A viral tweet has warned everyone about the potential red flags on a guy’s bookshelf and the responses are truly hilarious.
You can tell a lot about a person based on their bookshelf – are their books organised by colour? Publication date? Size? Or are they just strewn about in chaos? Do they dog ear their books or use fancy bookmarks? Even then, is their favourite book Wuthering Heights? Catcher in the Rye? 1984? The Handmaid’s Tale?
There’s a really beautiful quote by Robert Montgomery, “the people you love become ghosts inside of you”, that author Emma Forrest has perfectly analysed by explaining “I feel like the books we love do too [become ghosts inside of us]” because “books have an energetic power – you can hold them in your hand and know that there’s power.” Forrest’s assertion is really the perfect description of why books can tell us so much about a person.
Well, Twitter got into a heated debate this week about how certain books on a guy’s bookshelf are red flags and it all started with this tweet:
Top 7 Warning Signs In a Man’s Bookshelf:
1. A Dog-eared copy of Infinite Jest
2. Too Much Hemingway
3. Any amount of Bukowski
4. AYN. RAND.
5. Goethe
6. “Lolita is my favorite book.”
7. “‘Fathers and Sons’ Is my favorite book.”— Jess McHugh (@MchughJess) August 24, 2020
People have not been afraid to share their opinions, from:
We used to have a thing in college about the 5 books on every guy’s bookshelf late 1990s
1. Lolita
2. On the Road
3. The Catcher in the Rue
4. The World According to Garp
5. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas— Jamie Klingler (@jamieklingler) August 24, 2020
To:
Disagree about Bukowski. Maybe I’m naive but I like to think people realize they’re horrible characters and don’t emulate them.
— Build Billionaires Better (@ScottGWrites) August 24, 2020
And:
I saw Goosebumps on a man’s shelf and high-tailed it out of there because I got frikkin scared!
— rob (@catholicdad420) August 24, 2020
As well as this wholesome tweet:
Top 7 good signs in a man’s bookshelf:
1. Too much Wodehouse
2. Too much Carl Sagan
3. Hitchhiker’s guide to galaxy
4. Heart of Darkness
5. Richard Feynman
6. Dune
7. Homer— SaganMan (@thesaganman) August 24, 2020
Deciding what’s a red flag ultimately depends on you, but there may be one that’s universally agreed upon: he doesn’t even own a bookshelf!
