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 keep books I’ve read because rereading them - and sometimes even just seeing the titles and names on the spines - is like smelling a perfume that’s really evocative and takes me back to a time, place, person… I’ve got the first book my husband chose for me when we were dating and every one since, each with a little message written on the inside cover. Many track my life: I’ve got novels and non-fiction about motherhood, for instance.

There’s a story or character for however we feel: grief, heartbreak, failure, you name it… These stories and characters have helped me make sense of and articulate my own emotions. I will often say to a friend, “You have to borrow this book! You will really relate to this character at the moment!” I can’t wait until I can do the same with my DC and we can discuss something other than the Gruffalo.

I teach English and constantly return to fiction to try to find a particularly effective literary device or distinctive style to share with my students. And some passages are worth returning to purely for the sheer joy of reading them, of course.

Reading is a morally neutral pursuit which is something people often seen to forget. Reading novels categorically does not make you a better person. I know that’s hard to take for all you obsessives out there but it is sadly true.

That's a magnificent collection - technically 8 libraries I'm told by one of my favourite booksellers.

Umberto Eco lived in a palace, but his 'unlibrary' - books he owned but had yet to read - numbered 80,000 books.
Sir James Goldsmith built a Xanadu in Mexico, with a library of 250,000 books but despite all his staff and enormous wealth, the termites ate the lot.

I have book shelves, but my house doesn't look like either of those.

I actually mostly read on my kindle for practicality (and to stop my DH from divorce me for having the light on all night) but we do have hundreds of books. Children's books, cook books and reference books are just not the same electronically.

That pretty much sums me up @greenmarsupial.
I love reading and am a member of a book club. I am not really a collector or hoarder - we have moved house too many times, but we still have 5 bookshelves with books on, as well as CD's and DVDs.

Some books I know I won't read again, and some I know I will. I have donated all the "won't read again books" to various fund raisers/charities and have kept the rest.

I really dislike the sneering and morally superior tones some posters make when they say they are uncomfortable if they go into a house where no books are visible. That just says more about them than the people they are looking down their noses at.

Most of my fiction is in bookcases upstairs BTW.

Of course it doesn’t make you a better person, but it generally makes people more interesting. Depends on the books though.

And some passages are worth returning to purely for the sheer joy of reading them, of course.

See, I genuinely don’t understand this. Surely the point of a book is either to be entertained by the story or to learn something? I can honestly say I’ve never gone back to a book because I like a particular paragraph.

Over the years I’ve had many culls and I reduce the numbers of books each time. It hurts each time but I don’t want my house cluttered with books anymore. Fiction books went years ago. Many reference books etc were put in the attic or garage in crates but I’ve even got to the point of reducing those now. I recently got rid of my old uni books. What is the point of keeping them? I’ll never read them again. It was sad but I’m glad I’ve done it. A few more boxes full are on my to do list. I’ve got a couple of small book cases for more special books and that is all I intend keeping. I like my uncluttered home now. Google means I don’t need books in my life. I read fiction and then I pass them on.

I would have thought many people are doing the same.

I used to have bookshelves like that.

Then I got a kindle

My house is quite like that! Overflowing with books. Parents' house is the same.

The books iv managed to read and enjoyed in the past have small chapters and are true life stories I enjoyed blood sweat and tea, confessions of a gp, confessions of a police officer ect. Iv also read some autobiographies so if anyone has any recommendations of things along these lines for me to try I'd be greatful.

Agatha Christie would have died a very poor woman if readers were focused on self-improvement. That we prefer to improve our odds for not getting caught made her rich.

Some prose is just so good, that you love how a thought is expressed or a subject explained and it bears repeating.

Our house does look a bit like the second pic…
we have mismatched furniture (because we were both married before) and a ton of books.
I love books, I have a kindle but I can’t bear to get rid of paper books as they have such a link to my history. DH and I are equally well educated but he hardly ever reads. Lack of time and inclination.
I would hate a minimalist home but wouldn’t judge anyone for having one. A really good friend at work is heavily into minimalism as she finds it much more relaxing. Whereas I’d live contentedly in a library with a huge velvet arm chair and loads of paintings!

Well everyone is different. Some people re-watch sports matches for what they perceive to be the beauty of the action.

I’ve never found that at all!

I’ve read books that I think are trying to get to that, but I just find them pretentious and overwritten (I find this with most Booker-nominated books)

What kind of people are you interested in?
I actually prefer biography since, depending on the subject, you get a wider view. But it's subjective. Some prefer the horse's mouth approach.

err yeah. Three bookcases in our living room 🤷🏻‍♀️

What you been up to @xile? 👀

Random choice but… Minnie Driver’s autobiography is great

That's a pity. Book prizes aren't always a guarantee of readability, sadly. Word of mouth recommendation has been more reliable for me.

I genuinely go back to books for the delight of how they are written. Even for example Dorothy L Sayers where the books are detective fiction the style just pleases me so much that I go back and reread.
I probably have learned many things from books but it’s rarely my intention and I have abandoned books on topics which interest me if I don’t like the prose.
but I might just be odd!

You need better friends.

Since when has someone’s worth as a friend been related to how many books they have? Reading doesn’t seem to have helped you realise that a person can be kind or interesting or funny or whatever despite not being an avid reader.

The last book I read was matthew perry but it was really long I struggled and never actually finished it. Which is why I think shorter chapters is the key which is why I liked blood sweat and tea and the confessions books as each chapter was a separate story about each patient and was only about five pages long. So was easier to stop and start

Don't let the naysayers, here and elsewhere, influence you. You're not odd, you just love words and reading. Because they are, or can be, great.