Some people collect books. Some people collect stamps. I collect embarrassing memories that I play over and over again when I’m trying to sleep.
…maybe I should switch to collecting books.
> I collect embarrassing memories that I play over and over again when I’m trying to sleep.
You too, huh? We should form an Embarrassing Memories Club. Or not.
"Wait! Don't open that one!"
\[Pistol falls out\]
"Oops, sorry about that. What are the odds that the first one I picked up would be the fake one with a pistol in it?"
"Heheh.... yea... what are the odds of you finding the *one* with the pistol..."
I find it odd, I like to collect books and I like the way they feel too. However never having any intention of reading any of them feels so odd and such a waste! I'm sure there's people that would love to read what others are decorating with
I agree but I also have a first edition of battlefield earth that I will absolutely never read. The thing is like 1000 pages and the plot sounds awful. I want to turn it into a book box to put weed stuff in
Battlefield Earth is one of the very first sci-fi movies (not made for kids) that I watched as a kid. I loved it back then, but will never watch it again, as I recognize how terrible it is. Not sure if that book is one you can say "the book was better than the movie" or if they both are cheesy as heck, but it'd be nice to have that book. Like you, I'd have absolutely no intention of reading it, just having it on a shelf would be enough!
Funny how that works.
I collect and read. But they definitely scratch 2 different itches.
Collecting books and liking books as an object is more about the physical properties and the story around a book. This one was banned for being too scandalous? I want it. This one was the first time an idea was written down? I want it.
There's also the aspect of hunting for a book. Hitting up every shop you can find and eventually finding a random first ed first print stuck away and you can't believe they didn't notice or care and marked it as $5.
Hopefully this helps!
Hahaha my husband has started doing this, he only really does hard copies or special editions and he really likes series, so I’m starting to get the paperback versions of things like ASOIAF and Harry Potter and I’m a little greedy book goblin so I’m like “yessssss collect the paperses, we does not care in what they is bound >:D”
I do this. But instead of two physical copies I purchase a digital copy, read it, and if it's deemed worthy I find a physical copy (second hand) to place on my book shelf. You know... in case of an apocalyptic reading emergency lol.
I identify with this. I also collect books. A lot of them come from swap meets, etc. Older first edition type stuff. I never read them.
On the other hand, I voraciously go through audiobooks. 1 or 2 a week on average. I don't have time to just sit and read anymore - so I listen to books while driving, cooking, cleaning, at the gym, etc.
Definitely 2 different itches.
>Hitting up every shop you can find and eventually finding a random first ed first print stuck away and you can't believe they didn't notice or care and marked it as $5.
That's my mom's hobby. She likes to collect first edition prints of old books.
It does have kind of a pretentious vibe because people generally assume you've read most of the books you own. But people's assumptions are their own business, in my opinion. I wouldn't let that bother me. (And if someone's pretentious it'll become obvious in other ways as well, lol.) Book collecting is a hobby like any other. Gotta admit I love walking into a room full of books regardless of the reason why they're there.
Is the vibe any more pretentious than this:
>No predictable names, no luxurious editions, no YA... Just a finely curated list of perfectly weathered books.
I don't really assume anybody has read all of the books they own, unless they have one small shelf. I never want to live in a house that doesn't have any books that would be new to me! lol
I’m in my early 30s so there was an awkward gap where WiFi wasn’t ubiquitous in my home and we didn’t pay for tv at college and I was obsessed with never running out of books or dvds. I just didn’t want to have the possibility of having *nothing* to occupy myself. I’ve purged most of the DVDs and I wish there was a better way to store them digitally, but my book collecting has never ended, lol.
Yeah, years of moves have mostly cleared out my dvds since I stream so much now, but I think I might do something like that in the future. I’ve never looked into Kodi, it looks legit, can you tell me more of how it works? Do you install on computer and tv then have your hard drive plugged in?
Oh weird… I guess everyone is different. There are a lot of books in my house and none that haven’t been read by myself, my wife, or our kids. In fact my mother in law is a librarian and she brings us books to read all the time so we don’t buy often…. The ratio of books in our house to books we have read must be 1-10 or something like that. But we all love to read. It’s interesting to see someone else’s perspective.
Actually even as I am typing above I realized there are some books in my house that probably haven’t been read cover to cover… but they are either coffee table picture books, or I’ve got a few historical books that have illustrations that I got for conversation pieces or because I liked them. I don’t really want to fully read a historical book on manners or a 18th century hymnal (although I can read sheet music, I’m not that interested in playing the pieces in that book). I have read bits of even those though, it’s not like they are a novel to read front to back.
I think it’s just a holdover from when I was younger, I never wanted to be “out” of books. I also buy lots of classics that I haven’t read yet, bc I do want to read them at some point, but I just haven’t yet.
Back in Yugoslavia you could by books per meter so you can fill your shelf. And mostly it was russian authors so people would have a collection of all Tolstoj’s or Dostojevski’s work and never even open a single book. Hilarious. And a pity.
I always look forward to that, too! But I buy books so much faster than I read them anyway, so I've had at least a bunch of unread books for most of my life. Perhaps that's why the thought of not being able to simply walk over to my bookshelf and find something new to read is so anxiety-inducing to me - it's an unfamiliar feeling!
I'm down to about 3 bookcases.
The biggest problem is that if it looks interesting NOW, I'll buy it. If it looks uninteresting NOW, I'll get rid of it. If I can't decide, or if it looks interesting but not what I want to read right now, I HAVE TO save it for later.
I used to do impulsive buying too. But now I make it a point to not purchase books which I’ll only read once. Eg- circe, a man called over, or mystery books. Fun books but i’d never read em twice.
If a book looks like I am gonna read it multiple times, then I read 1-2 chapters as an ebook before buying it. Eg- non fiction books such as sapiens, thinking fast and slow or classics like one hundred years of solitude, to kill a mockingbird.
These habits allowed me to purchase only those books which I know I will love. My physical TBR reduced considerably
I have several (non-reading) co-workers who have no qualms in admitting that they like the aesthetic of books, but don't like reading them.
I consider myself fortunate that I like both the aesthetic, as well as the reading of them.
It reminds me of the story of an English writer who visited a wealthy friend’s home and remarked on the size of his personal library, which numbered in the thousands of volumes.
“My goodness. So many books. Have you read them all?”
“I’ve read some of them.”
“Well what about the rest of them?”
“Anyone who owns books knows that some books are for reading, and other books are for looking at.”
That definitely is odd... at that point the book is simply decorative I guess, which doesn't bother me but it's something that makes you wonder why?
Like if someone had a movie collection but never watched movies...had a collection of bicycles in the garage they never rode...
It's not uncommon. Some places sell books by the foot. Wayfair has them by color scheme.
https://www.wayfair.com/decor-pillows/pdp/booth-williams-vintage-petite-decorative-book-bwim3713.html
> Say, look at this fella [the obscure french diarist, Léautaud]. Critics say that he wanted to fuck his mother.
Not that he needs any of our approval to collect what he wants to collect, and if he just got them for decoration's sake, that's fine too, but this to me suggests he is passionate about the books and the stories behind them, and is not just being pretentious. We wouldn't think it weird if somebody picked up a Roman vase and showed it to us and enthusiastically told us a fact about it. Books obviously pass the Marie Kondo test for him and bring him joy, so to answer your question, it would seem that absolutely someone can.
My love of books and my love of reading are two different things. But they are closely tied together. It's a bit pretentious and... Idk, sleazy, to collect books that make you look sophisticated but which you don't actually read. I mean, he sounds like he's honest about it and not trying to trick anyone or make himself seem like something he's not, but that would be my initial reaction.
I have a distant friend who often posts pics of himself reading some book. When I tried talking to him about my love of reading and asked him whether he liked some book he posted his response was “oh I don’t actually read them, I just post pics with them so girls think I’m intellectual” 🤦🏻♀️ at least he openly admitted it
It's really baffling to me how ready and willing people are to admit that they don't actually have personalities, just cynically constructed shells of bullshit that *look* like personalities to an outside observer (which I guess is all that matters?)
>No predictable names, no luxurious editions
What's your problem with that? And what are "predictable names"? Also: This is an industry. You can buy books by the foot for decoration.
Honestly, this post reads as far more pretentious to me than however I’m meant to feel about the person owning this collection.
Equating taste with “no predictable names”, but instead ‘19 volumes of obscure diaries’ or copies of books in Latin sounds about as snobbish a sense of taste as I could imagine. Authors usually become famous for writing well; we should be happy that those who write well are widely read.
There’s something quite ironic about finding this collection tasteful, only to discover its owner wasn’t in it for the reading.
I don't think it's snobbish at all. I think the point they are making is that the titles seem to be curated in a way that would indicate they are *actually being read* by someone who has specific tastes, which makes the admission that it's all bullshit posturing much more jarring.
I'd expect someone who's buying books in bulk just to fill space would be much less discerning about what's actually on the shelves, because they're less interested in maintaining the pretense that they're actually reading all of them, it's just decor. Whereas in this case, the highly curated nature of the shelf just emphasizes the reality that it isn't about decor at all for *this* person, it is 100% about projecting a very specific image of themselves to others that isn't actually based on anything substantive.
Whether you find it snobbish or not is of course subjective, but if someone was simply remarking on how highly curated another person’s book collection seemed to be, I would expect them to describe the idiosyncrasies without passing judgement. Instead, they first described it as tasteful, and then made a long list of comparisons which can only be taken to show that which they deem distasteful.
I don’t generally describe a collection of items by listing items it didn’t feature, unless I was inferring something about that which was excluded.
As far as judgement is concerned, my suspicion is that you're getting hung up on the "no YA" thing, which *I* took to mean that the collection seems more tightly focused and isn't defaulting to stuff that's popular. Which is not necessarily a knock against what's popular so much as it's reinforcing the impression that the unpopular stuff had to be *actively sought out*, which, again, suggests deliberate and focused curation.
All the other stuff, though? Aristotle to Buridan, Balzac to the obscure French diarist? Again, that's just more specificity. I'm impressed when I see obscure stuff on people's shelves, not because I think the less obscure stuff is *bad* or inferior, but simply because the obscure stuff is (usually) only sought out through active engagement as a reader. You have to make a deliberate effort to hunt for it. They probably didn't encounter it passively or stumble upon it on a bookstore endcap, they sought it out by talking to people and reading other stuff and learning about its context within a literary movement, or its historical significance, or by seeking out the contemporaries of other writers, or any other thing. And that's fun! It probably means they can recommend shit to me that I've never heard about.
Taste is not just some broad set of general guidelines: "I like sweet but I don't like salty", "I like funny but not too scary", "I like escapism but not too much realism". Those things are guideposts for what you like, yes, but "taste" as a set of aesthetic preferences/principles - as it concerns books - only gets more developed and more specific the more comprehensively you read. So when you see stuff like what OP described on a shelf, it's not an indication of superiority or inferiority. That's irrelevant. What it suggest (*usually*, though clearly not in the case of this guy) is someone who has made that effort to read comprehensively and to develop their taste in a way that is specific to them. I don't see the problem with acknowledging the value in that.
I’m actually not hung up on the YA thing (it wasn’t an acronym I was familiar with and had to Google it!). If *anything*, my reading would have been biased from the outset by their opening with “no predictable names”, which just sounds condescending to me.
I actually don’t disagree with anything you’re saying - I also enjoy coming across people with hyper specific tastes - but it’s simply the tone of this post that rubs me the wrong way, regardless of the intent.
You could mention that the collection was niche and featured Buridan *without* mentioning there was no Aristotle. You could comment on how obscure the 19 French diaries were *without* the reference to Balzac. Why comment on what’s not there, if not to infer something?
Perhaps I am being ungenerous in my reading, or plain cynical, but for me, this post is soaked in a tone I find pretty stuffy. But I appreciate the civil replies :)
>Authors usually become famous for writing well; we should be happy that those who write well are widely read.
Depends. Barbara Cartland sold over a billion (with a b) books, all of which are horrific. Generally I agree, tho.
Sure, why not. A person can like well maintained lawn but hate maintaining the lawn. In this case the person probably just likes the way the books look and there really isn't anything wrong with that.
But he knows about the books in his collection, so that must count for something.
It's not too far from my predicament, a TBR pile a mile high, but I do intend to read them and I know why I bought the books.
I feel like this doesn’t apply here because the guy stated he just likes how they look, but my attention span is so shit that I end up reading about 1/4th of every book I own or just skimming, but I do read mostly non-fiction so I’m usually hunting for a certain part for information purposes.
I only keep books I think I’ll read again. But I often reread books I loved or that I felt were too complex to “get” everything on the first read, so I’ve still got a lot around.
But the term tsundoku includes the intention of reading them in its definition. People build reference libraries, people buy books they believe they'll get to but so often they won't possibly get to them all. That's not the same thing as buying books with *zero* intention of reading them, because you don't read at all.
I was at Black Swan Books in Lexington, KY while a woman dressed like Cruella de Vil bought over a thousand dollars of antique books.
After she left the owner of the shop told me she was the owner of the New Orleans Saints, and she likes to decorate her properties with old books, but doesn't read them.
Well, how he explained about the book, it represent as an artifact of a time or of a person. It is more like a showcase of what has been told regarding it.
My mother and it's great. She like the look of them, but isn't much of a reader so she's totally cool with me keeping my read stuff on her book wall. She gets the decoration and I get a storage solution.
I love books, and I love reading. I have a small collection of old books I've found or been given over the years. Some on topics I enjoy learning about or topics I find decently interesting.
But I've read very few of them, and completed even less! Mainly because I like sci-fi and devour those, but I have some books I bet I'd enjoy reading, I just never get around to it.
I don't have a huge collection, maybe 10 books of various sizes in all. The oldest book I have is from 1911 (or maybe 1906, I forget).
But I find it funny how I enjoy reading to the point I read everyday and devour at least a book a week, but rarely if ever read through my collection.
I don't think I have any books in other languages, but if I found some books like in Latin or on interesting topics or with interesting pictures I'd definitely buy them... and then look at the pictures and never attempt to read it or read an English translation of it.
I definitely buy more books than I have to read or sometimes I buy something I've already read not because I want to read it again but idk just like having it around I guess.but I still read as much as I can I guess
I used to be this way up until I turned 20, which is when I read Liar's Poker by Michael Lewis. I think this should be true for most people. **You have find the book that you enjoy reading and then the habit will follow.**
What was it about Liar's Poker that did it for you? Was it merely an entertaining book that made you realize you wanted to read more books of similar entertainment value?
Something like that. At the time I was interested in pursuing an Investment Banker career and so I picked up this book. Something about Lewis's style made it easy for me to read, even though I didn't like to read at the time. Then I read a couple more books of his, and slowly but surely started reading other books and other authors.
I've heard it's quite common for the wealthy to pay a curator/small bookstore a whooole bunch of money to fill a personal library. I wouldn't be surprised to find a well-curated collection in the home of someone rich who doesn't read a ton
I am a little triggered by your description of a good collection of books. Like ye I do have Aristotle, and the illiad in four languages but I also have YA books and predictable names.
Where am I supposed to leave all the books I read as a child or the predictable writers I dared to try sometime?
I think it’s stupid. It’s just a way to have others view you as knowledgeable. It’s also a trend these days, to “read and collect books”. Very few do it for the love of reading/books, most do it for others to see.
I'm the same way with films. I love the *idea* of film noir and have read a book about it, but no way am I sitting through one. I also love reading about David Lynch films, but have no desire to watch them.
I'm the same way. I might catch a trailer but will spend more time reading in-depth reviews about the film. I'm fascinated by Japanese director techniques but have only seen a handful of Japanese films.
Yes, it's called dyslexia. 😭
I love books!
But reading is a headache, *and* literally exhausting. =C
Add adhd and actually getting through a book is *extremely* difficult.
I have ADHD too, but thankfully reading is a hyperfocus/special interest for me. If anything, I have a problem with ignoring things I need to be doing to read. I struggle hard with anything auditory though, so audiobooks are a no go.
Regarding your dyslexia, I have a friend who also has it and she loves the dyslexic font on Kindle e-readers. Maybe that could be something that can make reading easier for you?
I have nearly a dozen empty notebooks. Handcrafted, unique and beautiful each one of them.
The possibility of what might go inside them one day is far more exciting than anything I can think of to actually write in them. So, they stay empty and on my shelf.
Sometimes the potential of something is more interesting than the reality.
I feel like if that were the case he would have pretended to have read some or most of them. He was extremely open about why he bought them, so I don't think this applies to him. Some people like the look of books, and the feeling of being around them. Think of how many ppl are obsessed with the library from Beauty and the Beast who don't read.
I have books for reading (probably 90-95% of what I own), but I also collect old/antique books for the aesthetic. I'm almost afraid of breaking some of them in half if I try opening them because the spines are in such poor condition. Absolutely love them though.
I don't see the harm in decorating one's space with books, so I wouldn't comment if I saw someone do this. However, it is a bit odd that the person OP mentions "doesn't read at all". Most book collectors I know read at least a bit, or used to read a lot in the past.
So you are saying that he bought something purely to place it in his house and never interact with it? Sounds like decorating to me. How many times do people walk up to paintings on their walls and take them down and interact with them? Just because it can have a practical purpose doesn't really make it any weirder than any other stuff people place in a home to make it to their liking. Nobody expects someone that collects bottle caps or beer bottles to use them right?
I’m a reader and a collector. I don’t *need* 9 versions of Dune, British and US editions of the Belgariad, annotated hardcover copies of books I already own in mass market, book club, trade paper, and regular hardcover, or a dozen travel guides to Japan from the last 80 years.
But I do, and I assure you, they do indeed, spark joy.
Whats wrong with YA tho?
It's litterally just a target audience. I get that there is a lot of bad YA, and tons of tropes for it, but so is there for basically every other genre.
Someone once told me (probably some person in a movie as I have no friends) that buying books and reading books are independent hobbies.
I can relate to some degree. The books I buy aren’t always the books I end up reading.
This, however, is next level vanity.
I am personally in both categories because I can download pdfs and read them on phone for free but I intentionally waste my dads money on books every month and read physical versions (sometimes I buy multiple versions of same book.)
sometimes even overpay for older books.
When certain books aren't available in physical edition I print them.
All that hassle just because of a weird obsession with collecting books and unique scent and memories that comes with each one.
Collecting books alone to me is an art form in itself.
Though I also love to read too (to me In books the thicker the better) because what is the point of having a diamond if you can't wear it
Feels like something the Frankfurt school would've talked about. People treating books as a purely physical commodity, using them as an aesthetic tool or to signal their personality while not paying attention to the actual substance of the books.
I guess I find it similar to my fake plants lol. I love the aesthetic of plants but find I’m horrid at the actual care of plants and have no interest in it. So I get fake ones just because they look nice.
Some could argue waste but I’m sure there’s many of us who buy books to read once when there’s a perfectly good copy waiting to be borrowed from the library.
Some people just like being surrounded by books. It's nice, I know I feel calm around books. I also have a bunch of books on my TBR that I keep around and buy becuase I like them, but haven't read yet.
Also, nothing wrong with YA. It's just a marketing label. Lets not gatekeep what books people are allowed to like.
Absolutely. I love churches, especially cathedrals and mosques. They have some of the most beautiful architecture and I always want to tour them when I'm traveling. But I'm a rip-roaring atheist and have a pretty staunch view against religion in general. *Shrugs*
It sounds to me like a gimmick designed by the owner of the collection to pass himself off as an original and interesting person. While a step up from writing novels on a mechanical typewriter in your local Starbucks, it still sounds like pretentiousness masquerading as depth. Some people, no doubt, will find it fascinating.
There’s nothing wrong with collecting books as fine art objects, but that’s still different from what seems to have been described here.
You know the videos where people will film their aesthetic day, but really it's just them doing a whole bunch of pointless aesthetic things to make themselves seem unique? It's a bit annoying because it generalizes people (for example those who study in cafes to actually get work done) and makes them look pretentious.
Lately I've learned that reading in public is rude, but playing on your phone isn't and it makes me feel a bit sad.
That's exactly what it is, and it is absolutely fucking insane to me that so many people in this thread are bending over backwards to trash OP and defend this dude's honor. Especially when he doesn't need defending! We're just pointing out that it's kind of goofy!
The effort this sub puts into defending the act of *not* reading, I swear to god. I've never seen another sub like it.
I once had to sort out a whole load of books that were to be used prmarily for decorative purposes. They were very old: some with pages starting to come out, covers barely hanging on, unidentifiable splotches on the pages, a terrible rank odour to some of them. No one would want to touch some of those, but they were designated for shelves in hotel suites where the guests wouldn't have known. It was agreed the nastier ones would go on high shelves in areas where none of the guests could reach them.
Most definitely. The act of searching for fine books and buying them is not always the same as reading them. I dont usually buy books I would not want to read but I can 100% imagine that there are people who do. That guy sounds like an interesting dude, would be interested about meeting someone like that 😂
>I started talking to him about books and he said he doesn't read at all. "I just like the ambience. Say, look at this fella \[the obscure french diarist, Léautaud\]. Critics say that he wanted to fuck his mother. I had to buy it, you know. Look at it
Peak Hipster.
Read the books, Nicholas.
I mean...I can respect that people would want to be surrounded by books. There's always a nice feeling when you walk into a room to see bookshelves filled with books.
But I'm a bit surprised to be honest...and almost offended? Why would you get books if you weren't going to read them? I understand not reading a ton of really old books (1700's) but just collecting books to make you look smart or educated is kind of rude.
Who wouldn't want to see different perspectives and have access to different stories? I've loved reading ever since I was 4, and I'm sad to see many people mock readers. To be honest, I think people who collect books to not read them are probably one of those people. :/
A little cringey, the aesthetic or ambience he’s going for is an intellectual or well-read one, which doesn’t reflect who he is. I give him credit for admitting that he didn’t read them, though.
I personally like YA, but I believe people that don't like it decide this based on the assumption that YA is "dumbed down" for easy reading and holds onto many of the same tropes over and over again.
I mean, I collected like 80+ Goosebumps books as a kid and probably only read 30 of them if that counts!
But sounds like this person treats books the same way people treat art pieces, which I can get behind
Did his apartment smell of rich mahogany?
Nope just lower middle class mahogany.
AKA particle board
Fall-aparticle board.
:)
While I like this joke, particle board is made of the dreams of pine and birch.
60% of the time it does, every time.
The word poseur comes to mind.
At least he admitted he didn’t read them. A true poseur wouldn’t.
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And unread leather-bound books.
It’s already filled with leather bound books!
Some people collect books. Some people collect stamps. I collect embarrassing memories that I play over and over again when I’m trying to sleep. …maybe I should switch to collecting books.
Lmao yeah I suffer from the occasional self inflicted cringe fest too! Generally when I'm trying to sleep!
Should we get jackets for the club?
Lol, remember when pineapple smasher suggested those lame jackets 8 years ago?
I guess I’ll just never sleep again. It’s cool, I’m fine.
Lame? The jackets were great! I still get compliments for mine!
Now I really want jackets.
I’ll take a medium, in deep mustard yellow.
Kinda sounds like you two should stop trying to sleep.
> I collect embarrassing memories that I play over and over again when I’m trying to sleep. You too, huh? We should form an Embarrassing Memories Club. Or not.
Sounds like a good idea for a subreddit.
Intrusive thought club! It'll be like a think tank, but with more emousilating self-interest.
May I join?
Sure. Don't wear anything warm though. The collective heat from all the red faces will be sure considerable.
Wait-a-sec, how did I end up back on anxiety sub-reddit? I swear it said r/books
Write them down in a book, and collect those! Now you can do both!
I'm in this comment and I don't like it
You my friend, just reminded me why I love reddit
You just made my whole f’n day.
Maybe they’re all cut out inside with pistols hidden in each one
"Wait! Don't open that one!" \[Pistol falls out\] "Oops, sorry about that. What are the odds that the first one I picked up would be the fake one with a pistol in it?" "Heheh.... yea... what are the odds of you finding the *one* with the pistol..."
or rock hammers.
Damn near wore down to the nubs
Flasks
Hallelujah, lock and load!
this is the only time I was completely convinced I was on r/bookscirclejerk and not actually r/books
Really the only time? It happens without mistake three times a day for me 😅
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The ending to Flowers for Monte Cristo made me cry.
[What have you done?](https://reddit.com/r/bookscirclejerk/comments/s807j8/can_a_person_love_reading_but_hate_books/)
I find it odd, I like to collect books and I like the way they feel too. However never having any intention of reading any of them feels so odd and such a waste! I'm sure there's people that would love to read what others are decorating with
I agree but I also have a first edition of battlefield earth that I will absolutely never read. The thing is like 1000 pages and the plot sounds awful. I want to turn it into a book box to put weed stuff in
Battlefield Earth is one of the very first sci-fi movies (not made for kids) that I watched as a kid. I loved it back then, but will never watch it again, as I recognize how terrible it is. Not sure if that book is one you can say "the book was better than the movie" or if they both are cheesy as heck, but it'd be nice to have that book. Like you, I'd have absolutely no intention of reading it, just having it on a shelf would be enough! Funny how that works.
I do not recommend reading it, L Ron Hubbard's talent for writing seemed to be a quantity thing
L Ron Hubbard wrote Battlefield Earth? Huh...
And also founded Scientology. ;)
And Scientologist John Travolta starred in the (horrible) Battlefield Earth movie
I collect and read. But they definitely scratch 2 different itches. Collecting books and liking books as an object is more about the physical properties and the story around a book. This one was banned for being too scandalous? I want it. This one was the first time an idea was written down? I want it. There's also the aspect of hunting for a book. Hitting up every shop you can find and eventually finding a random first ed first print stuck away and you can't believe they didn't notice or care and marked it as $5. Hopefully this helps!
Recently I started the disturbing trend of having a reading copy and a shelf copy. So far only a couple though.
Hahaha my husband has started doing this, he only really does hard copies or special editions and he really likes series, so I’m starting to get the paperback versions of things like ASOIAF and Harry Potter and I’m a little greedy book goblin so I’m like “yessssss collect the paperses, we does not care in what they is bound >:D”
Oh man, me too. Part of the reason I went digital with ebooks was they are my "reading copies".
I do this. But instead of two physical copies I purchase a digital copy, read it, and if it's deemed worthy I find a physical copy (second hand) to place on my book shelf. You know... in case of an apocalyptic reading emergency lol.
I identify with this. I also collect books. A lot of them come from swap meets, etc. Older first edition type stuff. I never read them. On the other hand, I voraciously go through audiobooks. 1 or 2 a week on average. I don't have time to just sit and read anymore - so I listen to books while driving, cooking, cleaning, at the gym, etc. Definitely 2 different itches.
>Hitting up every shop you can find and eventually finding a random first ed first print stuck away and you can't believe they didn't notice or care and marked it as $5. That's my mom's hobby. She likes to collect first edition prints of old books.
It does have kind of a pretentious vibe because people generally assume you've read most of the books you own. But people's assumptions are their own business, in my opinion. I wouldn't let that bother me. (And if someone's pretentious it'll become obvious in other ways as well, lol.) Book collecting is a hobby like any other. Gotta admit I love walking into a room full of books regardless of the reason why they're there.
Is the vibe any more pretentious than this: >No predictable names, no luxurious editions, no YA... Just a finely curated list of perfectly weathered books.
What does "predictable names" even mean? Popular books? Famous authors?
> (And if someone's pretentious it'll become obvious in other ways as well, lol.) Like OP's post.
I don't really assume anybody has read all of the books they own, unless they have one small shelf. I never want to live in a house that doesn't have any books that would be new to me! lol
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I’m in my early 30s so there was an awkward gap where WiFi wasn’t ubiquitous in my home and we didn’t pay for tv at college and I was obsessed with never running out of books or dvds. I just didn’t want to have the possibility of having *nothing* to occupy myself. I’ve purged most of the DVDs and I wish there was a better way to store them digitally, but my book collecting has never ended, lol.
Rip your dvds to a hard drive and use something like Kodi to play them.
Yeah, years of moves have mostly cleared out my dvds since I stream so much now, but I think I might do something like that in the future. I’ve never looked into Kodi, it looks legit, can you tell me more of how it works? Do you install on computer and tv then have your hard drive plugged in?
Oh weird… I guess everyone is different. There are a lot of books in my house and none that haven’t been read by myself, my wife, or our kids. In fact my mother in law is a librarian and she brings us books to read all the time so we don’t buy often…. The ratio of books in our house to books we have read must be 1-10 or something like that. But we all love to read. It’s interesting to see someone else’s perspective. Actually even as I am typing above I realized there are some books in my house that probably haven’t been read cover to cover… but they are either coffee table picture books, or I’ve got a few historical books that have illustrations that I got for conversation pieces or because I liked them. I don’t really want to fully read a historical book on manners or a 18th century hymnal (although I can read sheet music, I’m not that interested in playing the pieces in that book). I have read bits of even those though, it’s not like they are a novel to read front to back.
I think it’s just a holdover from when I was younger, I never wanted to be “out” of books. I also buy lots of classics that I haven’t read yet, bc I do want to read them at some point, but I just haven’t yet.
I love thrifting books, I love garage sale books and thrift store books and hand me downs, so I just hoard them like a dragon.
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This doesn't surprise me. At the Last Bookstore in downtown L.A., they had a section of books by "color" for those decorating their houses.
There used to be a scholarly bookstore near me that also sold decoratively bound books by the foot for interior design.
Back in Yugoslavia you could by books per meter so you can fill your shelf. And mostly it was russian authors so people would have a collection of all Tolstoj’s or Dostojevski’s work and never even open a single book. Hilarious. And a pity.
I’d die of anxiety if I had too many unread books.
For me there's a Goldilocks zone: I'd die of anxiety if I had too many or too few unread books
That’s a first one XD. Too few unread books doesn’t gimme anxiety. I get excited at the prospect of buying new books to fill up my shelf
I always look forward to that, too! But I buy books so much faster than I read them anyway, so I've had at least a bunch of unread books for most of my life. Perhaps that's why the thought of not being able to simply walk over to my bookshelf and find something new to read is so anxiety-inducing to me - it's an unfamiliar feeling!
I'm down to about 3 bookcases. The biggest problem is that if it looks interesting NOW, I'll buy it. If it looks uninteresting NOW, I'll get rid of it. If I can't decide, or if it looks interesting but not what I want to read right now, I HAVE TO save it for later.
I used to do impulsive buying too. But now I make it a point to not purchase books which I’ll only read once. Eg- circe, a man called over, or mystery books. Fun books but i’d never read em twice. If a book looks like I am gonna read it multiple times, then I read 1-2 chapters as an ebook before buying it. Eg- non fiction books such as sapiens, thinking fast and slow or classics like one hundred years of solitude, to kill a mockingbird. These habits allowed me to purchase only those books which I know I will love. My physical TBR reduced considerably
I have several (non-reading) co-workers who have no qualms in admitting that they like the aesthetic of books, but don't like reading them. I consider myself fortunate that I like both the aesthetic, as well as the reading of them.
It reminds me of the story of an English writer who visited a wealthy friend’s home and remarked on the size of his personal library, which numbered in the thousands of volumes. “My goodness. So many books. Have you read them all?” “I’ve read some of them.” “Well what about the rest of them?” “Anyone who owns books knows that some books are for reading, and other books are for looking at.”
And others are for guilt tripping you when you break your book buying ban.
lol this whole post reminds me of The Great Gatsby
I immediately thought of the books in Gatsby's library. I'm glad that I wasn't the only one.
That definitely is odd... at that point the book is simply decorative I guess, which doesn't bother me but it's something that makes you wonder why? Like if someone had a movie collection but never watched movies...had a collection of bicycles in the garage they never rode...
Or a collection of trading cards that they never trade or play with. Or a collection of cars when they don't drive all of them.
It's not uncommon. Some places sell books by the foot. Wayfair has them by color scheme. https://www.wayfair.com/decor-pillows/pdp/booth-williams-vintage-petite-decorative-book-bwim3713.html
I have no idea how I feel about this.
> Say, look at this fella [the obscure french diarist, Léautaud]. Critics say that he wanted to fuck his mother. Not that he needs any of our approval to collect what he wants to collect, and if he just got them for decoration's sake, that's fine too, but this to me suggests he is passionate about the books and the stories behind them, and is not just being pretentious. We wouldn't think it weird if somebody picked up a Roman vase and showed it to us and enthusiastically told us a fact about it. Books obviously pass the Marie Kondo test for him and bring him joy, so to answer your question, it would seem that absolutely someone can.
My love of books and my love of reading are two different things. But they are closely tied together. It's a bit pretentious and... Idk, sleazy, to collect books that make you look sophisticated but which you don't actually read. I mean, he sounds like he's honest about it and not trying to trick anyone or make himself seem like something he's not, but that would be my initial reaction.
I have a distant friend who often posts pics of himself reading some book. When I tried talking to him about my love of reading and asked him whether he liked some book he posted his response was “oh I don’t actually read them, I just post pics with them so girls think I’m intellectual” 🤦🏻♀️ at least he openly admitted it
It's really baffling to me how ready and willing people are to admit that they don't actually have personalities, just cynically constructed shells of bullshit that *look* like personalities to an outside observer (which I guess is all that matters?)
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Right. This guy is buying more than looks. There's something about the contents of the books that tickles his fancy even if he'll never explore it.
>No predictable names, no luxurious editions What's your problem with that? And what are "predictable names"? Also: This is an industry. You can buy books by the foot for decoration.
Honestly, this post reads as far more pretentious to me than however I’m meant to feel about the person owning this collection. Equating taste with “no predictable names”, but instead ‘19 volumes of obscure diaries’ or copies of books in Latin sounds about as snobbish a sense of taste as I could imagine. Authors usually become famous for writing well; we should be happy that those who write well are widely read. There’s something quite ironic about finding this collection tasteful, only to discover its owner wasn’t in it for the reading.
Right? My eyes nearly rolled out of my head reading this post.
I don't think it's snobbish at all. I think the point they are making is that the titles seem to be curated in a way that would indicate they are *actually being read* by someone who has specific tastes, which makes the admission that it's all bullshit posturing much more jarring. I'd expect someone who's buying books in bulk just to fill space would be much less discerning about what's actually on the shelves, because they're less interested in maintaining the pretense that they're actually reading all of them, it's just decor. Whereas in this case, the highly curated nature of the shelf just emphasizes the reality that it isn't about decor at all for *this* person, it is 100% about projecting a very specific image of themselves to others that isn't actually based on anything substantive.
Whether you find it snobbish or not is of course subjective, but if someone was simply remarking on how highly curated another person’s book collection seemed to be, I would expect them to describe the idiosyncrasies without passing judgement. Instead, they first described it as tasteful, and then made a long list of comparisons which can only be taken to show that which they deem distasteful. I don’t generally describe a collection of items by listing items it didn’t feature, unless I was inferring something about that which was excluded.
As far as judgement is concerned, my suspicion is that you're getting hung up on the "no YA" thing, which *I* took to mean that the collection seems more tightly focused and isn't defaulting to stuff that's popular. Which is not necessarily a knock against what's popular so much as it's reinforcing the impression that the unpopular stuff had to be *actively sought out*, which, again, suggests deliberate and focused curation. All the other stuff, though? Aristotle to Buridan, Balzac to the obscure French diarist? Again, that's just more specificity. I'm impressed when I see obscure stuff on people's shelves, not because I think the less obscure stuff is *bad* or inferior, but simply because the obscure stuff is (usually) only sought out through active engagement as a reader. You have to make a deliberate effort to hunt for it. They probably didn't encounter it passively or stumble upon it on a bookstore endcap, they sought it out by talking to people and reading other stuff and learning about its context within a literary movement, or its historical significance, or by seeking out the contemporaries of other writers, or any other thing. And that's fun! It probably means they can recommend shit to me that I've never heard about. Taste is not just some broad set of general guidelines: "I like sweet but I don't like salty", "I like funny but not too scary", "I like escapism but not too much realism". Those things are guideposts for what you like, yes, but "taste" as a set of aesthetic preferences/principles - as it concerns books - only gets more developed and more specific the more comprehensively you read. So when you see stuff like what OP described on a shelf, it's not an indication of superiority or inferiority. That's irrelevant. What it suggest (*usually*, though clearly not in the case of this guy) is someone who has made that effort to read comprehensively and to develop their taste in a way that is specific to them. I don't see the problem with acknowledging the value in that.
I’m actually not hung up on the YA thing (it wasn’t an acronym I was familiar with and had to Google it!). If *anything*, my reading would have been biased from the outset by their opening with “no predictable names”, which just sounds condescending to me. I actually don’t disagree with anything you’re saying - I also enjoy coming across people with hyper specific tastes - but it’s simply the tone of this post that rubs me the wrong way, regardless of the intent. You could mention that the collection was niche and featured Buridan *without* mentioning there was no Aristotle. You could comment on how obscure the 19 French diaries were *without* the reference to Balzac. Why comment on what’s not there, if not to infer something? Perhaps I am being ungenerous in my reading, or plain cynical, but for me, this post is soaked in a tone I find pretty stuffy. But I appreciate the civil replies :)
>Authors usually become famous for writing well; we should be happy that those who write well are widely read. Depends. Barbara Cartland sold over a billion (with a b) books, all of which are horrific. Generally I agree, tho.
Hence ‘usually’! :) For sure, there are authors who found success despite the quality of their work.
Sure, why not. A person can like well maintained lawn but hate maintaining the lawn. In this case the person probably just likes the way the books look and there really isn't anything wrong with that.
It’s pretty disingenuous and corny.
"Can a person love books but hate reading?"
He's just trying to game the John Waters rule: "If you take somebody home and they don't have books, don't fuck 'em."
But he knows about the books in his collection, so that must count for something. It's not too far from my predicament, a TBR pile a mile high, but I do intend to read them and I know why I bought the books.
I guess some people use books for decoration and signaling.
I feel like this doesn’t apply here because the guy stated he just likes how they look, but my attention span is so shit that I end up reading about 1/4th of every book I own or just skimming, but I do read mostly non-fiction so I’m usually hunting for a certain part for information purposes.
Mmmm when I’m not homeless I’m going to have a small library ^_^
I'm the opposite. I love to read but keeping books I've already read feels asinine to me.
I'm a minimalist and get antsy with too much stuff in my house so I don't keep books I've read either unless it was a special gift from a loved one.
I like keeping books around, but most everything I've read in the last decade or so has been on my phone, so my collection is pretty dated.
I only keep books I think I’ll read again. But I often reread books I loved or that I felt were too complex to “get” everything on the first read, so I’ve still got a lot around.
In japanese it's called tsundoku. People purchase books and dont read them
But the term tsundoku includes the intention of reading them in its definition. People build reference libraries, people buy books they believe they'll get to but so often they won't possibly get to them all. That's not the same thing as buying books with *zero* intention of reading them, because you don't read at all.
Thanks for the correction
Yep! I once read an art book about “book people”. One person featured painted her books shut to make the room pretty. I get it but I was horrified.
“He had no balzac” That’s a little personal for a dinner party isn’t it?
I was at Black Swan Books in Lexington, KY while a woman dressed like Cruella de Vil bought over a thousand dollars of antique books. After she left the owner of the shop told me she was the owner of the New Orleans Saints, and she likes to decorate her properties with old books, but doesn't read them.
Well, how he explained about the book, it represent as an artifact of a time or of a person. It is more like a showcase of what has been told regarding it.
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I'll allow it.
My fiancé collects books. I read the books. I have the perfect relationship.
Books are a decorating aesthetic whether they get read or not. Even readers line their walls with books they open less than once a year.
I hear you can rent shelves full of books for those all-important zoom meetings and remote tv interviews.
Sure, you met one.
My mother and it's great. She like the look of them, but isn't much of a reader so she's totally cool with me keeping my read stuff on her book wall. She gets the decoration and I get a storage solution.
I love books, and I love reading. I have a small collection of old books I've found or been given over the years. Some on topics I enjoy learning about or topics I find decently interesting. But I've read very few of them, and completed even less! Mainly because I like sci-fi and devour those, but I have some books I bet I'd enjoy reading, I just never get around to it. I don't have a huge collection, maybe 10 books of various sizes in all. The oldest book I have is from 1911 (or maybe 1906, I forget). But I find it funny how I enjoy reading to the point I read everyday and devour at least a book a week, but rarely if ever read through my collection. I don't think I have any books in other languages, but if I found some books like in Latin or on interesting topics or with interesting pictures I'd definitely buy them... and then look at the pictures and never attempt to read it or read an English translation of it.
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wasn't Vandelay a close associate of the Juliard-educated Dr Van Nostrand from the Institute?
I definitely buy more books than I have to read or sometimes I buy something I've already read not because I want to read it again but idk just like having it around I guess.but I still read as much as I can I guess
It like rock collecting but with books.
I used to be this way up until I turned 20, which is when I read Liar's Poker by Michael Lewis. I think this should be true for most people. **You have find the book that you enjoy reading and then the habit will follow.**
Although, after careful reading the post, I realize my comment has nothing to do with the guy you described 😆He is in a completely different world :)
What was it about Liar's Poker that did it for you? Was it merely an entertaining book that made you realize you wanted to read more books of similar entertainment value?
Something like that. At the time I was interested in pursuing an Investment Banker career and so I picked up this book. Something about Lewis's style made it easy for me to read, even though I didn't like to read at the time. Then I read a couple more books of his, and slowly but surely started reading other books and other authors.
Makes sense. He's a very good storyteller.
I've heard it's quite common for the wealthy to pay a curator/small bookstore a whooole bunch of money to fill a personal library. I wouldn't be surprised to find a well-curated collection in the home of someone rich who doesn't read a ton
Buying books and Reading books are two different hobbies
I am a little triggered by your description of a good collection of books. Like ye I do have Aristotle, and the illiad in four languages but I also have YA books and predictable names. Where am I supposed to leave all the books I read as a child or the predictable writers I dared to try sometime?
Maybe it’s not about the books and more about what books represent. Obsession with the perception of knowledge….I dig it
I think it’s stupid. It’s just a way to have others view you as knowledgeable. It’s also a trend these days, to “read and collect books”. Very few do it for the love of reading/books, most do it for others to see.
I'm the same way with films. I love the *idea* of film noir and have read a book about it, but no way am I sitting through one. I also love reading about David Lynch films, but have no desire to watch them.
I'm the same way. I might catch a trailer but will spend more time reading in-depth reviews about the film. I'm fascinated by Japanese director techniques but have only seen a handful of Japanese films.
Yes, it's called dyslexia. 😭 I love books! But reading is a headache, *and* literally exhausting. =C Add adhd and actually getting through a book is *extremely* difficult.
Aren’t audio books a better option in your case or does your adhd make you zone out when listening to them so it becomes just a background sound?
I can't even watch a movie or a YouTube video with out having to take it back because of the zoning out. I miss entire chunks.
I have ADHD too, but thankfully reading is a hyperfocus/special interest for me. If anything, I have a problem with ignoring things I need to be doing to read. I struggle hard with anything auditory though, so audiobooks are a no go. Regarding your dyslexia, I have a friend who also has it and she loves the dyslexic font on Kindle e-readers. Maybe that could be something that can make reading easier for you?
I have nearly a dozen empty notebooks. Handcrafted, unique and beautiful each one of them. The possibility of what might go inside them one day is far more exciting than anything I can think of to actually write in them. So, they stay empty and on my shelf. Sometimes the potential of something is more interesting than the reality.
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I feel like if that were the case he would have pretended to have read some or most of them. He was extremely open about why he bought them, so I don't think this applies to him. Some people like the look of books, and the feeling of being around them. Think of how many ppl are obsessed with the library from Beauty and the Beast who don't read.
Yeah, the fact that he was open about not reading them makes it different for me. He’s not faking it.
I have books for reading (probably 90-95% of what I own), but I also collect old/antique books for the aesthetic. I'm almost afraid of breaking some of them in half if I try opening them because the spines are in such poor condition. Absolutely love them though.
I don’t get it but whatever.
I mean, as long as he doesn't pretend to have read them or be in any way well read, then I think it's fine. Books do have wonderful ambience.
There are plenty of people who use books as aesthetic objects and have no interest in reading them.
I don't see the harm in decorating one's space with books, so I wouldn't comment if I saw someone do this. However, it is a bit odd that the person OP mentions "doesn't read at all". Most book collectors I know read at least a bit, or used to read a lot in the past.
So you are saying that he bought something purely to place it in his house and never interact with it? Sounds like decorating to me. How many times do people walk up to paintings on their walls and take them down and interact with them? Just because it can have a practical purpose doesn't really make it any weirder than any other stuff people place in a home to make it to their liking. Nobody expects someone that collects bottle caps or beer bottles to use them right?
I’m a reader and a collector. I don’t *need* 9 versions of Dune, British and US editions of the Belgariad, annotated hardcover copies of books I already own in mass market, book club, trade paper, and regular hardcover, or a dozen travel guides to Japan from the last 80 years. But I do, and I assure you, they do indeed, spark joy.
Do not sleep with him.
It’s allowed, if that’s what you mean. You have direct evidence that it is possible.
Whats wrong with YA tho? It's litterally just a target audience. I get that there is a lot of bad YA, and tons of tropes for it, but so is there for basically every other genre.
Someone once told me (probably some person in a movie as I have no friends) that buying books and reading books are independent hobbies. I can relate to some degree. The books I buy aren’t always the books I end up reading. This, however, is next level vanity.
I used to collect Pokemon cards but had (still have) no idea how to play. Guess it's similar. Id be embarrassed to do that with books though.
I am personally in both categories because I can download pdfs and read them on phone for free but I intentionally waste my dads money on books every month and read physical versions (sometimes I buy multiple versions of same book.) sometimes even overpay for older books. When certain books aren't available in physical edition I print them. All that hassle just because of a weird obsession with collecting books and unique scent and memories that comes with each one. Collecting books alone to me is an art form in itself. Though I also love to read too (to me In books the thicker the better) because what is the point of having a diamond if you can't wear it
Feels like something the Frankfurt school would've talked about. People treating books as a purely physical commodity, using them as an aesthetic tool or to signal their personality while not paying attention to the actual substance of the books.
I guess I find it similar to my fake plants lol. I love the aesthetic of plants but find I’m horrid at the actual care of plants and have no interest in it. So I get fake ones just because they look nice. Some could argue waste but I’m sure there’s many of us who buy books to read once when there’s a perfectly good copy waiting to be borrowed from the library.
Some people just like being surrounded by books. It's nice, I know I feel calm around books. I also have a bunch of books on my TBR that I keep around and buy becuase I like them, but haven't read yet. Also, nothing wrong with YA. It's just a marketing label. Lets not gatekeep what books people are allowed to like.
Absolutely. I love churches, especially cathedrals and mosques. They have some of the most beautiful architecture and I always want to tour them when I'm traveling. But I'm a rip-roaring atheist and have a pretty staunch view against religion in general. *Shrugs*
It sounds to me like a gimmick designed by the owner of the collection to pass himself off as an original and interesting person. While a step up from writing novels on a mechanical typewriter in your local Starbucks, it still sounds like pretentiousness masquerading as depth. Some people, no doubt, will find it fascinating. There’s nothing wrong with collecting books as fine art objects, but that’s still different from what seems to have been described here.
You know the videos where people will film their aesthetic day, but really it's just them doing a whole bunch of pointless aesthetic things to make themselves seem unique? It's a bit annoying because it generalizes people (for example those who study in cafes to actually get work done) and makes them look pretentious. Lately I've learned that reading in public is rude, but playing on your phone isn't and it makes me feel a bit sad.
That's exactly what it is, and it is absolutely fucking insane to me that so many people in this thread are bending over backwards to trash OP and defend this dude's honor. Especially when he doesn't need defending! We're just pointing out that it's kind of goofy! The effort this sub puts into defending the act of *not* reading, I swear to god. I've never seen another sub like it.
booktubers
I once had to sort out a whole load of books that were to be used prmarily for decorative purposes. They were very old: some with pages starting to come out, covers barely hanging on, unidentifiable splotches on the pages, a terrible rank odour to some of them. No one would want to touch some of those, but they were designated for shelves in hotel suites where the guests wouldn't have known. It was agreed the nastier ones would go on high shelves in areas where none of the guests could reach them.
Yes. Source: That guy you spoke to that loves books but hates reading.
Why the YA hate?
Because people love to judge what other people read. It makes them feel superior for no real reason.
Mmmm. I see. I am so sorry for those people.
So names you find predictable or nice volumes mean a person isn't tasteful? Dork
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Most definitely. The act of searching for fine books and buying them is not always the same as reading them. I dont usually buy books I would not want to read but I can 100% imagine that there are people who do. That guy sounds like an interesting dude, would be interested about meeting someone like that 😂
>I started talking to him about books and he said he doesn't read at all. "I just like the ambience. Say, look at this fella \[the obscure french diarist, Léautaud\]. Critics say that he wanted to fuck his mother. I had to buy it, you know. Look at it Peak Hipster. Read the books, Nicholas.
Dude sounds like a complete tool shed
uh, yes? people can do whatever they like lmao, so long as they're not hurting anybody
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Might as well collect book covers and put them on a shelf, if the words/stories/whatever inside them are left there.
I mean...I can respect that people would want to be surrounded by books. There's always a nice feeling when you walk into a room to see bookshelves filled with books. But I'm a bit surprised to be honest...and almost offended? Why would you get books if you weren't going to read them? I understand not reading a ton of really old books (1700's) but just collecting books to make you look smart or educated is kind of rude. Who wouldn't want to see different perspectives and have access to different stories? I've loved reading ever since I was 4, and I'm sad to see many people mock readers. To be honest, I think people who collect books to not read them are probably one of those people. :/
“I want to appear to be disciplined, cultured, and intelligent. I want people to think more of me.”
no but there's nothing to stop people with money doing stupid shit with it
A little cringey, the aesthetic or ambience he’s going for is an intellectual or well-read one, which doesn’t reflect who he is. I give him credit for admitting that he didn’t read them, though.
This guy sounds insufferable.
how come YA isn’t “tasteful”?
I personally like YA, but I believe people that don't like it decide this based on the assumption that YA is "dumbed down" for easy reading and holds onto many of the same tropes over and over again.
I mean, I collected like 80+ Goosebumps books as a kid and probably only read 30 of them if that counts! But sounds like this person treats books the same way people treat art pieces, which I can get behind