RULE #1: THE PRIME DIRECTIVE -- It is unacceptable to display any book in a public space of your home if you have not read it. Therefore, to be placed on Matt Selman's living room bookshelves, a book must have been read cover to cover, every word, by Matt Selman. If you are in the home of Matt Selman and see a book on the living room shelves, you know FOR SURE it has been read by Matt Selman. - Matt Selman (The Simpson's writer/producer)
I came across a comparison of attitude towards books and book shelves and it compared Matt Selman's views at Time Magazine (above) and Ezra Klein's view at The American Prospect (below).
No, this is all wrong. Bookshelves are not for displaying books you've read -- those books go in your office, or near your bed, or on your Facebook profile. Rather, the books on your shelves are there to convey the type of person you would like to be.Surrounded by hundreds of books, Dvds and Cds which fill the bookshelves around all my walls in my apartment, I think it is even more significant what books, etc are on the floor next to my feet at this very moment. So here's an interesting list. They include Antonio Gramsci's Selection from Cultural Writings, Perly's 1992 street map, The Art of Theological Reflection by Killen and De Beer, The complete Mr Bean DVDs, Michael Swan's Practical English Usage, Christ and Culture by H Richard Niebuhr, Vol 36 of the Word Biblical commentary: John, also Transforming Bible Study by Bob Graham ... and more (including a Bible).
From the book rack I keep in my bed (Yes I do have some in the bed with me!) AA Milne's Winnie-The-Pooh, The Early Asimov Volume 2 (together with other scifi anthologies), Barron's Art Handbook Colored pencils, also Meeting People is fun:How to overcome shyness.
What's the question? Why do you have so many books?
I'm not sure I understand the question.
