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 think it also depends on what kind of reader you are. A friend on mine reads paperback fiction which she then donates to the bookshelf at the station or the bookhut so someone else can read it. I tend to buy a lot of exhibition catalogues and art monographs and at £25+ a pop, I couldn't afford to just give them away, hence why I have a library.

We have thousands of books in our house- family room and front room have bookshelves along one wall, my husband and my studies are each full of IKEA billies. Books are bliss.

@Veggie1965 shock horror, some people reread books!

Our house (on a good day, freshly hoovered, DC not home, dogs out of shot) is not all that dissimilar from the pic on the right.

We have bookshelves in every room except the bathrooms and the downstairs loo. Even the landing has a built-in bookshelf.

Lots of bookshelves. They hold a lot of board games and I am a keen reader but love my kindle and it’s adjustable font size.

I also reread some of my old childhood books with DC

We reread them, we refer to them (even the fiction books we might looks stuff up in- like where does a particular scene happen), husband uses them as reference for his writing but most of all we hope the kids read- I love the idea my daughter can pick whatever she feels like off the shelves.

My house looks like this. I don’t keep every book forever, only ones I might want to read/refer to again, but that is still quite a lot as it turns out. And I use the library a lot as well. I don’t do Amazon so no kindle. I was brought up in a house with a lot of books (local charity shop used to do 10 children’s books for £1) so it’s normal to me. I’m in my 30s not 80s but that’s still a couple of decades in which I’ve been amassing books, some of which have been through loads of moves at this point including internationally, and some even belonged to my parents. I do have a white gloss kitchen as well though.

A woman on Instagram has a very cool home with bookshelves housing lots of Penguin Classics, a design classic. She has a lot of vintage iconic designer pieces. https://www.instagram.com/christenpears/

It's the kind of home featured in an interiors magazine. Her home looks nothing like the pictures you posted, which are of deeply uncool, unfashionable interiors.

Have a flick through some high-end interiors magazines, I'm sure you'll find plenty of them have bookshelves.

I have shelves, ok they're from B&Q so not built in or anything.
They're full of books, magazines, jigsaws, classic videos and photo albums.. where else would i keep my stuff?

OP you would hate my house, but i dont care because i love it!

I read a lot but don’t have bookshelves… what’s the point in keeping them once you’ve read them? I pass them on to friends, family or charities.

And that's all that matters

All mediums have a place.

I love my Kindle for travelling with several trendy “paperbacks” I’d otherwise buy at the airport. It also enables me to highlight text and write extensive notes. This is so useful for annotation for work. Kindles are also great for when you want to see what all the fuss is about but don’t want to be seen dead reading it. See: Fifty Shades of Grey. Ahem.

I love Audible when trying to get my steps in and doing chores, especially ironing. It was such a tonic when cluster feeding into the small hours. I remember Barack Obama’s voice being so soothing when listening to A Promised Land.

Libraries are great for donated Booker Prize shortlisters. And cook books for cuisines I haven’t tried and, like Booker Prize shortlisters, may not be my taste so I don’t want to commit to buying them.

It does look quite like my house. I spent almost as much as the new kitchen on fitted bookshelves a few years ago. Tripled my amount of shelfspace so future proofing for future books too.

I don't see any clutter in the pictures in the OP. I see a lot of shelves neatly stacked. Clutter to me is stuff all over the floor or spilling off shelves and on top of other furniture. That room is perfectly neat.

We’ve cut right down on books, I don’t hang on to any paperback fiction. But we still have a bookshelf with art books, cook books, children’s books… I just can’t imagine not having a bookshelf.

Yes, I have lots of books - not because I want to show off or feel morally superior, but because I love them and they make me happy. Surely that’s what your home is for? I don’t give a shit how many books anyone else has or doesn’t have; however I do find it a bit depressing when people refer to them as ‘clutter’ or ‘hoarding’. Have they never reread a book?

I only keep my absolute favourite fiction that I want to read again (and again and again). Also to lend out to people if I've been raving about the book and they're interested in a read.

Sometimes, if I need a book for some downtime without a screen (e.g. travel) I find it easier to grab one I know I'll love rather than searching for something new that I might not - I find choosing a new book quite stressful!

I'm preparing to downsize so I've whittled it down to my top 30 or so. Some I've had since I was old enough to read a novel. They're beautifully written, so the enjoyment is in savouring that rather than finding out what happens at the end.

House doesn’t look like that but I just did a quick count and we have at least 14 floor to ceiling bookshelves (6 in the living room/kitchen), 2 each in the kids’ rooms, 1 in our bedroom and 3 in the study. I have another 4 bookshelves full of books in my office (I am an academic). So yep we have a lot of books and we all (DH and the kids included) read a lot. We don’t have a lot of mismatched stuff and no inherited furniture of any sort. (Also we live in the US and a house like this would look very out of place).

I think it’s something that can’t be explained. If you are a book keeper it’s so fundamentally instinctive that you can’t break it down - like trying to explain how to sneeze.

I guess maybe because every decent book read becomes in some way a part of you. I’ve ditched a few lighter novels that were ok but not keepers - the sort you end up with as a number 3 on a Waterstones 3 for 2. But the thought of not having a copy of everything valuable/ worthwhile/ enlightening I have read makes me feel like I’m wearing a coat with the back ripped out of it. But then we do have rather a book storage issue. Too embarrassed to venture figures re numbers of books/bookcases in our house. Let’s just say we use them as 3d wallpaper/ insulation.

We have bookshelves in the hallway not the living room, but yes we definitely have bookshelves. And as a pp said, a home with lots of books is one of the best things you can do for your children.

My home doesn't look like that (much smaller) but doesn't everyone have bookshelves??

My DS has 3 Billy bookshelves in his room!

99% of people's homes don't have bookshelves like this, but it could be around 50% (I've no idea, but having books like that is normal for me).

You obviously move in circles of a certain type of person if non of your friends have bookshelves. 🤣 I am trying to be polite!!

Some of you must live in massive houses - 14 floor to ceiling bookcases. A little bit of not so stealth boasting going on perhaps?

When I was young I had a couple of jobs where I went into peoples houses - young families - and they all had a massive sofa, a massive telly, stark black and white type colour schemes, fake wood floors, little stuff and no books.

I’d never encountered houses like this and I was surprised, but I was very young.

Now I understand that there are lots of different people in the world and they live differently.

How old are you OP, that you don’t know this?