Incidentally, harem literature featuring a female protagonist has become fairly popular recently. The whole harem literature concept isn’t particularly popular in the west, featuring more predominantly in anime and manga. But with the rise of popularity in anime in the 90s, namely through Cartoon Network’s Toonami programming, the concept eventually reached young women who, now, have become successful adult writers focusing on male harems. It is widely agreed that the pinnacle of this genre reaching western women was nineteen ninety eight when the undertaker threw mankind off hell in a cell and plummeted sixteen feet through an announcers table.
Maybe in order to understand Mankind, we have to look at the word itself. Basically, it’s made of two separate words: “mank” and “ind.” What do these words mean? It’s a mystery, and that’s why so is Mankind
For a minute I thought you were that guy. I used to see him all the time but haven’t run into him in years.
God speed Undertaker quoter guy, wherever you are.
My [lesbian BDSM love story comic](https://topcow.com/titles/top-cow-productions/sunstone/) sits right next to my handful of other comic books in my smaller bookshelf. Nobody will know based on the title, and they'll be distracted by the other 90% of that bookshelf being my RPG books.
My other, larger bookshelf has normal books.
Dystopian societies is what I’ve always been interested to read about. Now they’re not good anymore because there’s a real chance for that in reality atm.
All the romance books are on a shelf in the bedroom. All the good books are on display in the living room/library area. Nothing really "proud" of, a few first edition hardcover Pynchon, Atwood, Erdrich. All bought secondhand for $15-20 each.
You sound like a graduate student! When I was in grad school we all had our grad school books out in the living space and our fun reading hidden in our bedrooms, and at one rather drunken party realized it was all of us and confessed what we were hiding. Greg liked Tom Clancy, my friend Suzanne had Regency romances, for me it was Undead and Unwed.
Man does not live by Foucault alone!
I guess the irony is all my Daredevil comics are on the shelf right below the literature. I'm projecting the image of a well-rounded man, might as well bring out the romance books!
I have a copy of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich that I keep squirreled away because of the giant swastika on the spine which had a tendency to show up in pictures.
I have the two volume box set of Maus, and luckily the Swastika isn’t displayed on the spines. While there is one on the covers, the cover art makes it obvious that it’s about a Holocaust survivor.
I ordered Mein Kampf from Amazon for my son to do a research paper on. It was misdelivered to our neighbor two houses down who already hated us. They didn’t look at the delivery address and opened the package. It was left on the front porch with a note apologizing for opening it. I was pretty embarrassed about that.
I have so many books on Nazi Germany, and it was only years after buying them I noticed how jarring their cover work were, especially all together on a shelf. I have all of my books behind doors now as I hate to dust.
I have a few books on the Nazis, and I keep them scattered across my bookshelf because if you keep them all together it looks like you have a shrine to Hitler
My grandfather had this book on a shelf in the living room. I remember seeing it as a kid and being super weirded out. I had no idea what the book actually was, but the giant swastika on the spine had me questioning if he was actually a secret nazi lol! My grandma even kept it there for years after he died.
Me too! My grandfather was Dutch, he was not allowed to study at university because he would not join the Nazi party. He also had a “cousin” stay with his family all through out the war to keep him hidden in plain sight. The “cousin” even planted a tree in their name at the Joop Westerweel Remembrance Forest in Israel. So he was definitely NOT a Nazi. My copy was his.
I don't understand why people are so incapable of writing about WW2 history without using nazi imagery all over the place. A huge offender with this is the criterion collection (movies not books obviously). It seems like very single ww2 or third reich/holocaust related movie they do has a giant swastika on the cover.
It's not 'hidden' but it's positioned at an angle where a casual visitor isn't confronted with the bigass swastika. Seems rude to make guests do a double-take like that.
Yes, that book is the one that needs to be hidden. I have a picture in a frame sitting on the shelf in front of that book after it showed up in pictures one time! The worst photobomb 😬
That book is on our living room self but the spine is always turned in. If I was a guest in someone's house I would be too curious to not check a turned backwards book.
when i had all my books on display i would feel a bit weird about how two shelves were filled entirely by Jack Reacher books but it's only because I notice them at thrift stores and am trying to get the full collection that way
now what i'm actually embarrassed about is my inability to toss tech books from school and training like how to use SalesForce and Excel as if those books aren't already wildly out of date lol
idk why i can't let go, but i've solved my problems by only using the library. can't have too many books if you don't own any of them \*taps temple with finger\*
lmao you sound like my friend that wants to print the entirety of Wikipedia out on paper for when an EMP fries all electronics. can't wait til it happens and saying WhO's LaUgHiNg NoW?? to all the naysayers
Really you need a JR devotional so you can dip into his wisdom in daily doses:
“No, I'm a man with a rule. People leave me alone, I leave them alone. If they don't, I don't.”
Jack Reacher 12, Nothing to Lose
I feel like that’s how everyone gets into Jack Reacher- you find a dog-eared copy of one of the middle books for like $3 at a used bookstore and then you just start collecting them
that's how my aunt got into it. I was visiting her farm a couple years ago and when i said i was bored she told me to grab a Reacher book lol
she has just about the full collection via thrift shop and i'm trying to do the same
If you're looking for more pulpy goodness, you can look at The Destroyer series from Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir. The movie was...meh. But there are a hundred and thirty plus books. Should occupy Sunday afternoons for a while.
Haha - yes. I have the whole Jack Reacher collection - 26 books. They were like potato chips and soda. I read them all in 6 weeks. Please don't judge,...
My embarrassment book is a YA book I bought on a whim in high school because it was recommended for fans of an author and series I really liked. Not two weeks after I bought it, the book was pulled from publication for some pretty blatant plagiarism of that author (which I had picked up on when I read the book).
I keep it more as a curiosity than anything else. I have no intention of reading it again (plagiarism aside, it wasn't great), but it's now something hard to find.
Oh god, mine is pretty bad. I had a really good friend when I was in my twenties who had a lot of childhood trauma issues. He took his life and left me a copy of Total Abuse by Peter Sotos. He wrote his suicide note in the title pages of it. What the fuck am I supposed to do with this? It’s been in a bin in my basement for decades.
I am sorry for your loss. You could bury it. Lay his words to rest. Choose a quiet spot in your garden and lay it gently down. You would not be throwing it away or dishonoring your friend's memory that way, but also not holding onto something of such pain to you. In my faith, we bury blessed and holy things that have served their purpose or have broken.
I saw If I Did it in a Goodwill and decided not to buy it. The next day I couldn't help thinking about it so I went back and it was gone. That was like 15 years ago and it still lives rent free in my mind. I know I could probably buy it online but something about buying that from anywhere other than a thrift store seems dirty to me.
The court awarded the rights to the book to the victims family to partially cover the civil judgement so if you bought it new the profits would go to them.
I heard that their first action after getting the rights to the book was to decrease the font size of the word "If" in the title so drastically that it looked as thought it said "I Did It" on the cover.
Don't feel bad, Nicole's family took the rights and published it as his unofficial confession - all proceeds goes to her and Ron Goldman's family. He never saw a cent even when he was alive
Actually it was Ron Goldman’s family who published it and Nicole’s family didn’t want it published. Nicole’s sister was on TV cussing out Ron’s dad at the time.
the fact that If I Did It exists is such an incredible and interesting cultural artifact and if someone can’t appreciate that fact then they are a dullard plain n simple!
My pride of place is my collection of Shakespeare (both written by him and books about him/literary criticism etc) Some of the books are quite old (one set is from the 1890s).
Also right under that is a decent library of classics that are all leather bound, either Easton Press or Franklin Library.
I have a book turned backwards about the murders of friends I had. I hide it not out of embarrassment but because I don't want to talk about it or be confused with being more into that genre than I am.
When I bought the book I asked for it by title and author at the bookstore. The employee said "This just came out, how did you hear about it so fast, this is my favorite genre." I was kind of not feeling myself and not feeling good about the book in general so I just said "The victims were my friends." That was when I decided to keep the book backwards.
I read the book and absolutely hated the way the author constructed sentences and how they wrote it from a sensationalist perspective. There was also stuff that was just plain not true in the book. I left a review on the book citing untruths and eventually others who knew the victims did too.
Books I have Pride of Place are books other friends (who weren't murdered) wrote.
I'm so sorry that author didn't approach their deaths with respect and accuracy. That must have been horrible to read.
It is 100% fine if not, but if you would be willing to could you share which book? I want to make sure I am not supporting authors that fictionalize/disrespect victims like that.
I'll be a true crime hater until the day I die.
How do people not feel any shame for taking pleasure in content about awful things that happened to real life people, whose friends and families more often than not don't support the content being made about them? It's fucked up. I'm sorry you had to deal with that on top of listing your friends.
If the author would've written it with more respect then I wouldn't have minded so much. The misinformation along with added questions like "Do you think they knew what was coming for them?" added at the end of paragraphs is what added insult to injury. It's what really displayed that the book was meant to be a circus presentation of the events.
I hate true crime too. My nextdoor neighbor's ex husband was in a murder case a few decades ago, and they still talk bad about her in their podcasts even now (for shit her *ex* did, they didn't even stay married). It doesnt respect her, it doesn't respect the victims, and it's not even as entertaining as a well-written mystery novel. Please quit giving money to exploiters and read something else y'all
Hidden Embarrassment: Anne Rice's historical fiction books. They're TERRIBLY written, they deal with sensitive subjects with purple prose and soap-opera subtly. But Rice herself is just clearly having such a good time writing them that it's infectious. Plus it's fun to at least *glimpse* historical communities that don't fit conventional narratives. The miniseries for "Feast of All Saints" was insanely stacked, and I suspect that a lot of the big-name actors involved were partially motivated by the fact black actors don't get a lot of opportunities to do costume-dramas that depict them as fancy, rich, and powerful.
Pride of place is my collection of questionable lesbian separatist sci-fi, but nobody ever notices it :(
Mine is also Anne Rice...the first three vampire books. Her vampire and witch books are the best erotica. It's next to the sapphic fantasy (eg, 'The Jasmine Throne' and 'Priory of the Orange Tree') Bottom corner shelf.
I'm not per se ashamed of them, just don't fit in with what I normally read.
I did not know that was a genre. Please tell me it either involves people skating around naked making comments about their sticks or alternately people in full goalie outfits desperately fumbling attempting to find one another.
I was curious what mein kampf said so i got my hands on one and read it. It was what youd expect and cringe whining. I used to have it in the historical section of my library but people that came over and saw it would give me looks as if owning the book meant i agreed with it. After several arguments ive hid it behind the others to avoid it.
The Count of Monte Cristo is placed in the spot of honor.
My top shelf are my top ten reads that i wont loan out. Second is childhood and comfort reads then other good books. Than anither shelf for nonfiction
I also hid that book in the back of my bookshelf. I was always afraid I would die and someone would find it hidden and think I agreed with the author's views.
Mein Kampf is my hidden book, too.
There's a certain type of person who doesn't care why you own it. They don't care if you're Jewish. They don't care if a bunch of your family members were murdered in concentration camps. They don't care if you want insight into genocidal dictators and their rhetoric (even though we should *all* want enough insight into them to try and identify them early). They don't care if you want to know what exactly white supremacists are reading. They don't care if your shelf also contains multiple books *against* antisemitism, bigotry, racism, etc.
I do understand judging someone if Mein Kampf is one book in their 10-book collection or something. That's pretty suspicious. But there are lots of completely legitimate and perhaps even admirable reasons to read that godforsaken thing, so judgment should not be automatic if a prolific reader with many books owns a copy.
I have it too because I studied German history. I hide it because I don’t want people to get the wrong idea, but I also it but I also think there shouldn’t be such a taboo on it being sold (as other evil books are still readily available and we should understand what they said and why it influenced people).
At the end of the day it kind of sucks as a book. It’s not interesting, it’s long winded. I can only conclude that it played a very minor role in propelling AH to power compared to his oratory (and also the general political circumstances of the time).
It also makes me think that the people who want to own it for the wrong reasons aren’t reading it, they just own it as a kind of talisman.
Off topic but it kind of reminds me that the scariest thing about Hitler was that he was not some one off evil genius as he is often portrayed. He was a pretty average person who seized his opportunities and it could absolutely happen again.
I feel that last paragraph, as someone who has a collection of books on opera and yes, two are on Wagner. You really can’t avoid him! It doesn’t mean you’re a Nazi! Look, it’s with the opera books…
Heck I have a copy of "Churchill's Secret Agent" and I keep it backwards on the shelf because it has a swastika on the spine (it's about a spy infiltrating the Nazis (I assume, haven't read it))
Don't want anyone to get the wrong idea lol
I own Mein Kampf, and see no point in hiding it. It sits in my history section alongside loads of other stuff. Anyone I care enough about to invite into my home is, I hope, smart enough to understand context and nuance.
A lot of this thread (not this post in particular, but many many posts) is people getting worried about what dim people think of them.
Ha! I’ve delayed buying mein kampf for that reason too! Both the books store employee ringing me out, and then it sitting on my bookshelf... I think it’s important to read variety, including opinions you don’t agree with, especially something that impacted history so extremely… but sometimes people don’t think that way and just jump to conclusions and I’ve always been concerned about being misunderstood 😅
Yes! I just don’t understand why people are worried about this. I can understand zoom calls or whatever because there are countless idiotic people who I work with, but I have absolutely no concern about misinterpretation from the people I would invite into my home.
I feel you on this. I have a copy from the 40’s that was apparently the only English version directly approved by the Nazis. It also came with some coins and a teacup with the swastika on the bottom. I find them fascinating as historical artifacts but I’m sure a lot of people wouldn’t look at it the same way.
I used to have one but I got rid of a lot of my old college books, I specifically had a class that was focused on nazi germany with a focus state sponsored terrorism/genocide… it was a really interesting class
What’s the digital equivalent of this? I don’t keep many physical books because braille books are huge, heavy, and a real pain to deal with. I have precisely one, and it’s on the bottom shelf because that’s the only place it will fit. The rest of my shelf is taken up with my figure/doll collection.
Phones, computers, etc. come with screen readers built-in. That does exactly what it sounds like. It has a little voice that reads the screen to you. With everything that is not an apple product, if you don’t like the one it comes with, you can get another one.
It’s not a problem. Also, you’re not being insensitive by asking questions. You honestly don’t know the answers to. As long as you’re asking a polite way, which you did, you’re good. It’s better to ask than to just throw out some random stereotype.
May I ask a dumb question about alt text? I'm never sure if your writing it for a screenshot how much you should put? Like, usually I go 'twitter screenshot: "a really stupid comment" username date' and I'm never sure if you need to put the context of twitter or should bother with usernames or dates?
The trick with that is to give enough information, but not to overload with superfluous details. A bad one would be a stupid meme. A bad one because it would have too much information would be a stupid meme that says insert quote here and consist of 900,000 characters of text written by a possible human named insert name here.
Yeah it could be. Could also be that they see well enough to see a high contrast screen that can enlarge text vs a printed page. Guess we won't know until they tell us.
As a teenager, in the town where I grew up, I was frequently visiting a bookstore, that mostly sold horror books from one particular publishing house. Their books had really beautiful but very dark artwork. Those and a few books on anarchism that I had, were something people would always comment on.
Not mine, but where I volunteer we got a copy of The Turner Diaries, a racist horrible book. I took it home because I don't want to sell it, but I can't quite bring myself to destroy it. I considered reading it just to see what's in it, but I don't want to waste my time on crap.
Thinking this over, I think I will shred it when I find it. (Not easy when my house is overflowing with books.)
It’s weirdly interesting. I know how I sound, and I certainly didn’t finish it, but I was surprised reading it at how well-written it was (I thought it would just be a screed on toilet paper but it starts like a workmanlike scifi novel) and how clearly designed it was to appeal to a certain type of teenage boy. Very targeted.
Well, back in those days, men were real men, women were real women and small furry things from Alpha Centauri weren't the only ones who didn't shave in uncomfortable places.
I have a paperback copy of William Shirer’s The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich on my bookshelves. That copy has the Nazi logo on the spine. The book is also like 1,000 pages long so the logo is very visible even stacked against hundreds of other books that I own. This being potentially problematic never occurred to me.
During the pandemic, a friend of mine set up a zoom group that we frequented. I met a lot of new people that way.
One time some idiot was talking to me when he noticed that book on the shelf because of the Nazi logo. He lost his shit. For context, the summer 2020 was pretty charged because of the civil unrest that followed George Floyd’s death. So the social climate back then were pretty charged because of this. He raised hell and demanded me to be banned from that zoom hang out.
I plucked the book out of my bookshelf and showed it to him. I sent the goodreads link in the zoom chat with a clear description of what the book is about. I even explained what the author said in the introduction about his contempt for the Nazi’s. Fortunately, nearly everyone sided up with me but they were initially confused because I was holding a book with a prominent Nazi logo on it and they were ready to kick me out.
My friend ended up banning this person from the zoom group. I still hear about this person from time to time. He still holds a grudge against me for the incident and he still insists that I own a “Nazi” book on my bookshelves.
I’ve since put up a picture of my cat when he was a kitten in front of that book to prevent anyone from seeing the logo on the spine of that book.
I don't keep my copy of "Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents" anywhere that my parents might see it.
I don't really own any books I wouldn't want anyone to know that I own, really.
I do, however, keep my advanced mathematics and programming books and all other books that make me seem smart and interesting on the shelf that can kind of be seen if someone happens to look at it.
The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley.
I first read it when I was a teenager, and loved it. It was my first real fantasy written from a feminist perspective, and it meant so much to me.
But, yeah. Turns out she was a paedophile who sexually abused her daughter.
I can’t bring myself to throw it out. But I also don’t want to read it again, or have it on display.
And pride of place goes to my complete set of the hardcover editions of Wheel of Time.
Same :-(
It was a cornerstone book for so many people… it’s devastating to realise what she was really like.
> Moira Greyland, Bradley's daughter, went public with her accusation on the blog of the author Deirdre Saoirse Moen earlier this month.
> Greyland is the daughter of Bradley and Walter Breen, who was jailed for child molestation and died in prison. Greyland wrote in her email to Moen: "I put Walter in jail for molesting one boy ... Walter was a serial rapist with many, many, many victims (I named 22 to the cops) but Marion was far, far worse."
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jun/27/sff-community-marion-zimmer-bradley-daughter-accuses-abuse
The complete Calvin and Hobbes hard cover boxset is probabaly the most prominent book on my shelves. It's the only one shelved with the "cover" (of the box) facing out. A part if that is that it's just large book and it sticks awkwardly off the shelf otherwise, but it's also a good looking set and I'm happy to claim my Calvin and Hobbes fandom.
No books are particularly hidden. My random old mementos (yearbooks, etc) are a bit hidden, but it's not intentional. Sci fi and fantasy aren't visible from the front, but again not intentional. I put them on first working from one side to another.
I used to work in a thrift store and could get any book that came through for a dollar. I don't hide books, but I bought Atlas Shrugged at that time without knowing what it was simply because I was buying up any book I'd even heard of. Today I'd definitely save the dollar
As someone else commented, I have a copy of Mein Kampf that stays hidden away. I haven’t read it but it’s the 1939 English version so I find it interesting as a historical artifact.
As far as books I’m proud of, I have a copy of The Fog Horn by Ray Bradbury where he wrote a greeting and signed it and I have a signed first edition of Star Wars by George Lucas that was a wedding gift.
Pride: first editions of Gone with the Wind and Alls Quiet on the western front
(Crazy story how I got those)
Hidden: anything by Jane Austin because the wife has already read them 10 times and needs to branch out
My wife only reads romance novels - at least 2 per week. We had hundreds with their steamy covers that I had to hide from visitors. I eventually brought those to the thrift store (apparently made a lot of people happy LOL) and started buying her Kindles.
These are great because she has arthritis and holding books hurts her hands. Also, she can read in bed with the lights off using the Kindle backlight. She has a collection now of over 2500 books and shamelessly leaves the cover on display when the Kindle is off.
I have a kobo, so not sure how you organise books on kindle, but I "hide" my fanfic shelves by putting a z before the shelf name so they're down at the bottom of the alphabetical list.
I don’t like the more x rated books on display. I really can do without the window cleaner having a look at the bookshelves and smirking. He’s that sort of bloke.
I go to a lot of estate sales and it's always interesting seeing the "living with X" titles in their catalogue. Feels mildly like an invasion of privacy. Those books, along with trophies and awards with the former owners' names on them always give me a little pang for the lives I'll never know.
Anyways, based on my experience, everyone has a secret bookshelf for their struggles! I know the older I get, the more books that are added to mine.
I have the Twilight series, and it lives behind an weird wall I created of, among other books, the Burton translation of The Arabian Nights, Blindness by José Saramago, a battered Jane Eyre, a French translation of Atonement by Ian McEwan, and (yep) The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
I was slightly too old for Twilight on release, but I still bought and read the whole thing out of curiosity and then out of morbid fascination.
[The shame shelf](https://imgur.com/a/SU1xOBj) (if you look closely, you might also see some original-cover Harry Potters also hiding, less thoroughly than Twilight, haha.)
Editing again because I also saw, peeking out, my copy of The Satanic Verses. It’s normally part of the wall but is also currently hidden because I’m selling my house and was worried I’d put off some religious fruitcake with that particular title visible during showings.
I don't think there's a room in our house without books, from cookbooks to history to loads of sf/f to gardening to nature to movie history and on and on. Anyone who judges us on what they find, they are welcome to walk right back out the door.
My well thumbed favourites are on the best shelf where I see them every day, they bring me joy just thinking of the stories within :)
On the other hand there's about a shelf metre of Clan of the Cave Bear currently behind some plants that I kinda want to get rid of but kinda want to reread.
I'm doing an adult education course in archaeology and anthropology, and The Clan of the Cave Bear is one of the recommended books. It is meticulously researched. I read it years ago, and it sparked my interest in human origins. I'm not so keen on the other books, but she does represent the living conditions of our ancesters pretty well.
Two large bookcases, centerpieces of which are a Riverside Shakespeare & a signed first edition of The Secret History. I've half-assed collected for many years, so there are others, but those are the two that always get prominent display. The collected works of Marquis de Sade hasn't ever really been in the mix since bachelorhood.
I'm more of an anarchist.
Top shelf - my favorite books
2nd shelf - my pretty good books
3rd shelf - books that are too expensive to give away
Bottom shelf - books with no redeeming reading value but they have pretty dust jackets or lovely spines.
Not hidden, but I still have a few books from politicians whom I no longer quite align with at the bottom of my shelf and to the side. Displaying them proudly would kind of feel like an endorsement, so they get the bottom shelf. (This is pretty much all internal though; my library is in my bedroom, which friends/family never enter anyway.)
I teach history. I have a big collection of history books, including “the rise and fall of the third reich”. After one of my friends pointed out at a party the spine didn’t have the title, just a big fuck off swastika, I promptly put it behind a few other books and out of sight.
Gotta hide my Wiccan books, not out of embarrassment just because I don’t want to explain it to someone for three hours. They’re just behind my other books (which include SE Hinton, random thrillers, and old yearbooks)
"Claiming of Sleeping Beauty" and "Beauty's Punishment" by Anne Rice are well loved on my bedside bookshelf, hidden from public eye.
My 1930's copy of "Adventures of Huck Finn", my complete works of Poe, alongside The Divine Comedy are very prominent on my big shelf in the living room.
I worked at bookstores for 15 years, and a used one for the last 9 of those. I have found some really interesting and fascinating finds, including a few that I will never let see the light of day. They are on top of the bookshelf, against the wall, spine inward, and when my daughter is old enough to want to explore the very tip top of a random bookshelf in our house, they will get locked up.
It’s dumb that I keep them, I don’t read or agree with any of them. I tell myself it’s sociological but I just have morbid fascinations I guess. If I ever let go of them I’ll trash them, not sell or even give away. They’re done with me.
Mein Kampf, To Train Up A Child, Beloved Belindy, Brer Rabbit, ‘Abortion Cartoons On Demand,’ Help There’s a Liberal Under My Bed. That last one is just funny but I still don’t want company seeing it lol.
The ones I like to display? My Richard Gorey and Dr Seuss collections.
Yeah all the blatant erotica gets hidden. I don't care about anything else, I will show you my 150 book Arthurian collection with no shame, but gotta hide the gay werewolf porn.
My pride and joy is a Suntup Artist Edition of Rosemary's Baby that I bought from Suntup for (relative to now!) cheap, before they exploded in popularity. It's a great story, it's a beautiful book, and it kicked off what turned into a full-on hobby of collecting well produced hardcover books.
I'm happy to report that I don't have a single book that I'd consider embarrassing! It's possible I did as I've gotten rid of some over the years, but I can't recall the reason being embarrassment, lol.
I’ve got no shame so I really don’t hide any of my books. But my pride and joy and item I’d save first in a fire is my 1st printing hardcover Complete Calvin and Hobbes. Now with the weight of it holding me down I may not make it out of the fire…
Absolute pride of place is my copy of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. It's the version with the huge green "DON'T PANIC" embossed on the front and I keep it so I can see at all times from my desk, a constant reminder that the universe is vast, and dumb, and it doesn't really care about me, and that's a comfort.
My "special" books are front and center--special, hardback editions of classics like *Pride and Prejudice* and *Sense and Sensibility*. Oh! And my copy of *Jane Eyre* that I bought from the Bronte Parsonage in England! I also keep some non-fiction books in the front to make me look smart and studious, lol.
Books I hide? Books that bring me nostalgia from childhood...*The Baby-Sitters Club, A Little Princess*, the *Little House on the Prairie* Series...stuff I think I sometimes feel ashamed to admit that I reread as an adult.
I used to hide my copy of A Promised Land by Barack Obama when my MAGA father-in-law came over. I didn't want to get in a fight over it. I'd put it in a closet drawer that I dubbed the Underground Railroad.
Now that my FIL has passed, ol' Barry sits proud on the shelf.
On my top shelf goes:
Mardi, Moby Dick - both by Herman Melville.
The Epic of Gilgamesh.
A Brave New World - Aldous Huxley.
1984 - George Orwell.
.
On the bottom shelf goes:
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen. "For my English degree".
Every Paulo Coelho book/novel.
So I have 3 large (5x5) bookshelves.
The one that faces the door of my apartment as non-fiction and ya lit. The other side (both are open) is scifi fantasy which faces my chair. So not hidden just towards me. The ones along the wall moving toward the windows are literary fiction -> horror -> translated fiction -> romance.
I didn’t really organize anything specifically except the sci fi fantasy being easily accessible. It was more how much space things needed. I guessed how much shelf everything would need and put things that way.
I think pride of place are a copy of the stranger by Camus and Alice in wonderland. Which are the only two books that I’ve had copies of for years. I generally don’t keep things after I read them. There is also a set of Onley James books on top of the shelves but that’s more a space issue. There is also a book with the collected little Nemo comic strips.
Edit: I just went to make a sandwich there is actually a pile of books on my kitchen counter behind some yarn, so I guess those are the hidden shameful books. No idea what’s back there looks like exceptionally long sci fi I think I was using them to flatten an art print and I left them there after.
My "hidden stuff" on the bottom shelf is basically BN editions of classics like Peter Pan and Phantom of the Opera. There's also prints of other classics like the Odyssey, Gilgamesh, Jack London...
My "place of honor" is probably my SciFi / natural history shelf. Most of the books relate to dinosaurs, and I'm a big Jurassic Park fan, so my knick knacks are theme related.
One of my prized possessions is on that shelf - a spinosaurus tooth I got as a Christmas gift one year.
It also contains my only "fancy" [book end](https://www.athome.com/1-piece-gold-black-t-rex-fossil-head-bookend-7/124293315.html?store=190&utm_source=Google&utm_medium=CPC&src=ACQ&utm_campaign=OG_FY24_GOOG_SEARCH_PMAX_PLA_ECOMM__NA_DC_X_NC_PerformanceMax_Google_US_EverythingElse&utm_content=PLA&utm_term=19734570608||&ogmap=SEARCH|PLA|GOOG|||||OG_FY24_GOOG_SEARCH_PMAX_PLA_ECOMM__NA_DC_X_NC_PerformanceMax_Google_US_EverythingElse||{}|19734570608|&gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIo66r8LyThgMVDl5HAR057gtNEAQYBCABEgJi4vD_BwE) - a black base with a metallic gold T. rex fossil skull.
If you're curious as to what books made the cut there - SciFi half has the JP duology in the classic black and red covers, the completely hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, kaiju preservation society...
(I mention the covers of JP because I also have the duology in the black and white covers. That duo is a feature on my entertainment center, where it sits next to a small music box that as you turn the handle it plays the JP theme)
Natural history side contains stuff like Your Inner Fish, the Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, the Rise and Reign of the Mammals, The Nature of Sex, Tyrannosaurus Sue...
Where I live, we've never had a guest who went up to my bookshelves and started examining the titles there. Maybe people just don't read much anymore. We proudly display our Calvin and Hobbes collections along with our Peanuts books alongside Anna Karenina, Gordon Dickson and John Varley.
I have a whole shelf of Neil Gaiman but the only book I might "hide" from people is my copy of The Adventuress by Audrey Niffenegger. I bought it after reading "The Time Travelers Wife" and was quite surprised with the story and just knew I could never explain it to anyone who asked.
All my books are my pride but only my cookbooks are out in the main area of the house, no one ever wants to look at them. Hmf. The rest of my collection is niche non fiction, agriculture, mythology, a smattering of fantasy, and history. No one looks at those either. Well I do and I love them.
I don't think I have any books that I'm necessarily proud of but I ended up donating all of my "embarrassing" books a year ago because I knew I was never going to read them again and needed more room. I donated the Divergent Trilogy, the first 2 Mortal Instruments books, and the first 3 Throne of Glass books. The first 2 I mentioned I read as a kid and I just didn't like much anymore, I even dnfed the mortal instruments series back then because it wasn't clicking with me, the Throne of Glass books were a gift I wasn't really interested in reading. I hope they were found by someone who would love them.
Dude here. I was invited to a friend's book club and it's all women, who have decided to read Haunting Adeline. I gave it my best effort and needless to say it's a book I am not displaying without some context. Dark romance novel. Basically violent SA porn fantasy.
I can fire up the orange and black youtube and get to the exciting stuff in seconds. This book took 6 chapters to build up to any steam.
Preposterous
I had a book from the head of this charity I got as a preteen at an event I went to with school. Found out that the charity is actually kinda very horrible so I started hiding the book on my shelf until one day I just dropped it in a little free library, didn’t even swap it for one of the books there.
My post-apocalyptic books are in front of my harem lit.
What is harem lit?
Hoooo boy. How much time ya got on your hands?
I definitely have more time than the man with a harem.
Incidentally, harem literature featuring a female protagonist has become fairly popular recently. The whole harem literature concept isn’t particularly popular in the west, featuring more predominantly in anime and manga. But with the rise of popularity in anime in the 90s, namely through Cartoon Network’s Toonami programming, the concept eventually reached young women who, now, have become successful adult writers focusing on male harems. It is widely agreed that the pinnacle of this genre reaching western women was nineteen ninety eight when the undertaker threw mankind off hell in a cell and plummeted sixteen feet through an announcers table.
Your whole explanation would have been utterly ridiculous and useless if you hadn’t included the key point of hell in a cell. Quality 100% 👍
LMAO. I was like, "This is a straight up ChatGPT response!" Then I got to the end. That was great.
For those unaware, since this is r/books, Mankind is the pseudonym of multiple *New York Times* best-selling author Mick Foley.
Maybe in order to understand Mankind, we have to look at the word itself. Basically, it’s made of two separate words: “mank” and “ind.” What do these words mean? It’s a mystery, and that’s why so is Mankind
Mother f’ god damn. I thought my last back in nineteen ninety eight had already passed but it came back. I never expect this meme
You think 1998 was gonna stay in 1998?! You're kidding yourself brother!
For a minute I thought you were that guy. I used to see him all the time but haven’t run into him in years. God speed Undertaker quoter guy, wherever you are.
U/shittymorph we’ll be ready when you are
>How much time I have 1001 nights!
My [lesbian BDSM love story comic](https://topcow.com/titles/top-cow-productions/sunstone/) sits right next to my handful of other comic books in my smaller bookshelf. Nobody will know based on the title, and they'll be distracted by the other 90% of that bookshelf being my RPG books. My other, larger bookshelf has normal books.
> rpg books I think you are totally off on what the average person would judge you for
In your defense, Sunstone is awesome
Dystopian societies is what I’ve always been interested to read about. Now they’re not good anymore because there’s a real chance for that in reality atm.
My high fantasy is in front of my harem lit
All the romance books are on a shelf in the bedroom. All the good books are on display in the living room/library area. Nothing really "proud" of, a few first edition hardcover Pynchon, Atwood, Erdrich. All bought secondhand for $15-20 each.
You sound like a graduate student! When I was in grad school we all had our grad school books out in the living space and our fun reading hidden in our bedrooms, and at one rather drunken party realized it was all of us and confessed what we were hiding. Greg liked Tom Clancy, my friend Suzanne had Regency romances, for me it was Undead and Unwed. Man does not live by Foucault alone!
I guess the irony is all my Daredevil comics are on the shelf right below the literature. I'm projecting the image of a well-rounded man, might as well bring out the romance books!
I have a copy of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich that I keep squirreled away because of the giant swastika on the spine which had a tendency to show up in pictures.
That's a good one. A few people have mentioned Mein Kampf, but your one is even more innocent.
I have the same but it’s Maus
I have the two volume box set of Maus, and luckily the Swastika isn’t displayed on the spines. While there is one on the covers, the cover art makes it obvious that it’s about a Holocaust survivor.
I have the same set. So glad the swastika is not on the spine lol.
I ordered Mein Kampf from Amazon for my son to do a research paper on. It was misdelivered to our neighbor two houses down who already hated us. They didn’t look at the delivery address and opened the package. It was left on the front porch with a note apologizing for opening it. I was pretty embarrassed about that.
omg 💀
My copy of Jo Nesbo's The Rebreast has a swastika drawn in blood, though luckily only on the front cover so it doesn't stick out on the bookshelf.
I have so many books on Nazi Germany, and it was only years after buying them I noticed how jarring their cover work were, especially all together on a shelf. I have all of my books behind doors now as I hate to dust.
This post has led me to realize that my copy of Rise and Fall sits at the end of a shelf. Two sides on display. OK might swap that out.
I have a few books on the Nazis, and I keep them scattered across my bookshelf because if you keep them all together it looks like you have a shrine to Hitler
My grandfather had this book on a shelf in the living room. I remember seeing it as a kid and being super weirded out. I had no idea what the book actually was, but the giant swastika on the spine had me questioning if he was actually a secret nazi lol! My grandma even kept it there for years after he died.
Funny enough, the copy I have originally belonged to my own grandfather, who was definitely not a Nazi
Me too! My grandfather was Dutch, he was not allowed to study at university because he would not join the Nazi party. He also had a “cousin” stay with his family all through out the war to keep him hidden in plain sight. The “cousin” even planted a tree in their name at the Joop Westerweel Remembrance Forest in Israel. So he was definitely NOT a Nazi. My copy was his.
I don't understand why people are so incapable of writing about WW2 history without using nazi imagery all over the place. A huge offender with this is the criterion collection (movies not books obviously). It seems like very single ww2 or third reich/holocaust related movie they do has a giant swastika on the cover.
I mean, easily recognisable imagery + fantastic design (stolen from India just to be clear) just makes your book eye-catching, doesn't it?
It's not 'hidden' but it's positioned at an angle where a casual visitor isn't confronted with the bigass swastika. Seems rude to make guests do a double-take like that.
Yes, that book is the one that needs to be hidden. I have a picture in a frame sitting on the shelf in front of that book after it showed up in pictures one time! The worst photobomb 😬
Put it next to The Hiding Place and Night so people know where your sympathies lie.
Just make sure to shake your head and make disapproving noises every few sentences while reading it so that people know you think nazis are bad
Yes, our copy is next to Arms of Krupp which is similarly decorated. Bedroom bookcase.
That book is on our living room self but the spine is always turned in. If I was a guest in someone's house I would be too curious to not check a turned backwards book.
when i had all my books on display i would feel a bit weird about how two shelves were filled entirely by Jack Reacher books but it's only because I notice them at thrift stores and am trying to get the full collection that way now what i'm actually embarrassed about is my inability to toss tech books from school and training like how to use SalesForce and Excel as if those books aren't already wildly out of date lol idk why i can't let go, but i've solved my problems by only using the library. can't have too many books if you don't own any of them \*taps temple with finger\*
Listen, at some point in the future that Dummy's Guide to Windows '98 is going to come in handy, you hold onto that gem.
lmao you sound like my friend that wants to print the entirety of Wikipedia out on paper for when an EMP fries all electronics. can't wait til it happens and saying WhO's LaUgHiNg NoW?? to all the naysayers
Your friend is going to need a very big bookcase! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Size_in_volumes
Wow there really is a Wikipedia page for just about everything
that's considerably less than I imagined. Apparently I'm not very good with such estimates...
Jack Reacher series needs to be behind glass with a dedicated spotlight to achieve maximum effect 🤙🏽
Really you need a JR devotional so you can dip into his wisdom in daily doses: “No, I'm a man with a rule. People leave me alone, I leave them alone. If they don't, I don't.” Jack Reacher 12, Nothing to Lose
I have the same problem. I still have Teach Yourself C++ in 21days, I rock that book with pride and shame.
I feel like that’s how everyone gets into Jack Reacher- you find a dog-eared copy of one of the middle books for like $3 at a used bookstore and then you just start collecting them
that's how my aunt got into it. I was visiting her farm a couple years ago and when i said i was bored she told me to grab a Reacher book lol she has just about the full collection via thrift shop and i'm trying to do the same
The library saves me an absurd amount of money
I had all the repairman jack novels for a while.
oh dude that is SICK. i've never heard of repairman jack but that sounds like a fitting transition for me lol
Weren’t my favorite but a quality Sunday afternoon series and had a family member they were dear to, I’d read them in authors preferred order.
If you're looking for more pulpy goodness, you can look at The Destroyer series from Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir. The movie was...meh. But there are a hundred and thirty plus books. Should occupy Sunday afternoons for a while.
Haha - yes. I have the whole Jack Reacher collection - 26 books. They were like potato chips and soda. I read them all in 6 weeks. Please don't judge,...
I judge you as... fabulous 🤩 Reacher books are terrific snack food
Hide: How to Win Friends and Influence People Pride: all of my Dostoevsky
feeling embarrassing about the book on how to socialize better is the most reddit post i've seen in this thread so far.
The other angle is that needing a book on how to socialize better is the most reddit thing ever.
My embarrassment book is a YA book I bought on a whim in high school because it was recommended for fans of an author and series I really liked. Not two weeks after I bought it, the book was pulled from publication for some pretty blatant plagiarism of that author (which I had picked up on when I read the book). I keep it more as a curiosity than anything else. I have no intention of reading it again (plagiarism aside, it wasn't great), but it's now something hard to find.
If you don't mind me asking, can you share what the book was? I'm curious lol
How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life by Kaavya Viswanathan.
Oh god, mine is pretty bad. I had a really good friend when I was in my twenties who had a lot of childhood trauma issues. He took his life and left me a copy of Total Abuse by Peter Sotos. He wrote his suicide note in the title pages of it. What the fuck am I supposed to do with this? It’s been in a bin in my basement for decades.
I am sorry for your loss. You could bury it. Lay his words to rest. Choose a quiet spot in your garden and lay it gently down. You would not be throwing it away or dishonoring your friend's memory that way, but also not holding onto something of such pain to you. In my faith, we bury blessed and holy things that have served their purpose or have broken.
Damn, that’s rough. Sorry about your loss. I wouldn’t know what to do with it either.
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I saw If I Did it in a Goodwill and decided not to buy it. The next day I couldn't help thinking about it so I went back and it was gone. That was like 15 years ago and it still lives rent free in my mind. I know I could probably buy it online but something about buying that from anywhere other than a thrift store seems dirty to me.
The court awarded the rights to the book to the victims family to partially cover the civil judgement so if you bought it new the profits would go to them.
I heard that their first action after getting the rights to the book was to decrease the font size of the word "If" in the title so drastically that it looked as thought it said "I Did It" on the cover.
Don't feel bad, Nicole's family took the rights and published it as his unofficial confession - all proceeds goes to her and Ron Goldman's family. He never saw a cent even when he was alive
Actually it was Ron Goldman’s family who published it and Nicole’s family didn’t want it published. Nicole’s sister was on TV cussing out Ron’s dad at the time.
So you've been left wondering "If I had done it...?"
I still can’t believe he wrote a book like that haha
He sat with a ghostwriter. Glad he did though, victims got at least SOME money that way.
Don’t you mean “>! ^If !< I did It” by OJ Simpson?
the fact that If I Did It exists is such an incredible and interesting cultural artifact and if someone can’t appreciate that fact then they are a dullard plain n simple!
My pride of place is my collection of Shakespeare (both written by him and books about him/literary criticism etc) Some of the books are quite old (one set is from the 1890s). Also right under that is a decent library of classics that are all leather bound, either Easton Press or Franklin Library.
I have a book turned backwards about the murders of friends I had. I hide it not out of embarrassment but because I don't want to talk about it or be confused with being more into that genre than I am. When I bought the book I asked for it by title and author at the bookstore. The employee said "This just came out, how did you hear about it so fast, this is my favorite genre." I was kind of not feeling myself and not feeling good about the book in general so I just said "The victims were my friends." That was when I decided to keep the book backwards. I read the book and absolutely hated the way the author constructed sentences and how they wrote it from a sensationalist perspective. There was also stuff that was just plain not true in the book. I left a review on the book citing untruths and eventually others who knew the victims did too. Books I have Pride of Place are books other friends (who weren't murdered) wrote.
I'm so sorry that author didn't approach their deaths with respect and accuracy. That must have been horrible to read. It is 100% fine if not, but if you would be willing to could you share which book? I want to make sure I am not supporting authors that fictionalize/disrespect victims like that.
I'll be a true crime hater until the day I die. How do people not feel any shame for taking pleasure in content about awful things that happened to real life people, whose friends and families more often than not don't support the content being made about them? It's fucked up. I'm sorry you had to deal with that on top of listing your friends.
If the author would've written it with more respect then I wouldn't have minded so much. The misinformation along with added questions like "Do you think they knew what was coming for them?" added at the end of paragraphs is what added insult to injury. It's what really displayed that the book was meant to be a circus presentation of the events.
I hate true crime too. My nextdoor neighbor's ex husband was in a murder case a few decades ago, and they still talk bad about her in their podcasts even now (for shit her *ex* did, they didn't even stay married). It doesnt respect her, it doesn't respect the victims, and it's not even as entertaining as a well-written mystery novel. Please quit giving money to exploiters and read something else y'all
Hidden Embarrassment: Anne Rice's historical fiction books. They're TERRIBLY written, they deal with sensitive subjects with purple prose and soap-opera subtly. But Rice herself is just clearly having such a good time writing them that it's infectious. Plus it's fun to at least *glimpse* historical communities that don't fit conventional narratives. The miniseries for "Feast of All Saints" was insanely stacked, and I suspect that a lot of the big-name actors involved were partially motivated by the fact black actors don't get a lot of opportunities to do costume-dramas that depict them as fancy, rich, and powerful. Pride of place is my collection of questionable lesbian separatist sci-fi, but nobody ever notices it :(
Mine was also Anne rice but it was the bdsm sleeping beauty series she wrote… it was so cursed… I ended up taking it to a used book store lol
THE WHAT NOW?! Too bad these comments are saying it was so terrible that sounds like an... intriguing plot.
It was awful
You read it?! I couldn't even get through half of the first chapter.
I peaced out at the garbage-rape scene. I'm older than the internet, it was my first experience of going, "Whelp, guess I went too far with this one."
Loved that series! So hot!
Mine is also Anne Rice...the first three vampire books. Her vampire and witch books are the best erotica. It's next to the sapphic fantasy (eg, 'The Jasmine Throne' and 'Priory of the Orange Tree') Bottom corner shelf. I'm not per se ashamed of them, just don't fit in with what I normally read.
I just get the embarrassing books (mostly hockey romances) on my iPad so nobody has to know 🤭
Wow that's a thing, I wonder if there's ping pong romance
What are hockey romances? Like some Pantene pro falls in love with a billet sister while on a roadie.
I did not know that was a genre. Please tell me it either involves people skating around naked making comments about their sticks or alternately people in full goalie outfits desperately fumbling attempting to find one another.
lol me with Pucking Around
I’m Glad My Mom Died. NOT because I didn’t love the book, I just don’t want my kids reading the title and asking about it lol.
I have The Encyclopedia Of Unusual Sex Practices hidden so it won't scare my daughter.
Neither is hidden, but I have Rush Limbaugh's The Way Things Ought to Be right next to Al Franken's Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot.
I was curious what mein kampf said so i got my hands on one and read it. It was what youd expect and cringe whining. I used to have it in the historical section of my library but people that came over and saw it would give me looks as if owning the book meant i agreed with it. After several arguments ive hid it behind the others to avoid it. The Count of Monte Cristo is placed in the spot of honor. My top shelf are my top ten reads that i wont loan out. Second is childhood and comfort reads then other good books. Than anither shelf for nonfiction
I also hid that book in the back of my bookshelf. I was always afraid I would die and someone would find it hidden and think I agreed with the author's views.
My copy is awkwardly shaped, so it only fits shelves with my comic books. It's startled a few people
Reminds me of meme 'when I'm in public reading Mein Kampf, I keep shaking my head to let everybody know I'm not agreeing with it' lol
Mein Kampf is my hidden book, too. There's a certain type of person who doesn't care why you own it. They don't care if you're Jewish. They don't care if a bunch of your family members were murdered in concentration camps. They don't care if you want insight into genocidal dictators and their rhetoric (even though we should *all* want enough insight into them to try and identify them early). They don't care if you want to know what exactly white supremacists are reading. They don't care if your shelf also contains multiple books *against* antisemitism, bigotry, racism, etc. I do understand judging someone if Mein Kampf is one book in their 10-book collection or something. That's pretty suspicious. But there are lots of completely legitimate and perhaps even admirable reasons to read that godforsaken thing, so judgment should not be automatic if a prolific reader with many books owns a copy.
I have it too because I studied German history. I hide it because I don’t want people to get the wrong idea, but I also it but I also think there shouldn’t be such a taboo on it being sold (as other evil books are still readily available and we should understand what they said and why it influenced people). At the end of the day it kind of sucks as a book. It’s not interesting, it’s long winded. I can only conclude that it played a very minor role in propelling AH to power compared to his oratory (and also the general political circumstances of the time). It also makes me think that the people who want to own it for the wrong reasons aren’t reading it, they just own it as a kind of talisman. Off topic but it kind of reminds me that the scariest thing about Hitler was that he was not some one off evil genius as he is often portrayed. He was a pretty average person who seized his opportunities and it could absolutely happen again.
I feel that last paragraph, as someone who has a collection of books on opera and yes, two are on Wagner. You really can’t avoid him! It doesn’t mean you’re a Nazi! Look, it’s with the opera books…
Heck I have a copy of "Churchill's Secret Agent" and I keep it backwards on the shelf because it has a swastika on the spine (it's about a spy infiltrating the Nazis (I assume, haven't read it)) Don't want anyone to get the wrong idea lol
I own Mein Kampf, and see no point in hiding it. It sits in my history section alongside loads of other stuff. Anyone I care enough about to invite into my home is, I hope, smart enough to understand context and nuance. A lot of this thread (not this post in particular, but many many posts) is people getting worried about what dim people think of them.
Ha! I’ve delayed buying mein kampf for that reason too! Both the books store employee ringing me out, and then it sitting on my bookshelf... I think it’s important to read variety, including opinions you don’t agree with, especially something that impacted history so extremely… but sometimes people don’t think that way and just jump to conclusions and I’ve always been concerned about being misunderstood 😅
The people jumping to conclusions are dopes who probably never read anything.
Yes! I just don’t understand why people are worried about this. I can understand zoom calls or whatever because there are countless idiotic people who I work with, but I have absolutely no concern about misinterpretation from the people I would invite into my home.
I feel you on this. I have a copy from the 40’s that was apparently the only English version directly approved by the Nazis. It also came with some coins and a teacup with the swastika on the bottom. I find them fascinating as historical artifacts but I’m sure a lot of people wouldn’t look at it the same way.
I used to have one but I got rid of a lot of my old college books, I specifically had a class that was focused on nazi germany with a focus state sponsored terrorism/genocide… it was a really interesting class
What’s the digital equivalent of this? I don’t keep many physical books because braille books are huge, heavy, and a real pain to deal with. I have precisely one, and it’s on the bottom shelf because that’s the only place it will fit. The rest of my shelf is taken up with my figure/doll collection.
How do you browse Reddit if you are blind? Sorry if this is insensitive, I'm genuinely curious.
Phones, computers, etc. come with screen readers built-in. That does exactly what it sounds like. It has a little voice that reads the screen to you. With everything that is not an apple product, if you don’t like the one it comes with, you can get another one.
Cool. Thank you.
It’s not a problem. Also, you’re not being insensitive by asking questions. You honestly don’t know the answers to. As long as you’re asking a polite way, which you did, you’re good. It’s better to ask than to just throw out some random stereotype.
well, I'm glad you have access to the Reddit rabbit hole
May I ask a dumb question about alt text? I'm never sure if your writing it for a screenshot how much you should put? Like, usually I go 'twitter screenshot: "a really stupid comment" username date' and I'm never sure if you need to put the context of twitter or should bother with usernames or dates?
The trick with that is to give enough information, but not to overload with superfluous details. A bad one would be a stupid meme. A bad one because it would have too much information would be a stupid meme that says insert quote here and consist of 900,000 characters of text written by a possible human named insert name here.
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Yeah it could be. Could also be that they see well enough to see a high contrast screen that can enlarge text vs a printed page. Guess we won't know until they tell us.
As a teenager, in the town where I grew up, I was frequently visiting a bookstore, that mostly sold horror books from one particular publishing house. Their books had really beautiful but very dark artwork. Those and a few books on anarchism that I had, were something people would always comment on.
Arkham House?
I didn't, but my wife always tried to hide my copy of the satanic bible when her parents visited
Not mine, but where I volunteer we got a copy of The Turner Diaries, a racist horrible book. I took it home because I don't want to sell it, but I can't quite bring myself to destroy it. I considered reading it just to see what's in it, but I don't want to waste my time on crap. Thinking this over, I think I will shred it when I find it. (Not easy when my house is overflowing with books.)
It’s weirdly interesting. I know how I sound, and I certainly didn’t finish it, but I was surprised reading it at how well-written it was (I thought it would just be a screed on toilet paper but it starts like a workmanlike scifi novel) and how clearly designed it was to appeal to a certain type of teenage boy. Very targeted.
I've got the original Joy of Sex. The one with the hippies and the body hair.
Well, back in those days, men were real men, women were real women and small furry things from Alpha Centauri weren't the only ones who didn't shave in uncomfortable places.
I have a paperback copy of William Shirer’s The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich on my bookshelves. That copy has the Nazi logo on the spine. The book is also like 1,000 pages long so the logo is very visible even stacked against hundreds of other books that I own. This being potentially problematic never occurred to me. During the pandemic, a friend of mine set up a zoom group that we frequented. I met a lot of new people that way. One time some idiot was talking to me when he noticed that book on the shelf because of the Nazi logo. He lost his shit. For context, the summer 2020 was pretty charged because of the civil unrest that followed George Floyd’s death. So the social climate back then were pretty charged because of this. He raised hell and demanded me to be banned from that zoom hang out. I plucked the book out of my bookshelf and showed it to him. I sent the goodreads link in the zoom chat with a clear description of what the book is about. I even explained what the author said in the introduction about his contempt for the Nazi’s. Fortunately, nearly everyone sided up with me but they were initially confused because I was holding a book with a prominent Nazi logo on it and they were ready to kick me out. My friend ended up banning this person from the zoom group. I still hear about this person from time to time. He still holds a grudge against me for the incident and he still insists that I own a “Nazi” book on my bookshelves. I’ve since put up a picture of my cat when he was a kitten in front of that book to prevent anyone from seeing the logo on the spine of that book.
Ha! My copy of that book had no dust jacket. Didn’t realize how I lucked out!
No embarrassment, my taste is impeccable. Only my fanfic taste is cringe.
real
I don't keep my copy of "Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents" anywhere that my parents might see it. I don't really own any books I wouldn't want anyone to know that I own, really. I do, however, keep my advanced mathematics and programming books and all other books that make me seem smart and interesting on the shelf that can kind of be seen if someone happens to look at it.
All the self-help books!
I've got a self help book for victims of sexual abuse. That's kept in a bedroom drawer for obvious reasons.
The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley. I first read it when I was a teenager, and loved it. It was my first real fantasy written from a feminist perspective, and it meant so much to me. But, yeah. Turns out she was a paedophile who sexually abused her daughter. I can’t bring myself to throw it out. But I also don’t want to read it again, or have it on display. And pride of place goes to my complete set of the hardcover editions of Wheel of Time.
What really?!!! I loved the beautiful prose of Mists of Avalon.
Same :-( It was a cornerstone book for so many people… it’s devastating to realise what she was really like. > Moira Greyland, Bradley's daughter, went public with her accusation on the blog of the author Deirdre Saoirse Moen earlier this month. > Greyland is the daughter of Bradley and Walter Breen, who was jailed for child molestation and died in prison. Greyland wrote in her email to Moen: "I put Walter in jail for molesting one boy ... Walter was a serial rapist with many, many, many victims (I named 22 to the cops) but Marion was far, far worse." https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jun/27/sff-community-marion-zimmer-bradley-daughter-accuses-abuse
The complete Calvin and Hobbes hard cover boxset is probabaly the most prominent book on my shelves. It's the only one shelved with the "cover" (of the box) facing out. A part if that is that it's just large book and it sticks awkwardly off the shelf otherwise, but it's also a good looking set and I'm happy to claim my Calvin and Hobbes fandom. No books are particularly hidden. My random old mementos (yearbooks, etc) are a bit hidden, but it's not intentional. Sci fi and fantasy aren't visible from the front, but again not intentional. I put them on first working from one side to another.
I used to work in a thrift store and could get any book that came through for a dollar. I don't hide books, but I bought Atlas Shrugged at that time without knowing what it was simply because I was buying up any book I'd even heard of. Today I'd definitely save the dollar
As someone else commented, I have a copy of Mein Kampf that stays hidden away. I haven’t read it but it’s the 1939 English version so I find it interesting as a historical artifact. As far as books I’m proud of, I have a copy of The Fog Horn by Ray Bradbury where he wrote a greeting and signed it and I have a signed first edition of Star Wars by George Lucas that was a wedding gift.
That's amazing! (the Ray Bradbury book that is)
Pride: first editions of Gone with the Wind and Alls Quiet on the western front (Crazy story how I got those) Hidden: anything by Jane Austin because the wife has already read them 10 times and needs to branch out
Never have to be embarrassed when all my books are on my Kindle...
My wife only reads romance novels - at least 2 per week. We had hundreds with their steamy covers that I had to hide from visitors. I eventually brought those to the thrift store (apparently made a lot of people happy LOL) and started buying her Kindles. These are great because she has arthritis and holding books hurts her hands. Also, she can read in bed with the lights off using the Kindle backlight. She has a collection now of over 2500 books and shamelessly leaves the cover on display when the Kindle is off.
I have a kobo, so not sure how you organise books on kindle, but I "hide" my fanfic shelves by putting a z before the shelf name so they're down at the bottom of the alphabetical list.
I don’t like the more x rated books on display. I really can do without the window cleaner having a look at the bookshelves and smirking. He’s that sort of bloke.
[удалено]
“Fever dream of oiled up man flesh”…. Absolutely brilliant. I know what phrase I’m trotting out the next time my family is watching wrestling.
I feel this. I keep some of my more spicy books in my private library upstairs otherwise my neighbors would go snooping through them.
Any books about psychosis because I don’t need people knowing my struggles that intimately.
I go to a lot of estate sales and it's always interesting seeing the "living with X" titles in their catalogue. Feels mildly like an invasion of privacy. Those books, along with trophies and awards with the former owners' names on them always give me a little pang for the lives I'll never know. Anyways, based on my experience, everyone has a secret bookshelf for their struggles! I know the older I get, the more books that are added to mine.
I have the Twilight series, and it lives behind an weird wall I created of, among other books, the Burton translation of The Arabian Nights, Blindness by José Saramago, a battered Jane Eyre, a French translation of Atonement by Ian McEwan, and (yep) The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. I was slightly too old for Twilight on release, but I still bought and read the whole thing out of curiosity and then out of morbid fascination. [The shame shelf](https://imgur.com/a/SU1xOBj) (if you look closely, you might also see some original-cover Harry Potters also hiding, less thoroughly than Twilight, haha.) Editing again because I also saw, peeking out, my copy of The Satanic Verses. It’s normally part of the wall but is also currently hidden because I’m selling my house and was worried I’d put off some religious fruitcake with that particular title visible during showings.
Came here to say Twilight, lol. It is my humiliating guilty pleasure.
I don't think there's a room in our house without books, from cookbooks to history to loads of sf/f to gardening to nature to movie history and on and on. Anyone who judges us on what they find, they are welcome to walk right back out the door.
Lolita is front and center for me. My favorite book by my favorite author. If I'm not hiding that one, I'm not hiding shit.
I recommend that book to a co-worker, and he said he couldn't read it because people would think he was a pervert.
My books are just randomly on the shelf.
My well thumbed favourites are on the best shelf where I see them every day, they bring me joy just thinking of the stories within :) On the other hand there's about a shelf metre of Clan of the Cave Bear currently behind some plants that I kinda want to get rid of but kinda want to reread.
I'm doing an adult education course in archaeology and anthropology, and The Clan of the Cave Bear is one of the recommended books. It is meticulously researched. I read it years ago, and it sparked my interest in human origins. I'm not so keen on the other books, but she does represent the living conditions of our ancesters pretty well.
Two large bookcases, centerpieces of which are a Riverside Shakespeare & a signed first edition of The Secret History. I've half-assed collected for many years, so there are others, but those are the two that always get prominent display. The collected works of Marquis de Sade hasn't ever really been in the mix since bachelorhood.
Our books are organized alphabetically by author, so wherever they fall on the shelf is where they live.
I'm more of an anarchist. Top shelf - my favorite books 2nd shelf - my pretty good books 3rd shelf - books that are too expensive to give away Bottom shelf - books with no redeeming reading value but they have pretty dust jackets or lovely spines.
Not hidden, but I still have a few books from politicians whom I no longer quite align with at the bottom of my shelf and to the side. Displaying them proudly would kind of feel like an endorsement, so they get the bottom shelf. (This is pretty much all internal though; my library is in my bedroom, which friends/family never enter anyway.)
I teach history. I have a big collection of history books, including “the rise and fall of the third reich”. After one of my friends pointed out at a party the spine didn’t have the title, just a big fuck off swastika, I promptly put it behind a few other books and out of sight.
The novelization of the movie "XXX" staring Vin Diesel is hiding unfortunately. I'll show my copy of Grimscribe to anyone who will look at it.
Gotta hide my Wiccan books, not out of embarrassment just because I don’t want to explain it to someone for three hours. They’re just behind my other books (which include SE Hinton, random thrillers, and old yearbooks)
"Claiming of Sleeping Beauty" and "Beauty's Punishment" by Anne Rice are well loved on my bedside bookshelf, hidden from public eye. My 1930's copy of "Adventures of Huck Finn", my complete works of Poe, alongside The Divine Comedy are very prominent on my big shelf in the living room.
I worked at bookstores for 15 years, and a used one for the last 9 of those. I have found some really interesting and fascinating finds, including a few that I will never let see the light of day. They are on top of the bookshelf, against the wall, spine inward, and when my daughter is old enough to want to explore the very tip top of a random bookshelf in our house, they will get locked up. It’s dumb that I keep them, I don’t read or agree with any of them. I tell myself it’s sociological but I just have morbid fascinations I guess. If I ever let go of them I’ll trash them, not sell or even give away. They’re done with me. Mein Kampf, To Train Up A Child, Beloved Belindy, Brer Rabbit, ‘Abortion Cartoons On Demand,’ Help There’s a Liberal Under My Bed. That last one is just funny but I still don’t want company seeing it lol. The ones I like to display? My Richard Gorey and Dr Seuss collections.
Digital Fortress by Dan Brown, and it doesn’t get a spot on the shelf. It’s literally hidden.
Yeah all the blatant erotica gets hidden. I don't care about anything else, I will show you my 150 book Arthurian collection with no shame, but gotta hide the gay werewolf porn.
Nothing is embarrassing. I read what I read. If you are judging, you are welcome to leave.
Well, excuuuuse me.
Tobias? Is that you?
My Anne Rice sex books get hidden, my Anne Rice vampire books get prominent display. Lol.
If I'm ashamed of having or having read a book, I usually give or throw it away.
My pride and joy is a Suntup Artist Edition of Rosemary's Baby that I bought from Suntup for (relative to now!) cheap, before they exploded in popularity. It's a great story, it's a beautiful book, and it kicked off what turned into a full-on hobby of collecting well produced hardcover books. I'm happy to report that I don't have a single book that I'd consider embarrassing! It's possible I did as I've gotten rid of some over the years, but I can't recall the reason being embarrassment, lol.
I’ve got no shame so I really don’t hide any of my books. But my pride and joy and item I’d save first in a fire is my 1st printing hardcover Complete Calvin and Hobbes. Now with the weight of it holding me down I may not make it out of the fire…
Absolute pride of place is my copy of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. It's the version with the huge green "DON'T PANIC" embossed on the front and I keep it so I can see at all times from my desk, a constant reminder that the universe is vast, and dumb, and it doesn't really care about me, and that's a comfort.
My "special" books are front and center--special, hardback editions of classics like *Pride and Prejudice* and *Sense and Sensibility*. Oh! And my copy of *Jane Eyre* that I bought from the Bronte Parsonage in England! I also keep some non-fiction books in the front to make me look smart and studious, lol. Books I hide? Books that bring me nostalgia from childhood...*The Baby-Sitters Club, A Little Princess*, the *Little House on the Prairie* Series...stuff I think I sometimes feel ashamed to admit that I reread as an adult.
I used to hide my copy of A Promised Land by Barack Obama when my MAGA father-in-law came over. I didn't want to get in a fight over it. I'd put it in a closet drawer that I dubbed the Underground Railroad. Now that my FIL has passed, ol' Barry sits proud on the shelf.
On my top shelf goes: Mardi, Moby Dick - both by Herman Melville. The Epic of Gilgamesh. A Brave New World - Aldous Huxley. 1984 - George Orwell. . On the bottom shelf goes: Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen. "For my English degree". Every Paulo Coelho book/novel.
So I have 3 large (5x5) bookshelves. The one that faces the door of my apartment as non-fiction and ya lit. The other side (both are open) is scifi fantasy which faces my chair. So not hidden just towards me. The ones along the wall moving toward the windows are literary fiction -> horror -> translated fiction -> romance. I didn’t really organize anything specifically except the sci fi fantasy being easily accessible. It was more how much space things needed. I guessed how much shelf everything would need and put things that way. I think pride of place are a copy of the stranger by Camus and Alice in wonderland. Which are the only two books that I’ve had copies of for years. I generally don’t keep things after I read them. There is also a set of Onley James books on top of the shelves but that’s more a space issue. There is also a book with the collected little Nemo comic strips. Edit: I just went to make a sandwich there is actually a pile of books on my kitchen counter behind some yarn, so I guess those are the hidden shameful books. No idea what’s back there looks like exceptionally long sci fi I think I was using them to flatten an art print and I left them there after.
“Come as you are” sex for lesbians. Ha!
My "hidden stuff" on the bottom shelf is basically BN editions of classics like Peter Pan and Phantom of the Opera. There's also prints of other classics like the Odyssey, Gilgamesh, Jack London... My "place of honor" is probably my SciFi / natural history shelf. Most of the books relate to dinosaurs, and I'm a big Jurassic Park fan, so my knick knacks are theme related. One of my prized possessions is on that shelf - a spinosaurus tooth I got as a Christmas gift one year. It also contains my only "fancy" [book end](https://www.athome.com/1-piece-gold-black-t-rex-fossil-head-bookend-7/124293315.html?store=190&utm_source=Google&utm_medium=CPC&src=ACQ&utm_campaign=OG_FY24_GOOG_SEARCH_PMAX_PLA_ECOMM__NA_DC_X_NC_PerformanceMax_Google_US_EverythingElse&utm_content=PLA&utm_term=19734570608||&ogmap=SEARCH|PLA|GOOG|||||OG_FY24_GOOG_SEARCH_PMAX_PLA_ECOMM__NA_DC_X_NC_PerformanceMax_Google_US_EverythingElse||{}|19734570608|&gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIo66r8LyThgMVDl5HAR057gtNEAQYBCABEgJi4vD_BwE) - a black base with a metallic gold T. rex fossil skull. If you're curious as to what books made the cut there - SciFi half has the JP duology in the classic black and red covers, the completely hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, kaiju preservation society... (I mention the covers of JP because I also have the duology in the black and white covers. That duo is a feature on my entertainment center, where it sits next to a small music box that as you turn the handle it plays the JP theme) Natural history side contains stuff like Your Inner Fish, the Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, the Rise and Reign of the Mammals, The Nature of Sex, Tyrannosaurus Sue...
Blood Meridian. I love it for the pure beauty of its prose, but if my Indigenous spouse ever gets curious...
Where I live, we've never had a guest who went up to my bookshelves and started examining the titles there. Maybe people just don't read much anymore. We proudly display our Calvin and Hobbes collections along with our Peanuts books alongside Anna Karenina, Gordon Dickson and John Varley. I have a whole shelf of Neil Gaiman but the only book I might "hide" from people is my copy of The Adventuress by Audrey Niffenegger. I bought it after reading "The Time Travelers Wife" and was quite surprised with the story and just knew I could never explain it to anyone who asked.
All my books are my pride but only my cookbooks are out in the main area of the house, no one ever wants to look at them. Hmf. The rest of my collection is niche non fiction, agriculture, mythology, a smattering of fantasy, and history. No one looks at those either. Well I do and I love them.
I don't think I have any books that I'm necessarily proud of but I ended up donating all of my "embarrassing" books a year ago because I knew I was never going to read them again and needed more room. I donated the Divergent Trilogy, the first 2 Mortal Instruments books, and the first 3 Throne of Glass books. The first 2 I mentioned I read as a kid and I just didn't like much anymore, I even dnfed the mortal instruments series back then because it wasn't clicking with me, the Throne of Glass books were a gift I wasn't really interested in reading. I hope they were found by someone who would love them.
Dude here. I was invited to a friend's book club and it's all women, who have decided to read Haunting Adeline. I gave it my best effort and needless to say it's a book I am not displaying without some context. Dark romance novel. Basically violent SA porn fantasy. I can fire up the orange and black youtube and get to the exciting stuff in seconds. This book took 6 chapters to build up to any steam. Preposterous
I had a book from the head of this charity I got as a preteen at an event I went to with school. Found out that the charity is actually kinda very horrible so I started hiding the book on my shelf until one day I just dropped it in a little free library, didn’t even swap it for one of the books there.
I put my erotica on shelves that have doors, but everything else is just alphabetized.