Where's the bookcase?

One of the first things I do if left alone while my host goes to make tea or coffee is to browse the bookcase. It can tell you quite a lot about the person! Once when I was just a lad, I dated a girl and took her home afterwards (as any polite young man should). She invited me in for coffee (as any nice girl would) and I was so appalled that her living room had NO books whatsoever (certainly no bookshelf) that I made my excuses and left as soon as possible. Having been brought up in a house full of books with a bookshelf in every room (except the bathroom), I found it very unsettling - almost alien - that anyone could live without having books about. She was a very nice girl otherwise and I quite fancied her but no books? NO!

I know exactly what you mean, when i was little it seemed like every house i was in had books but now its the exception. I love reading, but i think tv has pretty much taken over at this point for most people

No need to search for my bookcases, there's one in all rooms except the bathroom and toilet. I read every day and I still use books for information rather than the internet.I love books. I have even offered to volunteer a nursery to help the chidren learn to enjoy books. It seems very sad to me that so many people miss out on so much just because they haven't learned to enjoy books.

I have books all over the place, on shelves, piled up on the floor, in boxes, under the bed cozying up with the dust bunnies, I also have DVD's CD,s mostly piled up on the floor or on tables - it's all very untidy.

I read like its a bad habit I can't shake. I have two bookcases but desperately need a third. In all of my apartments I have had at least one bookcase people could see (and I tend to put my more intellectual books there--you know classics, leather bounds and things like that) and I tend to put my "junk" books when my secret won't get out. lol. I read a lot of the vampire/supernatural genre. I find its hard to find someone who reads and its nice every once in a while to find someone who reads the same things you do so you can discuss this or that book. But I agree TV has seemed to take over and I watch plenty of that as well, but I did go 5 years without cable and without really watching TV. Got a lot of reading in then.

We have a lot of books in our house and 3 bookcases. We mostly have children's books and the kids read more then we do.

Come to think about it, I have been in a few homes that don't even have bookcases. Like you said, maybe they have them hidden, but normally books are out for easy access. I grew up with a bookshelf with books on it, I even had one in my bedroom. I have books in my home, I love to read when I can find the time to. I'm a huge Stephen King fan, so most of my books are from him. I have many others, that it's not even funny. My oldest daughter shares a bookshelf with her sister, and honestly I need to get them a bigger one. Their books are over flowing the small one they have. There's not one spot in my home that doesn't contain a book, some are novels and some are what my husband got from going back to college.

I have books...yeah, I have DVDs and videos and CDs but I DO have books. I don't read as much as I want but I do read. There are so many books I want to read and those I want to read again. There are just not enough hours in the day.

We've at least five bookcases in this house. One in the living room next to the tv, two in the dining room, two in my room. In the dining room they're obvious, the main one in my room is right inside the door. The other one's behind my dresser. Mostly books on all of them. Some papers, some books we wrote. I read alot.

Oh you should come to our place we have lots of bookcases. Of course we read a great deal but all the books we read come from the library as we find it way to expensive to buy books these days. What you will not find is a plasma screen as we have no intention of getting one and we only have a few dvd's. The only dvd's we have that get watched regularly are my collection of Inspector Rex dvd's and I only got them this year as presents. For that matter I watch them on my computer as the dvd player my brother bought me a few years ago no longer works. I think it got squashed by the pay tv box we used to have sitting on it. We got rid of pay tv as well as it cost too much for very little to watch. Still now that we are being forced to change tv's as they are shifting everything to digital we will have to buy a new one some time this year and I have to admit that having a nice compact LCD tv will mean that we will be able to lift the damn thing easily and it will not be screen heavy. That is a nice bonus. But then we are weird compared to most people and prefer to be that way.

When I'm first in someone else's house, I make a beeline for any books they have on display. I just can't help it. You can't walk through my house without tripping over books, so you'd be in seventh heaven if that's your thing. I find it hard to find second hand English language paperbacks around here (my staple diet!) so when I travel back from the UK I tend to do so with boxes full. At the moment I have a system, though I'm sure it won't last. Books I haven't read are in one caravan. Books I have read are in another. Books I'm about to read, have just read or haven't tidied up reside wherever else I've left them. From where I'm sitting in the kitchen now, I can see a Horrid Henry book in the fruit bowl (eldest child), a Dutch nursery rhyme book (youngest's) and a Pub joke book (guest's I've borrowed) by the fridge, a Carl Hiasson which I've just finnished by the door waiting to be tidied, The Poisonwood Bible (have you read it? You ought) sat next to me, plus a stack of books I dug out of storage on various gardening topics and pig care sitting on the side. The few DVDs which we have are all stashed away, and we don't have a telly.

Bwahahahaaaa! Does a bear mess in the woods? (He'd better not mess in my bookcases!) My son actually made me a new bookcase for Christmas, as I had books three-deep which kept toppling on to the floor in the middle of the night and waking us up! You're right, though - I always notice the lack of books in houses I visit, so maybe people ARE hiding them away or putting them under lock and key in case visitors are tempted to pocket them. As well as the books in the bookcases, I have a pile on my bedside table (buying them is my biggest vice) and a stash of them in my office along the windowsill. We also have piles of children's books which I can't bear to get rid of - some of them are from my own childhood. Life without books would be deeply rubbish. I couldn't do the ebook thing - there's something about holding a book, sniffing a book, curling up in bed with a book that beats ANYTHING. Yes, even THAT. For the most part, anyway ...

No one who enters my house can miss my bookcases. They own one room. They tend to spill over into the other rooms as well, but I try to keep them corralled in the den. I've read almost all of them, except for the overflow from my daughter's room. I just don't get into romances that much. Sigh. Must be something wrong with me.

I have a small bookcase displaying some of my book in my room under my desk. I take pride in my collection and like to display them, and I have more that cant be in my closet for lack of room. But I think, or at least hope, people are taking bookcases out and putting in tvs and other such entertainment pieces for decorating intentions. A sleek plasma tv looks more appealing in a livingroom for fashion purposes than a bookcase displaying tons of books which can look cluttered. I'm not dumb though, I know people do not care about reading like they do about their newest TV and other electronics. But electronics are being made to look really nice in houses and add to a contemporary look.

You already gave a best response credit, but I still wanted to respond. I was out yesterday after dark and saw a huge overstuffed bookcase in many of the houses that I peeked at.

Oh yes I do I love reading I always have I read at Night in bed as it relaxes me and I loose myself in my Books it takes me to a totally different World xxx

i have bookcases more than dvds but i never read the books lol.

I usually read two or three books per week. But if you come to our home, you won't see much for bookcases or books either. When I moved from Massachusetts to Oklahoma I had 24 boxes of books to give away...there just isn't the storage here, as most homes don't have cellars/basements like they do up north. For my current reading, I get all of my books from the library. We have an excellent library system here. If our library doesn't have a particular book, then it's brought in from elsewhere. The search for books begins with surrounding communities, then statewide, and finally national. I've been reading several series written by foreign authors, and not published in this country. Many of the books have been brought in from neighboring states. With the cost of paperbacks being in the $8-$10 range, without the library system I probably wouldn't be able to afford to read like I do.

I love to read and though I do a lot of it in the internet, I don't do much with books anymore or at least like I use to. I use to have tons of books around the house and I would always bring home lots of library books. Now I read them in the stores (at those that have the reading lounges) or online. I have probably not read a novel in years but when I was younger I would devour at least 2 to 3 a week. I don't see people with looks like I use to although there are still some who read them on the bus (if they are not texting).

Whenever I'm at someone else's place, I also look around to see if they have books. I get disappointed when I see a single shelf with few books in it. I'm an avid reader and in our house you'd see books EVERYWHERE. My dad even built me a mini-library but it was still not enough to hold all my books. That's probably why I'm not used to seeing a house with very few or no books at all.