No, you just described a bedroom bookshelf. After all, only someone who is granted the privilege of entering one's bedroom (be it a lady friend - in your case - a parent, a friend, etc.) should be interested in what type of person your books say you are.

A public space bookshelf, as Sellman is obviously describing, is very much limited to books actually read such that those books can inspire conversation. After all, how embarrassing is it to be asked about a book on your shelf by someone you don't know all that well and have to say, "I haven't read that. But I'm the type of person who would read it. You should know that about me."

If the long bio of LBJ on the shelf is "Master of the Senate," give it some time. It is well worth it.

Location, location, location: What's revealing about the reader is the books (s)he keeps within easy reach.

RULE #1: COROLLARY A: The living room books ARE NOT the combined book collections of Matt Selman and his wife. (She may have read some of them, but who knows, really.) This is only the collection of Matt Selman.

i had this problem, too, when i first got married. but then i got over it. so now Harry Potter sits on my shelf below Heroditus.

"The question becomes how we'll project all of this when Kindles takes off and all our books are digital.
"

Coverflow, and a version of that mac[?] screensaver that pops up random album cover images. And possibly projection in a quite literal sense.

Now, what are the teetery piles at the foot of my bookshelves/ around my desk / by the side of the bed for?

Anonymous at 12:44 is me. Because everyone so needs to know.

Whenever I see someone interviewed in a room or office with books in the background, I always wonder if the person being interviewed has read those books or if they have been placed there by some sort of stylist or art director. Ezra, next time you're interviewing someone who sits in front of a bookshelf, ask him/her which of those books he/she's read. I'm always interested in that.

Who has sufficient disposable income to buy significant numbers of books and not read them? Me, I only ever buy books I'm pretty sure I'm going to read. Occasionally I'm wrong (I really tried to get through Yo, El Supremo--really I did), but I can't afford to be wrong that often.

If a 'lady friend' takes your reading choices into account when it comes to bedroom activities, I'd suggest that you are both far too wonkish, and you learn to compartimentalize. Also, if someone doesn't already know you by that point, chances are they don't particularly care to.

Yeah, Caro writes cinderblocks, but they're totally worth it.

I hate books. They're big stupid space-wasters. They are usually ugly and are very heavy when you have to move.

But people insist on hoarding them. Books should only be kept around if there's a reasonably good chance you're going to read them again, or if you'll need them for reference. But most books aren't like that. You read them once and then never again. But you still keep it on your bookshelf for some reason. It's like keeping old magazines.

"But," people say, "I never know which books I'm going to want to read again."

You're not going to re-read 95% of them. If for some reason you unexpectedly decide to re-read a book ten years later, it's not like some giant tragedy that you got rid of it. Just go to Borders and shell out the $15 or whatever.

Sad but true. My usual pattern is to buy 2-4 books at a time, one that I want to read immediately and the rest for later. Later often takes a while. In a few cases later has hit the 20-year mark. I probably should give up on those.

Frodo, The Strand bookstore in NY (very cool place, if you get the chance) actually sells books by the foot.

Umberto Eco (whom I have read!) had a great essay on the concept of a personal library, which for the first time allowed me to justify my habit of buying three times as many books as I read. Who wants to see stacks of books you've already read? Bookshelves should be alive with hope and the promise of knowledge to come.

See, I disagree. I have only books I've read in my office. Otherwise, I'd be afraid my colleagues will ask me about books I haven't read.

Also, Jason C is totally right about the stupidity of keeping books, but I can't help it.

I mostly read books from the library, but have several shelves full of books I must have on hand at all times in case I should need to refer to them. I own a handful of books I haven't read but mean to, but these go on a separate shelf.

We have one wall-sized book shelf full of nothing but reference books and some hard cover books that just look nice. The other book shelf is all paper back fiction, mostly read but many not. The reference books are out there for all to see and I've probably read 5% of them cover to cover, but I've certainly opened every single one many times over.

This post and the Umberto Eco quote above make me feel much better about myself. I have so many books I haven't read it actually makes me feel guilty. And the last book I read was a 700+ biography.

I'm lucky to have a very good library system. I can reserve books online from a tri-county system, and they'll show up at my local branch, usually within a few days.

As a result, the necessity of owning fiction I'm not planning to re-read has dropped to zero.

And with respect to nonfiction, the Web has taken the place of a reference library. There's still a lot of nonfiction that I refer to, that aren't 'reference books' in the colloquial sense. I still need those. I may not re-read Richard Clarke's Against All Enemies, but it isn't online either, so if I want to cite it, I need to hang onto it.

Or you could take the time to read some of those books. Knowing details about, say, the Reformation, can spark interesting connections with our world today.

As for Kindle, never have I wanted so much for a product to crash and burn.

I once had some friends who bought a big bookshelf. They decided to fill it with books. Any book at all. They were surprised to see me reading them.

I buy 4-5 books a month from the bookseller and read about a book a week, sometimes two books at a time. Once I read these books I give them to my friends to read; some I give to the library or prison. But I also keep the majority of them on bookshelves. I sometimes reread books or use them as reference. But mostly I keep them to remind me of important or meaningful or beautiful words and ideas that are contained within. Just like pictures of vacations, weddings, parties, or holidays, books are living memories.

Ezra, thank you for outing yourself as an intellectual poser. This will save me time (not) reading anything you write.

Jason C.: Your scheme fails when the books go out of print.

Hey, Ezra, go read this link so you can understand why you are a big tosser.

http://failmedianetwork.com/story.html?id=15

What about this practice of putting boat models and trophies on top of bookshelves -- instead of more books?

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I buy 4-5 books a month from the bookseller and read about a book a week, sometimes two books at a time. Once I read these books I give them to my friends to read; some I give to the library or prison. But I also keep the majority of them on bookshelves. I sometimes reread books or use them as reference. But mostly I keep them to remind me of important or meaningful or beautiful words and ideas that are contained within. Just like pictures of vacations, weddings, parties, or holidays, books are living memories

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