Hey, I have always done this, as well. There is nothing more mesmerizing than an attractive bookcase.
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?
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…
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…
OK, that was weird…
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Mo Rocca (sp?) had segment on today’s CBS Sunday Morning about this. Lady Gaga’s was quite sedate.
Brian
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, 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 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.
Closer to topic: Newscaster does a live segment unwittingly with her nude partner in the background (BoingBoing) (doubleclick)
Where are a green screen and projected background when we need them?
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
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.