I assume people who think this believes that the books are in pristine condition because they’ve never been read. It annoys me that many have this opinion when there are 2 simple explanations for it:
1) the books have already been read or listened to it as an ebook or audiobook and the person wanted to own a physical copy of the book.
2) they handle books very carefully while reading so the books still looks new after being read (no cracked spines or dog-eared pages, etc.) Books’ thickness and production quality also plays a huge role, so that even if you’re not the most careful with your books they can still be read and look new afterwards.
Conversely, having a lot of worn books on your shelves does not mean you’ve read them when you can easily find worn books at used bookstores
What are some other “red flags” you disagree with?
by Impressive_Hippo4420
5 Comments
Why should we care what other people think about the state of our books and explain ourselves to them?
Is this a booktok thing? I haven’t heard this ridiculous opinion irl.
In my experience not all books are made the same. Some of them are a better quality so I can read them without e.g. the spine cracking. Others I can read and they look pretty much brand new when I’ve finished with them.
Can this be classified as a “first world problem?”
“People with large collections are just buying books just to impress people that come over. Go support a library.” Heard and read that so many times.
“People that organize bookshelves by color are just interior designers that don’t care about reading.” You can organize your bookshelf with pages out and book covers swapped and still be a reader. I can pull out a book by color way faster than thinking through author/genre/title/whatever.
“People that only read YA/trendy/smut/airport action/comic books. Obviously not *real* readers.” You can read and collect literally nothing but Dr. Seuss and Vogue, and you’re still a reader.
“Book with/without notes in margins.” Debate that’s been going on forever.
“Dust on the bookshelf.” I’m busy, shoot me.
“Pulling a book out of a bookstore shelf to take with you into the bathroom.” …. no that one’s well deserved. XD
Heavily curated Instagram bookshelves full of pristine hardcovers are a red flag. You can tell a real book worms shelf, it’s always messy as shit.
Ugh, and if it’s all children’s fantasy literature too, that’s a huge red flag. There oughta be a law.