In Praise of Bookcases

Never have our bookcases been under greater scrutiny. Whether it’s politicians on the news with well-placed biographies in the background, or the more haphazard displays behind friends during a Zoom quiz, the potential for bookcase snooping is everywhere. Twitter’s Bookcase Credibility has turned the practice into an art form and sums up the new phenomenon nicely: “What you say is not as important as the bookcase behind you.” Most of us can only dream of a panorama to rival Zanny Minton Beddoes, The Economist’s editor-in-chief. But even the smallest collection of volumes on a shelf is a sight to behold, so let’s take a look at the six most pleasing aspects of the humble bookcase…

1. They’re great to look at

First things first, books are for reading, not for decoration. The practice of buying books just to look good on a shelf (or, for that matter, facing your collection backwards for a “perfectly coordinated look”) should be abhorred. But books are unquestionably beautiful and worth displaying, whether it’s in a mahogany-lined university library or the poorly-assembled Billy bookcase in the corner of your bedroom.

2. They’re revealing

You can tell a lot about someone based on the contents of their bookcase. This is a double-edged sword given a cursory browse has as much potential to facilitate a lifelong friendship as a relationship-busting argument.

But the fact a few pieces of wood screwed together can wield that much power must be acknowledged.

3. They legitimise hoarding

Tsundoku has become something of a buzzword in recent years, but that should not obscure the fact that hoarding books is a widespread problem. Unlike other types of hoarding, though, this practice is legitimised by the filling of bookcases, and the indisputable notion that all the knowledge those books contain is entering your brain via osmosis even before you’ve got round to reading them.

4. They can be endlessly rearranged

How do you organise your bookcase? Alphabetically? Chronologically? By genre? By colour? By size? There is no wrong answer. And when the mood takes you, change it, for an immediate excuse to relive the past and discover gems you bought but never read.

5. They’re eclectic

Each method of organising is guaranteed to reveal unlikely partnerships in your collection. My current top-secret system (also known as the lobbing-everything-on-the-shelves-when-you’ve-just-moved-in method) has put Sue Townsend’s Adrian Mole next to Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, and David Thomson’s How to Watch a Movie next to Milton’s Paradise Lost. Unfamiliar bedfellows they may be, but where else other than a bookcase do you get that kind of variety?

6. They contain books

The coup de grace, the knockout blow, the final bow: bookcases contain books. And to borrow a phrase from Hemingway that I definitely know from memory and didn’t just see earlier on the Goodreads app: “There is no friend as loyal as a book.”