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?

That was an interesting article, but I don't agree with any of the points. My ebook is a basic Kindle Paperwhite, so I have no other distractions. I can make it brighter and change the font size, but I don't do anything else with it other than read a book. I don't find struggling to keep a paperback open with one hand more joyful than holding a kindle either.

I am reading a printed book now, but can only read for a short time because DH wants the lights off (my favourite time to read is in bed). The previous printed book I read was Nineteen Eighty Four and it was a PITA as the print was so small.

I think we all just use books in different ways.

I find music speaks to me more than literature. But a good story, or an interesting non-fiction, is fine.

Indeed. But the OP asked, and numerous posters keep asking, why people collect books. So we answered. It's a bit like me asking why people collect handbags ( because I only have 2 or 3) and telling people to donate their dust collecting handbags to charity and share them around so other people can enjoy them.

I don't much care what other people do, but yes, I tend to make friends with people with whom I have a lot in common. Doesn't everybody?

Judi Dench blew Schwarzenegger away by delivering Shakespeare's Sonnet 29 from memory. Most of us can't do that, but we sometimes enjoy a delicious piece of writing.

it's a treat.

How is writing delicious? You can’t taste it!

Yes DH is the same. Much prefers non fiction and is more plot driven than language driven. For us it divides in line with our academic interests.
I do also love music so much know what you mean about it’s power to move us.

Do they? I hardly know anyone with bookshelves!? I haven’t had any for years!

Yes, I'm more plot driven than language driven. I am reading a book that DH describes as being "written by someone trying to win a literary prize".

That wouldn't be me now. I'm very much a, each to their own, sort of person. I personally just find it bizarre that for example, people would decide they weren't interested in dating someone who didn't have a bookshelf!? It sounds maddening to me. There's surely an equal amount of people who are good (and bad) company, who have or do not have a bookshelf. It must say more about them to have such a mindset. Anyway, it's their viewpoint to have and they're entitled to it.

I love reading and have lots of books and also use a kindle
However I don’t like the look of bookshelves so all my books are wall to wall in the hallway and for old ones I’m less likely to want in a hurry I have book shelves in the attic across each gable end!

Have you tried audible? Podcasts also might work for you.

I'm gonna have a look 🥰

What an odd question OP! You seem amazed that anyone has bookshelves. There are those of us who cannot imagine that people DON'T.

1000 book libraries would be quite small libraries though. Most public libraries are in the tens of thousands and large libraries ( esp well known university libraries) run into the millions. So a thousand book library is really quite modest in the scheme of things.

Yes Umberto Eco had some really interesting ideas about the value and importance of unread books. Not sure he’d have found MN an ideal audience though 😕

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

I love books and have a bookcase full but I really struggle with the idea that that there is something superior about it.

It's something I enjoy. Nothing more, nothing less.

Some of the nicest people I know wouldn't dream of reading a book.

" what is this certain type of person" ? That you are struggling to be polite about? @Willyoujust

I'm gonna have a look 🥰

OP there's also Borrow Book App through your library which does free Audible & Kindle books. It's saving me a lot of money.

I know its interesting how different we all are and how different our lives are. It's like the nature/nurture thing I find it fascinating

My house looks nothing like that. I wish it did.

I have 6, bookcases, piles of books that don't fit and a kindle.

where do you keep your books then?

Dating implies looking for a partner. I couldn't live with someone who has no interest in something that is so important to me. There is nothing wrong with that and implying there is, fails to take account of human nature.

Aren't we supposed to set our own relationship boundaries?

I've been dumped because I owned books and liked reading so I would certainly be wary around dating someone if they were the sort, as occasionally happens, who declared they never read a book as if it was something to be proud of, because I would worry we would be incompatible

there are all sorts of senarios inbetween of course, those are two fairly extreme ends, but it's not all that unusual to want to date someone whose interests vaguely align with yours

Yes to this! Borrow Box is brilliant 👏

There ISN'T anything superior about it. But some people love books and reading and it “ reaches” them in the same way some people love music or sport. That doesn’t make them superior either; but it does make them music lovers ( who couldn’t live in a house without music) or sport lovers ( who couldn’t live without plenty of that in their lives). Book lovers love owning books, connecting with other book lovers ( and yes, even discussing quotes or passages they have read and re-read) just as music and sport lovers enjoy connecting.

My BIL sneering asked me that question because he thought our 5 bookcases were rather paltry. I told him we used the library as well.

My home probably does look like an older person's home to the casual observer. Most of our furniture is mismatched, much of it passed down from family members who no longer needed or wanted it. I used to love to crochet lace, so we have quite a few doilies out (and many more stowed away in a drawer). There's plenty of clutter (dog toys, magazines/books, decorative pieces, etc.), and bookshelves in most rooms. I prefer to read on the Kindle, but DH likes old books, and I have lots saved from before I switched to ebooks, plus reference type books that are more practical to have in non-digital form.

As for why I keep them, I like knowing that we have a wealth of free entertainment at our fingerprints. I feel the same way about our musical instruments (guitar, hammered duclimer) which also probably look out of place in most modern homes. We do have some houseplants, though, but only the easiest ones, because I'm not able to keep the fussy ones alive.