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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Where are the bookshelves?!

490 replies

Babysharkdododont · 07/04/2021 20:38

Inspired by another thread, do people genuinely not believe its possible to live without shelf after shelf of books in a house, or is it, as I suspect, faux naivety / virtue signalling?

We've not got many books in our house, both adults are degree educated professionals, but feel no need to have books. When I've finished a book I pass it on, as I've no desire to read the same book twice. We've a few shelves in the study with a few technical manuals etc, but these go out of date so quickly as to be obsolete as soon as they're printed, so we go online mostly.

The dc have books of course as they don't tire quickly of rereading, but I certainly don't think we're slobs for not having lots of books.

What are these books people are so keen to keep, and tell everyone that they must have?

OP posts:
Hankunamatata · 08/04/2021 16:54

Kid have loads of book shelves. Bit we have none in west of the house. My books pre e reader are boxed in the loft.

Hankunamatata · 08/04/2021 16:55

West=rest

Devlesko · 08/04/2021 16:55

It's whatever you enjoy.
We have lots of books, whole walls full. It smealls like a book shop and we love it.
If you don't want lots of books then don't have them.

saraclara · 08/04/2021 16:56

@JaneJeffer

Why judge people who like books and enjoy having books in their homes? What's it to you? The OP isn't judging people who have books. She's judging people who judge people who have no books!

For a thread full of bookworms the comprehension of the OP is very poor Grin

Seriously, this thread is doing my head in! A whole bunch of people who pride themselves on being readers, yet seem to have no reading comprehension at all!

It absolutely beggars belief.

FleetwoodRaincoat · 08/04/2021 17:01

I know what you mean OP. I feel the same about people who are proud not to watch telly. Why??

lazylinguist · 08/04/2021 17:10

People can be unbelievably smug and judgy about it OP, you are right. We still have quite a lot of books, but we've been giving lots to charity shops over the past few years. We do have books we re-read, but they are in the minority. We also all four of us have Kindles, so we very rarely buy actual books any more.

readingismycardio · 08/04/2021 17:19

Ohhhh thanks for the thread! This is the exact thing I was debating with DH yesterday. I don't keep them anymore. I only keep the books that I loved/want to revisit/were gifted to me/reference books. I am in the process of a huge declutter and I sold about 50 books. Extra cash for me, yay! As a pp has said before, some of them don't deserve a space on the shelf!

I love reading (see my username), I read between 50-60 a year. My company has a "library" service with thousands of books that I can borrow & I use that a lot + kindle.

If I had a huge house I'd definitely have my own library, but unfortunately this is not the case...

thevassal · 08/04/2021 17:32

I know what you mean OP, and think the people on this thread who don't "get it" can't have seen the various faux bewildered/smug posts on MN - although some of them are popping up now on this thread- see Fangsforthememories, SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius, and others...

I've seen numerous times on MN, "never trust someone whose TV is bigger than their bookshelf" or "AIBU to silently judge people who don't have a shelf full of books," or "but where are the books (on a property porn thread) etc, completely ignoring the fact that people might not read the same book twice, might read vociferously but then return books to library/charity shop/friend, might have 100s of volumes on a kindle, might prefer audiobooks, could have a whole mini library that as a guest you wouldn't see, etc. etc.

I'm a reader - an eng lit grad reader - and had loads of classics but they were only the cheapy penguin ones and are all available for free online so I ditched them rather than paying for storage while I went travelling/house shared.

There's a horrible whiff of classism too - someone who only has one room in a house share, or is renting in a temporary job, or is crammed into a tiny flat just might not have the money to buy books, the space to display them, or the ability to transport them during frequent moves but this is no reflection of their reading ability or intelligence level!

lolacola77 · 08/04/2021 17:37

I hate all the snobbery about books. I personally love them but only have a small collection of favourites. I don't have the room or cash to keep buying new ones. I relied on the library and charity shops pre Covid. I've tried audio books and kindle but can't get on with it. Some people just aren't readers, it doesn't mean they aren't smart people. I've met plenty of professed bookworms who have clearly just bought classics for show!

JaneJeffer · 08/04/2021 17:45

@Hankunamatata

West=rest
Aww I thought you lived in a mansion. Disappointed.
CounsellorTroi · 08/04/2021 17:51

CounsellorTroi

A relative of mine has a book lined living room and no tv. I do know however that they do watch TV on a laptop. But it's like they don't want people to know they do.

I’ve done that for years, much before it was a thing.
Nothing to do with not wanting people to know you’re watching tv. No more than hiding books in cupboard/getting rid of them is about not wanting people to know you are reading books.
For us, It’s about the fact you are choosing what. You are watching rather than mindless scrolling.
It could be because everyone has different tastes and watches something different.

You should be careful not to transfer your way of looking at things onto others

Well, we have a small bookcase and large TV in our living room plus bookshelves in most other rooms. We certainly don't watch TV mindlessly, it only goes on when there is something we want to watch.

I think you also need to be careful not to transfer your way of looking at things on to others.

OwlBeThere · 08/04/2021 17:53

I have thousands of books of all kinds. I’m quite minimalist in most things but I love my books and don’t like to throw them away.

OwlBeThere · 08/04/2021 17:54

I also don’t own a tv, when my last one broke I never replaced it, I don’t pretend that I never watch tv programmes though, I just watch on my laptop if I want to watch something.

LubaLuca · 08/04/2021 18:00

@OwlBeThere

I have thousands of books of all kinds. I’m quite minimalist in most things but I love my books and don’t like to throw them away.
I don't know anyone who'd throw books away. Once they've lived out their use with one person, they get given away to charity or local groups, passed on to friends or swapped. Even trashy holiday reads are left in hotels' book swaps.
thebillyotea · 08/04/2021 18:03

I have a tv. Just not in the living room. It's not about faking anything, but I have kids.. surely that's enough reason for keeping the tv away from the family room? Grin

fizbosshoes · 08/04/2021 18:06

I only read books on holiday. Apart from kids books, we have 1 small bookcase of books.

JaneJeffer · 08/04/2021 18:08

I don't know anyone who'd throw books away.
Now that I would judge! I buy most of my books second hand and give away any I don't want to keep.

user68901 · 08/04/2021 18:15

We have very few books now other than cookery books etc . I generally only read my kindle as i can adjust the font size and use the back light. Books gather dust and so most went to the charity shop. I have read thousands but I don't want all my walls taken up with bookshelves to prove anything.

PenfoldPenny · 08/04/2021 18:20

I would hate to live in a house without books. Most of my friends are also book owning people.

TheSandman · 08/04/2021 18:31

@thebillyotea

I have a tv. Just not in the living room. It's not about faking anything, but I have kids.. surely that's enough reason for keeping the tv away from the family room? Grin
I don't know anyone who'd throw books away.

Me neither. Someone died in the village recently - he was elderly and lived alone. The family let it be known via Facebook that anything they didn't want was going to be stacked at the back of the house and horsed into a skip the next day - "please, help yourself". By the time I got there everything was in the skip including lots of paperbacks - and it was raining. I rescued what I could which included some 1940s Penguin paperbacks all of which dried out pretty well and went into my (600+) Penguins collection , some got passed on to the village's 'take one leave one' community bookshelf. Some, sadly, were so knackered they went onto the compost heap being totally irrecoverable.

TheSandman · 08/04/2021 18:32

Ooops! Not sure why that quote is on my previous. I must have hit a button I didn't mean to.

poppyzbrite4 · 08/04/2021 18:39

I love my books. I have books from when I was a child and love having them around me. I often curate my books and give bag fulls to charity when they are overgrowing the shelves but I would be bereft without them. My books are the one thing I have linking me to my past, I also have favourite books that mean a lot to me.

I'm into books. I will go to bookshops and smell the new paper and feel the covers. I like beautiful hardbacks and might have several copies of the same beloved book in different editions. I also collect a certain type of book and am delighted when I find that particular edition. I have some first editions and signed copies. I love going to charity shops and browsing the books. I go to author readings and discussions as well.

So, no I couldn't have a house without books OP.

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 08/04/2021 18:50

”I know what you mean OP, and think the people on this thread who don't "get it" can't have seen the various faux bewildered/smug posts on MN - although some of them are popping up now on this thread- see Fangsforthememories, SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius, and others...”

@thevassal - are you saying that I have made ‘faux bewildered’ posts on this subject on MN - because that is news to me!

My first post was my response to things already said on the thread, not just the OP. There is no rule on MN that posters cannot share tangential thoughts raised by a thread.

My subsequent posts were about e-readers, and were responding to points raised on the thread - can you point out to me where it says that I am not allowed to do that?

The OP on a thread starts the conversation - but then the conversation can, and usually does, take on a life of its own.

RampantIvy · 08/04/2021 18:58

Well, we have a small bookcase and large TV in our living room plus bookshelves in most other rooms. We certainly don't watch TV mindlessly, it only goes on when there is something we want to watch

This describes us perfectly @CounsellorTroi, except that our lounge has two bookcases (both containing books and DVDs)

lazylinguist · 08/04/2021 18:58

For us, It’s about the fact you are choosing what. You are watching rather than mindless scrolling

Watching on a laptop doesn't stop you from mindless scrolling. Having a tv in your living room doesn't make you do mindless scrolling. We only watch what we choose to watch. I never ever just sit and look at whatever is on tv. My tv screen is much better for good films etc than watching on a laptop screen!