# TV newscasters working from home and their bookshelves **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 8, 2020, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-newscasters-working-from-home-and-their-bookshelves/851358 "2020-04-08T16:53:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![gytalf2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ac91a4/32.png) [@gytalf2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gytalf2000)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-newscasters-working-from-home-and-their-bookshelves/851358/61 "2020-04-13T14:16:55Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > I can’t be the only Doper who does this. > > When I see a working-from-home newscaster, they are usually filmed standing in front of a shelf full of books. > > I always concentrate more on which books are on the shelves and whether I can identify any of them than what the reporter is saying. > > I give myself a point for every title I recognize, 3 points if I own it. > mmm Hey, I have always done this, as well. There is nothing more mesmerizing than an attractive bookcase. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-newscasters-working-from-home-and-their-bookshelves/851358/62 "2020-04-13T16:22:54Z")
It’s an interesting development. Don’t watch much TV. But I noticed Trevor Noah is going for a minimalist look with a coffee-table Nat Geo book “Wild Beautiful Places” (or something similar) in the background. Stephen Colbert goes for a bookcase of contemporary political writings. A social worker spokesperson was on the news recently. Even she stood in front of a bookcase with a set of Encyclopedias. I liked the verisimilitude and lack of pretension. How long before we see the women with Harlequins or Ellis Peters? Or men with endless Tom Clancy? ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-newscasters-working-from-home-and-their-bookshelves/851358/63 "2020-04-15T14:10:31Z")
I notice “Between The World And Me” behind Yamiche Alcindor, and Woodward’s “Fear” behind several people. There are a few that are easy to pick out. More intriguing to me, though, is the judgement that I pass disfavoring people whose books appear to be sorted by color. There’s not technically anything actually wrong with that… ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-newscasters-working-from-home-and-their-bookshelves/851358/64 "2020-04-15T14:11:32Z")
I notice “Between The World And Me” behind Yamiche Alcindor, and Woodward’s “Fear” behind several people. There are a few that are easy to pick out. More intriguing to me, though, is the judgement that I pass disfavoring people whose books appear to be sorted by color. There’s not technically anything actually wrong with that… ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-newscasters-working-from-home-and-their-bookshelves/851358/65 "2020-04-15T14:12:46Z")
OK, that was weird… ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-newscasters-working-from-home-and-their-bookshelves/851358/66 "2020-04-15T14:35:06Z")
What, double-posting? It happens a lot, when the board is about to crash. Which is pretty often, these days. My own collection has been sadly in disarray since I moved here, but the virtual background I’ve been using most is a painting of the Library of Alexandria. And I totally judge when I see disorganized bookshelves in peoples’ homes. Yeah, I totally get that different people have different schemes, but dangit, if you have all three volumes of _Lord of the Rings_, they should be together! And whenever I visit a used bookshop, I always have to make an effort to restrain myself from organizing their shelves. ---
**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-newscasters-working-from-home-and-their-bookshelves/851358/67 "2020-04-15T19:48:37Z")
Did I need a backdrop more elaborate than the closed window blinds behind me, I would favor a big greaseboard showing an obsolete software flowchart. For a retro look, make it a blackboard with dense equations chalked in. For the hippy-nerd look, a slideshow of MC Escher etchings. For nuclear nostalgia, a world map with animated missile tracks ala WARGAMES. For narcissism, bookshelves filled entirely with my field guide to cacti. Beware if I ever commence a podcast. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-newscasters-working-from-home-and-their-bookshelves/851358/68 "2020-04-16T17:42:33Z")
Re: Seth Meyers and _The Thorn Birds_, part 2. On Friday’s show he actually played with this. Mentioning that people are puzzled as to why he has a copy of a book like this on the table, etc. During the show one or two additional copies would appear on top of it and then go away. (But only the first one still had a dust jacket.) Still can’t id the book underneath, though. Everybody should play games with the books in the background like this. Have books by Gandhi and Ayn Rand side-by-side. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-newscasters-working-from-home-and-their-bookshelves/851358/69 "2020-04-17T00:47:23Z")
> [@erysichthon](#): > > I also do this with fictional TV shows and movies—whenever there are books visible on screen, my eyes are irresistibly drawn to them. > > I was watching _Midsomer Murders_ last night, and there was a scene in a bookstore. I was so preoccupied with identifying the books that I didn’t pay any attention to Inspector Barnaby questioning the bookstore owner. Which one was this? The one with the reappearance of Mrs. Rainbird and her son in the guise of her sister and nephew? Because one of the books that gets a close-up in the nephew’s bookshop is by Jezebel Tripp who was featured in another Midsomer episode. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-newscasters-working-from-home-and-their-bookshelves/851358/70 "2020-04-17T09:54:32Z")
Spotted a couple more that I own, both biographies. One of Benjamin Franklin, the other of Harry Truman. Funny how you never see a Danielle Steele or even a Stephen King novel. mmm ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2020, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-newscasters-working-from-home-and-their-bookshelves/851358/71 "2020-04-19T22:24:17Z")
Mo Rocca (sp?) had segment on today’s CBS Sunday Morning about this. Lady Gaga’s was quite sedate. Brian ---
**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2020, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-newscasters-working-from-home-and-their-bookshelves/851358/72 "2020-04-20T08:54:05Z")
Veering a little: Long ago (mid-1960s) Los Angeles KTTV featured regular talk shows hosted by edgy notables including Mort Sahl and Della Reese. I remember [Louis Lomax](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Lomax), whose books explained black people to white people, sitting on his studio desk nervously puffing a cigarette while Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention played a bit and dismantled part of the studio. Celeb lawyer [Mel Belli](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melvin_Belli) ran his show at a walnut desk wearing an embroidered smoking jacket, in a room with floor-to-ceiling shelves filled with leather-bound books. Wow, what a studio effect! TV resolution was bad then so I couldn’t read any titles. A few years later I was a bicycle courier in San Francisco with occasional deliveries to Belli’s law offices on upper Montgomery Street. The first time shocked me. The packet was for “the king of torts” himself, signature required. I was led back to his office - which was precisely as on the TV show. Same vast library, same desk, same smoking jacket. Leaving, I saw a space on the opposite wall roomy enough for camera and sound crew. Very clever. If you’re going to be a celeb lawyer, always play the part. ---
**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2020, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-newscasters-working-from-home-and-their-bookshelves/851358/73 "2020-04-20T18:22:17Z")
Closer to topic: [Newscaster does a live segment unwittingly with her nude partner in the background](https://boingboing.net/2020/04/20/newscaster-does-a-live-segment.html) (BoingBoing) (doubleclick) > [@](#): > > In Stockton, California, KCRA’s Melinda Meza did a live TV segment about hairstyling on location in her home bathroom. Special guest star: her naked partner in the shower. Where are a green screen and projected background when we need them? ---
**Author:** ![steepone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/977dab/32.png) [@steepone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steepone)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-newscasters-working-from-home-and-their-bookshelves/851358/74 "2020-04-21T18:09:00Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#): > > I can’t believe that simply having the title/author of a book, in a bookcase, visible onscreen requires a legal team and clearances and stuff. Does that mean that a lawyer somewhere passed judgment and filled out forms and requested and obtained clearances for every book I’ve ever seen in every movie and television show I’ve ever watched? > > It just seems really unlikely to me. Probably not so much a legal matter as making sure they’re not showing any offensive material that’s going to upset viewers, without checking each and every book you can’t know whether it’s going to be offensive to anyone and as almost any book will upset someone it’s easier to just not show the titles at all ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2020, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-newscasters-working-from-home-and-their-bookshelves/851358/75 "2020-04-26T22:40:17Z")
I watched the Metropolitan Opera Gala yesterday, which was Skyped from the performers’ homes, all over the world. Lots of wonderful book cases in the backgrounds, as well as home furnishings… including a bust of Wagner wearing a covid-19 face mask. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-newscasters-working-from-home-and-their-bookshelves/851358.md?page=3)