bookshelf voyeurism

This article about this coronavirus-era made me smile. I am always so nosy about people's bookshelves when I go to their houses. Now, I totally want to learn more about each of these people, and would love to see even more of their shelves.

What Do Famous People’s Bookshelves Reveal?
In quarantine, people are inadvertently exposing their reading habits — embarrassing, surprising and impressive. by Gal Beckerman, April 30, 2020

Bibliophiles do not approach bookshelves lightly. A stranger’s collection is to us a window to their soul. We peruse with judgment, sometimes admiration and occasionally repulsion (Ayn Rand?!). With celebrities now frequently speaking on television in front of their home libraries, a voyeuristic pleasure presents itself: Are they actually really like us?

Stacey Abrams on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” April 21
1. “Africa Adorned,” by Angela Fisher: A photography book from 1984 with a fascination for the body art and natural jewelry of Africa.

2. “The Night Tiger,” by Yangsze Choo: Set in 1930s colonial Malaya, this 2019 novel is the kind of book reviewers like to call “sumptuous,” with a plot featuring the search for a severed finger and a supernatural tiger.

Cate Blanchett on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” April 15
1. “Postcapitalism,” by Paul Mason: Information technology is killing capitalism as we know it. But this could be a good thing.
2. “Moscow 1937," by Karl Schlögel: A portrait of the Soviet capital at the height of Stalin’s reign.
3. The Oxford English Dictionary: It’s 20 volumes. 21,728 pages. 171,476 words. And she owns them all.

Jane Goodall on “PBS NewsHour,” April 22

1. “The Hidden Target,” by Helen MacInnes: This 1980 spy novel tells the story of an American college student on a world tour who becomes entangled with secret agents looking to stop a terrorist plot.

2. “The End of Food,” by Thomas F. Pawlick: Danger abounds at the grocery store in this 2006 expose of our current method of food production. Pawlick reveals that the vitamin, mineral and nutritional content of food is in shocking decline.

Carla Hayden on the Library of Congress Twitter account, April 24
1. “Heart of the Ngoni,” by Harold Courlander with Ousmane Sako: A collection of centuries-old stories from the Malian kingdom of Segu, translated from the original Bambara, that recount trials and tribulations of chiefs and tribal battles.

2. “Minders of Make-Believe,” by Leonard S. Marcus: A history of children’s literature, from the colonial era until today, along with a running account of the battles that were waged over what young people should read.

3. “Losing My Cool,” by Thomas Chatterton Williams: Williams tells the story of how his father saved him from hip-hop culture by deploying books, lots of them, to give a wider view of the world.

via {ny times}