Is this what 99% of mumsnetters homes look like

[Damaged27]

After all these interior design threads this is what I'm imagining everyone on mumsnets homes look like. Just curious if I'm way off because iv never been in a home like this. Maybe if the person is in their 80s. Do people really have bookshelves?

I forgot my pictures too. As I say, spare room/cum office/cum things which won't go elsewhere!!

We have a library! It was actually the old linen cupboard in the hallway and we put books in it and then added chairs. I am going to go and take photos

Yes, I would say that our house looks like a very great deal smaller and much more cluttered version of the pics in the OP.

Do people have bookshelves?

Yes @Damaged27 Many people do. They also (are you sitting down for this?) have chairs and tables and toilets and baths and doors and windows.

Are you OK?

I have actually found some comments here quite amusing.

I love books. I love reading. I have quite shelves full.

But seeing books in a house, especially a living room, only tells you that that person has books in their living room. It doesnt tell you how much they read... or what they read. It doesn't tell you if they go to the library twice a week, or have an ereader, or read and pass on. It doesn't tell you if there are piles of books in the bedroom. It doesn't tell you if the person lost all their childhood possessions in a house fire, or move country every couple of years.
Its not a sign of intelligence. Take bird books for example... yes I do have a few. But when I saw an interesting bird recently... my phone was more useful as I could take a photo at that instant and image search... and had all the up to date info instantly.

Growing up we had a 20 book encyclopedia taking up a whole shelf. Now... a phone can get you the same information and more instantly. We only use the big clunky dictionary as a flower press... again the Internet is more useful.

Oh and I have inside plants too 🪴 😂

Why would you boast about having bookshelves? Weird. It's just a thing you either do have or you don't. You can buy cheap books, so it's not a wealth brag. I know people who will only read from a physical book. I have always been a bookworm and it's important (to me) to have books around and I need somewhere to put them. I do the occasional book dump to charity. Not having bookshelves would feel odd for us. I have been in plenty of homes without (obvious) bookshelves and didn't think about it (until now). OP asked the question so posters are answering.

I do agree with this, I have so many on my shelves that mean nothing to me and really are just trash - why do I keep them??

Completely agree it's a type of hoarding for me.

My house consists of bookshelves, most of them are in a subject that interests me reference and colllector's items. If I want to read trash I do it on the kindle.

Op I grew up in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Liverpool in the 90s. Mum was a student, dad unemployed, on free school meals etc.

Still grew up with multiple book cases. I had two in my bedroom. My dad built a massive floor to ceiling bookcase out of a few disused pallates he found in a skip. There were two big second hand book cases in my mum's bedroom and a cupboard in the kitchen full of books.

I had free access to almost every book in the house (except for some of the really gruesome horror stuff) and had a reading age of 13 when I was 9.

I'm now a single parent in a tiny rented three bed terrace. I still have multiple book cases all filled with books. My ds has full access to any and every book in my house (I don't own anything I wouldn't let him read, I don't like horror or smut). He's been a reader for a couple of years now and he is 10.

I also have miss matched furniture but that's because I'm broke not rich. I would bloody love to have a library though.

Being northern and skint doesn't mean you don't read. Books aren't necessarily expensive and bookcases don't need to be either.

No, my home isnt like that.
It's minimalist and a mix of mid century & deco.

I have a glass fronted bookshelf (although I think it was originally a display cabinet) in the living room for photographic books but fiction I use kindle or audible now.

I do live in a house that looks a bit like that. I have two rooms with floor to ceiling bookshelves all along one wall, plus books else where.

DH and I are readers, but I don't hang onto a lot of books as I don't like clutter. We have one bookshelf in the living room, kids bookshelves in the family room and some books in each of the bedrooms. I'm hoping to convert the garage at some point and that will contain an office with a reading area and shelves.

I have a lot of book shelves, 9 6' ones over the whole house. But they're nothing like as tidy as that.

Yes we have lots of bookshelves downstairs and in bedrooms
Some more of which we ve been erecting this last week
Where else do you put the books unless you give then to charity.
But as we generally buy our favourite authors when they publish they’re first editions. Or for non fiction as they are for reference.
I don’t want to have to go into the roof space to find a book when I want it.

I love reading but all my books are on my kindle so I don't have bookshelves.

Well, you’ve said you “barely” read so of course you won’t have empty book cases.

But yes, most readers tend to have somewhere to put their books. Otherwise, where would they go? My books built up massively over lockdown so they obviously really accumulate over a lifetime - hence the bookcases in many rooms for some people.

I use my Kindle on holiday, get the occasional library book when I take my DC and have a big bookcase for my books (and my DH’s though he doesn’t have loads) and my young DC have a little bookcase in their room. We also donate books to charity regularly after a clear out, especially kids’ ones they grow out of.

Fair enough if you don’t read (my DH prefers to see a narrative play out in a good series on telly and prefers to read nonfiction, usually related to work) but having books at home is important to me, even after finishing a book and never returning to it ever again. I really, really want my DC to grow up to love books like me and this is one way we model. There’s interesting studies about the number of books in the home and literacy of children. (Can’t remember who conducted them before I’m asked but I’m sure a quick Google will point anyone in the right direction.)

I’m only halfway to 80 but I think the second room in the OP is beautiful!

To answer the OP, we have a lot of books. Probably a couple of thousand? I am an English teacher and use many of them regularly for work. A wall of bookshelves not only looks nice but helps with insulation and acoustics in a room with hard floors.

The wide-eyed incredulity of this thread is tiresome, however. Of course many people own no physical books, either because they read digital texts or because they don’t read at all. Reading is supposed to help with empathy and understanding the wider world but that doesn’t seem to compute for a certain type of literary MNer.

Yes. 4 downstairs and another upstairs.

Couldn't bear my house without books. Now I have to use a kindle I've cleared out loads of paperbacks but kept my precious hardbacks I've collected over the years.
Same for my DH

My furnishings are nothing like that, however

I love the meerkats. I have them to

Linen cupboard library and reading nook

I would love to see this!

We don't have book shelves, books yes but not on show, I'd rather have items, photos etc on display. I do love to read tho so not all bad.

I have plenty of hardback fiction

I need bookshelves - where else would I put my Discworld collection?

@Twoshoesnewshoes

Mine also very similar-is your house Victorian?

Then I also have a long hallway upstairs and we built one of the walls to be floor to ceiling books.

I love having books. I also read of course that a great way to encourage children to read is to model the behaviour and both DH and I love to read and so do all of our DC.

DS and his GF have just bought a lovely period flat and are starting their collections of books-they are in their 20's.

DS said he used to use a kindle but realised when books have been changed/censored by the publishers-such as Roald Dahl's-that the kindle automatically updates and he didn't like the fact that he really didn't "own" them at all if someone else could alter them.

I think a very important point!

I have bookshelves like that, but I live in quite a compact modest house.

I'm 57 and have always loved reading. I have a good selection of art & photography books that I have collected over the years, a lot of biographies (my favourite genre); and fiction.