Coffee Table Book Culture

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Even in the age of the E-Reader do you still meet people with copies of leather bound and embossed facsimile editions of The Complete Works Of Shakespeare or Marcel Proust's Remembrance Of Things Past in pride of place on their bookshelves or even displayed on the coffee table? In most cases, such books are bought, but never read. They are purchased because they look expensive or the owners like to look smugly intellectual. The book is an ornament, set out to impress, but often failing to achieve its aim. I can't help inspecting book-cases and record / CD collections on visiting a friend or neighbor at home. Books are a great gauge of character and personality. I met a couple who claimed to have only discovered their house was haunted by a poltergeist only days before my visit. Their shelf full of books on the paranormal told me they were not as skeptical of such claims before their supposed ghost's appearance. Their house was not possessed. My own reading is diverse and eclectic, covering comics, classics, Westerns, factual books, music studies and mostly SF & fantasy work. The enclosed photo, taken by myself, of just part of my creaking book shelves should tell you something about me. Arthur Chappell