFancyPaintsAsFair

I've not seen this but your picture looks like an ornament rather than books, are they meant to be displayed in pile like that?

They’re actual books just blank pages, I just think it’s odd when you can buy a real Chanel book for £30 to spend £25 on a blank one even if you only want it for show

@Camomila

Are they not storage boxes? We have 2 fake books on our shelves (and lots of real ones!) The fake books store bills/batteries/small cables up out the way of the DC.

I’ve seen those, but no these ones aren’t hollow they’ve got pages just not printed with anything

Very strange then, I have no idea why anyone would pay for those

It reminds me of the video cases at home when I was a child. They were meant to look like old books.

they’re £25 for a blank book with a fake cover

So, a notebook.

The spines wouldn't match if they real books though.

When you think about it, these fake books are art for the insta generation. An outside cover to impress and delight others, mostly people who you don't know, and nothing between those covers.

@SoupDragon

they’re £25 for a blank book with a fake cover

So, a notebook.

That’s what I thought.

Or a sketchbook
Scrapbook

I have quite a few blank books but they don’t stay blank long

Someone I used to go uni with invited me to hers before lockdown and she has some beautiful interior design ‘coffee table’ books she said she has no interest in reading them they are just for show 😩

Not to mention the copyright infringement from these sellers - they’ll get reported eventually.

When you think about it, these fake books are art for the insta generation. An outside cover to impress and delight others, mostly people who you don't know, and nothing between those covers.

You’ve summed it up perfectly! These books are a metaphor for their owners.

Someone on my local fb page was selling tins of Heinz soup with Cath Kidston labels for £5 each

Half the comments were confused outrage and the other half were "it's fashun daahling"

This reminds me of the time we went round to a relatively new friends house and they had a lovely piano. DP asked them if they played much and she said she played most nights. DP sat down and started playing and the piano was sooo out of tune that even to my untrained ear the song sounded awful. It obviously hadn’t been played for a long time. Absolutely no idea why she felt the need to lie- we are the very last people anyone would feel the need to impress!

@TwoZeroTwoZero

It reminds me of the video cases at home when I was a child. They were meant to look like old books.

My dad had those. He also had these little number stickers and he would put a discreet little "24" on the box then in a jotter write "24 - Die Hard" etc.

@Mypathtriedtokillme

Or even a 2nd hand bookstore then it looks gently worn or like you’ve actually looked at them without actually having too.

I don’t get it. Unless it’s a tidy place to store the billion pictures my kids draw me.

The peerless Myles Gopaleen offered his ^buchhandlung" service in the Irish Times in the 40s.

Here's an excerpt:

Cruiskeen Lawn November 10th, 1941

It will be remembered (how, in Heaven’s name, could it be forgotten?) that I was discoursing on Friday last on the subject of book-handling, my new service, which enables ignorant people who want to be suspected of reading books to have their books handled and mauled in a manner that will give the impression that their owner is very devoted to them. I described three grades of handling and promised to explain what you get under Class Four – the Superb Handling, or the Traitement Superbe, as we lads who spent our honeymoon in Paris prefer to call it. It is the dearest of them all, of course, but far cheaper than dirt when you consider the amount of prestige you will gain in the eyes of your ridiculous friends. Here are the details:
“Le Traitement Superbe. Every volume to be well and truly handled, first by a qualified handler and subsequently by a master-handler who shall have to his credit not less than 550 handling hours; suitable passages in not less than fifty per cent of the books to be underlined in good-quality red ink and an appropriate phrase from the following list inserted in the margin, viz:
Rubbish!
Yes, indeed!
How true, how true!
I don’t agree at all.
Why?
Yes, but cf. Homer, Od., iii, 151.
Well, well, well.
Quite, but Boussuet in his Discours sur l’Histoire Universelle has already established the same point and given much more forceful explanations.
Nonsense, nonsense!