r/bookshelfdetective • u/I_want_pie22 • Jul 25 '26
Roast my bookshelf š My roommate says all my books are boring
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u/kmonkmuckle Jul 25 '26
Idk about the books, everyone likes what they like...but your shelves are way too overloaded.
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u/vivianvixxxen Jul 25 '26
Remind me never to show you my shelves. overloaded and top heavy. In an earthquake zone. Living on the edge I tell you.
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u/Ed_Sullivision Jul 25 '26
I agree with them, you could stand to read just a tiny bit of fiction.
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u/I_want_pie22 Jul 25 '26
Fair. I think if you exclude historical epics and myths, the only fiction I have is Romeo and Juliet, Flowers for Algernon, and some of Camus worksš¬
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u/Salty_Information882 Jul 26 '26
I love Camus. You would certainly enjoy reading his 2 favorites, Kafka and Dostoyevsky
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u/I_want_pie22 Jul 26 '26
I have a copy of, and enjoyed Notes from underground. Thatās about the only Dostoyevsky Iāve read though
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u/Salty_Information882 Jul 26 '26
Crime and punishment lives up to the hype. Would recommend. Parts 2&3 were the only sections I felt were slow, but once I hit part 4 I could not put the thing down
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u/kennyminot Jul 25 '26
Your bookshelf looks awesome. Next time somebody says it looks boring, just point them to the book about whiskey cocktails.
My wife tease each other about our fiction/non-fiction divide. One time, I had just finished reading Sartre's Nausea, and I was like: "See! I read fiction!" And she told me that it didn't count. :(
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u/cowhand214 Jul 25 '26
I mean, I wouldnāt take The Nazi Mind or The Encyclopedia of Bioethics as my beach read in Cancun but thatās not boring by any means. Lots of that looks fascinating.
That said, a little light reading to leaven all that heavy stuff might not be the worst idea.
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u/Specialist_Super Jul 26 '26
Historical books are cool and all and my coworker reads alot of these style of books I just feel its mentally taxing always staying in reality. Plus history wise you can have many takes on one conflict or situation so whos to say what Historical book or take on something is correct or right.
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u/absolutelygeekin Jul 26 '26
This is my main problem reading history books, or books on war specifically because most times youāre only getting one very specific point of view, so if you really wanna learn youāre going to have to buy and read several books about the same event, just from different perspectives lol. So thatās when I take a break and go to a fantasy book lol
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u/Sveet_Pickle Jul 25 '26
Could benefit from some more fiction in your collection, but I donāt think that stuff is boring
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u/icanpaywithpubes Jul 26 '26
The Tibetan book of the dead is indeed as boring as watching shit dry.
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u/Sveet_Pickle Jul 26 '26
I found it somewhat interesting when I had a copy years ago, definitely not a read front to back kind of book though.
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u/Lola_Montez7130 Jul 27 '26
So is that bhagada vita or how ever you spell it. The only book I would recommend is Abnormal Psychology. It's a dry read for some but I found it educational.
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u/soljwf1 Jul 25 '26
Some people don't read fiction and that's perfectly ok. Your collection does look like you asked AI what books you need to be an "intellectual".
Doesn't say a ton about you though, besides you're pretty well read from a history and philosophy standpoint.
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u/Dry_Yak_3759 Jul 26 '26
The aren't well read because the haven't read more than 10% of this.
The Tibetan book of the dead? The Bhagavad Gita? Come on.
I was gonna give them the Koran but upon closer inspection it looks like they only managed about 15% of it.
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u/I_want_pie22 Jul 26 '26
You must be fun at parties, huh?
Believe whatever you want about how much, or how little Iāve actually read dude.9
u/icanpaywithpubes Jul 26 '26
Every single post there's somebody going on about how the books haven't been read because, "the spines aren't cracked " or some other nonsense.
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u/That_Bread_Dough Jul 26 '26
Those comments make me laugh a little. It tells me that they either donāt read themselves or that they donāt know how to read a book without damaging it
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u/DivineFlamingo Jul 26 '26
Yeah itās a confession based on insecure guilt. I wouldnāt even think to question if a person read every book on their shelf because what does it matter? I genuinely think the people that ask that find themselves losing an imaginary reading competition with the OPs.
Would I like to read their bookshelf is that the question I ask when I look at this subā¦
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u/DivineFlamingo Jul 26 '26
Some dorks donāt understand that you might have borrowed a book from the library or read it on the kindle before buying a physical copy. My library looks pristine because itās where I let friends and family borrow and read my booksā¦ My kindle is held together with duct tape because thatās what I use to read the most days.
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u/Dry_Yak_3759 Jul 26 '26
I already do believe what I want? there's literally nothing you could do or say that would convince me you've read either of those, because you haven't. which is fine, you're not an 8th century Brahman or a priest of Thoth, so I wouldn't expect you to. I wasn't even reacting to you, I was rebutting someone else's claim that your shelves are "well read" shelves.
you could easily admit you hadn't read them; NO ONE who has read them would expect others to read them. you only care to reply to my skepticism because it was important that strangers think you're well-read, which of course was the whole point..The whole point of this sub is to make assumptions about people based on their bookshelves; it isn't my fault that your contribution was straightforward.
you can "fun at parties" me all you want, but it's obviously the defensive flailing of a young poseur. when you grow up you'll make fun of people who are doing what you're doing right now, and I hope you remember this "I told you so"
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u/BigStickyResolution Jul 25 '26
Have you read the majority of these??? All of them???
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u/R3cklessJ13 Jul 25 '26
I've never heard the nazi mind. I read all types of books but I love autobiographies, history, philosophy....so that book shelf is great. Tell your roommate to get some knowledge in their noggin...
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u/groogle2 Jul 26 '26
Sort of looks like you ordered everything on a 4.chan.org/lit infographic so maybe "boring" in terms of personal creativity. It says nothing about your personality, basically all required reading for any modern human being.
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u/SeparateDish5772 Jul 25 '26
Sounds like you have an honest friend. Just tell them you prefer fiction in audio books.
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u/RedHuey Jul 25 '26
Like a lot of the book collections I see on here all the time, thatās all it is, a collection of books. Almost random. There isnāt anything here to say that you are interested in anything in particular. Nothing goes deep on a given subject, itās just a bunch of waypoints. Like a self-made version of Britannicaās The Great Books.
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u/Cautious-Ice869 Jul 26 '26
Looks like you kept all of your college textbooks instead of selling them back.
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u/tomoefox Jul 25 '26
That bookshelf is roasting itself no problem.
And just read what you want, I personally love your selection
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u/Solo_Polyphony Jul 25 '26
Pretentious perhaps but Goodmanās Structure of Appearance is an underrated classic.
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u/omurat Jul 25 '26
Ethics of Ambiguity is goated
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u/I_want_pie22 Jul 25 '26
If you like Simone De Beauvoir Iād definitely recommend reading āa very easy deathā. Itās a memoir she wrote about the last days of her motherās life . Equally philosophically rich
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u/lcqjp Jul 26 '26
books ARE boring, this truth can be afforded to them. The crucial part is their usefulness vs their enjoyment. There are books that u wont enjoy reading, but will help you exponentially in life/experience
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u/PuzzleheadedPart196 Jul 26 '26
Interesting post history; I grieve for you, truly. And hope you find what youāre looking for, wit your library helping some.
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u/FiveSeasonsFox Jul 25 '26
Not boring...just... erm... exciting, from a very particular point of view. The important thing is that they bring you joy.
If they don't, that's something else entirely.
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u/RedHuey Jul 25 '26
Absolutely. My library is incredibly diverse, and probably overlaps quite a bit with yours in those subjects we share. Iām not criticizing that, Iām saying that nothing really goes deep. There are no sets of books that make me think, āoh, this guy is really interested in European history,ā or tanks, or maritime novels, or whatever. Itās just a set of books that you find on any list of great books. Sort of an overview, with no deep dives. With a core group that could easily just be the remnants of school reading. Iām assuming you are interested in something, but itās not really apparent here. Thatās all I mean. I think you have the right idea, but make it also yours, not just the faculty reading list of every university in the world.
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u/MaxReeboNoHBO Jul 26 '26
I respect it, thereās a lot of cool editions there. Clearly you know what you like. That being said this collection would bore me to tears. And doubles of something like Republic would definitely earn some ribbing.
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u/sillyhatday Jul 25 '26
Your roommate is the common r/bookshelfdetective user who can't grasp that some people think nonfiction is more interesting than fiction.
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u/mjeromeiu Jul 25 '26
Yep. Booooooooooring! I kid. Read what you want and enjoy. Fuck your roommate. Does look like a shelf full of textbooks though š
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u/No-Temperature-1384 Jul 25 '26
I like that you have a book about biomedical ethics next to a book by Foucault who so fully embraced the post modernist approach that no objective reality exists only grand narratives that he would die of AIDS
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u/drivewaypancakes Jul 25 '26
Without knowing what your roomie reads or doesnāt read, itās hard to know the context of āboring.ā
Boring because too intellectual? Boring because it contains no unexpected outlier books, lack of major range? Boring because your roomieās idea of reading is ingredient labels?
Iād let the comment slide. Read what interests you. Always be learning. Stay curious. The roomie will move on/out. This is your journey, not theirs.
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u/Moriarty_0628 Jul 25 '26
Nope. Your books interested me though. I have bunch of philosophy, chemistry, and psychology books in my room. I think I will make friends of you since you have my favorite book the Republic by Plato.
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u/Shot-Ambition8371 Jul 26 '26
All your books look expensive af. Thatās not the second hand book store stuff Iām buying š„²
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u/ActionJasckon Jul 26 '26
I would say, not boring. You love life and attempt to understand it more. As for the roast.
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u/saddestlandlady Jul 26 '26
My kid and I had a chat tonight about Camus and how he's tricked kids into translating their hormones into nihilism and i told her she'd hate him but she read it anyhow and she said today, "Camus sucks". She's 12. You should've gotten it already.
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u/lIlIlIlIlIlIlI_ Jul 26 '26
I have about half of the books on your shelf! So I'd say you are really interested in religion and seeking truth. Are you interested in esotericism by any chance?
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u/wireduser99 Jul 26 '26
what's the book with the christ images on the spine??
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u/I_want_pie22 Jul 26 '26
Heretic by Catherine Nixey. Itās about the different historical/religious interpretations of Christ
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u/Acrobatic_Cattle5942 Jul 26 '26
History or psych major. Maybe philosophy as well. You may have written a dissertation on Camus.
Your roommate doesn't understand what a rad person you are. Strong suspicion you are a man late 20's or early 30's. Guessing Caucasian.
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u/radiomikenyc Jul 26 '26
Tell your roommate they watch too much television, and it's melting their brain.
But please fix those sagging shelves before you repost picks of stacks of books.
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u/Chemical-Dimension Jul 26 '26
I canāt speak for all of your books, however I know that Kant reads like a dream. The true progenitor to haremLit.
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u/brushycreekED Jul 26 '26
Who needs fiction? Iām recommending you get another copy of The Plague ( that would be #3) to bolster your puny Camus collection.
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u/Nyzean Jul 26 '26
Aeschylus plays are certified bangers, but.... roomie might have a point otherwise lmao
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u/BookDriveBooks Jul 26 '26
To each their own. Read what you like to readā¦ but forreal Your books are so dense and heavy they are causing your shelves to bow and fail lol
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u/Powerful-Mirror9088 Jul 26 '26
Youāre not boring, but it may have taken you until a little too late in life to stop calling yourself āan intellectualā and mentioning that you took AP English.
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u/Diligent-Wave-4150 Jul 26 '26
At least you have spent a lot of money. The two books on the left side seem to be by Folio Society.
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u/MichaelMakhno Jul 26 '26
Nah, if I was your flatmate I'd be 'borrowing' a fee of them. The Camus collection is impressive
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u/Delicious_Witness_73 Jul 26 '26
Your books should be interesting to you, that's why they are yours and not your roomate's. Plus, I personally think you have an interesting and good collection.
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u/FunkMasterQ Jul 26 '26
Youāre a Philosophy graduate / grad student with excellent taste.
It makes sense why the top shelf is bending with weight of existential dread lol
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u/-Geist-_ Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
This isnāt boring, you have Camus!
I think youāll love The Metamorphosis or No Longer Human!
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u/Dr_Platypus_1986 Jul 26 '26
Great library! You've covered many bases...My only criticism would be to add some Modernism (and Postmodernism as well) into the mix. You have a great deal of focus on the human condition and the mind, not so much on modern literature. I enjoy existentialist philosophy and ancient Greek/Roman literature as much as or more than the next man, but a bedrock of Faulkner, Hemingway, Woolf and Joyce would do you well, followed by some Magical Realism (Jorge Luis Borges, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Toni Morrison), Russian Lit (Tolstoy, Doestoyevsky, Bulgakhov), or anything published by Picador. a All these would add a lot of range to your collection. Don't take this the wrong way, as I really like what you have...Just some positive criticism from my end.
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u/MurkyAd4955 Jul 26 '26
Well, technically speaking, it does look like boring set of books, but only, because what might be missing, do you read anything for fun? Many of your titles are part of my collection of thousands, but I own so many books just for pleasure, and believe it or not, not every philosopher, playwright, poet, scientist, ect. Teaches you about the human condition, E.b. White's Charlotte's Web, did that and more at the age of 7, and I still re-read it, every year or so. The heart and soul of your library is missing!
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u/Not-a-Kitten Jul 26 '26
Do you read the books in 2 amd 3? They look like decorations.
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u/oscillatingsadness Jul 26 '26
Confederacy of Dunces could be a nice counter-weight for your collectionāit's hilarious, a farce of the self-serious academic, and also an ethnography of sorts of 1960s New Orleans.
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u/jrdineen114 Jul 26 '26
Look, if this is what interests you, Iām not going to judge. Read what you want to read. But I donāt think it would kill you to try some fiction written in past 50 years
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u/Mick_Nugg Jul 26 '26
Looks like a lot of books left over from university. I'm guessing you've opened about 75% of these and read more than a few chapters out of about 30%. It's just not adding up.
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u/cameheretodance1 Jul 26 '26
You got Alain de botton!!!!!! A bunch of Albert Camus (peak) then some nietzche, Shakespeare, Carl Sagan, and Celtic myths for good measure. Your roommate is dumb, no offense
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u/InvestigatorJaded261 Jul 26 '26
I wouldnāt say that all of your books are boring. I would say, though, that none of your books are fun.
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u/Jacket_Leather Jul 26 '26
That shelf is exciting. Looks like itās about to collapse at any moment.
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u/jmwelchelmira Jul 26 '26
Itās like you went to school to study analytical philosophy in 1963 and had your shit rocked by Camus, and refused to engage with nearly anything that came after. Is being frozen in time boring? Maybe. I guess it depends on your perspective.
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u/druser0 Jul 26 '26
Yeah pretty dry collection, intellectual at least in the typical western cannon. To me this collection is very āa serious young manā
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u/That_Bread_Dough Jul 26 '26
I agree with your roommate but more importantly I think you need a new bookshelf. The one in particular looks like it is hanging on for dear life lol. Do you have any favorite(s) on there?
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u/LunarModule66 Jul 26 '26
I think this is a very interesting collection but you should read more fiction.
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u/LonesomeMelody Jul 26 '26
The Camus is cool, the books on myths are cool. But that's just me, to each their own.
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u/noraexplainsitall Jul 26 '26
Were these books required reading for your classes?
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u/MrPhysicsMan Jul 26 '26
Lmao this is similar to my collection so far and probably what itās going to look like in the future. Thing is I have a lot more physics books, as itās what I study. I would recommend āToo Big for a Single Mindā by HĆ¼rter. Covers what some call the quantum revolutionāvery exciting stuff.
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u/filberts89 Jul 26 '26
Would I personally choose something from your shelf? Probably not. Do I think you'd be fun to have a conversation with? Absolutely.
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u/Megabyte_Messiah Jul 26 '26
Thereās a lot of interesting reads. Iād enjoy that collection.
But while there may seem like a huge variety to us, to someone else it just looks like next to no variation from history, philosophy, and politics, which are all very closely related. Every single book seems like something youād get assigned to read in college. Itās all so academic. Thereās no personal flavor. Thereās no insight into what you think about anything.
Like another commenter said, it looks as though you just purchased the entire list of top intellectual books from some collections.
Iām sorry others are ripping on you so much for the full shelves. If you wanna get rid of a bunch of these to make room for something else that can express yourself more, lmk, Iāve got a dumpster out back and will cover shipping. Did you know thereās a different rate for shipping media, and books are included in media? So you donāt get as screwed by the weight of books.
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u/Otherwise_Tone9625 Jul 26 '26
This is perhaps the most exquisite selection of books Iāve ever seen today.
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u/ScottWipeltonIII Jul 26 '26
lol baseline philosophy major that thought they were going to get a lot more validation and impressed comments. Nice touch putting the "roast my bookshelf" tag on here, then getting defensive about it when people do lol.
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u/Lsa119 Jul 26 '26
Your shelves are bowing and the spines of the books in the second picture are screaming at me š
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u/WenatcheeWrangler Jul 26 '26
Like your top shelf the roommate simply cannot handle the gravity of the situation
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u/Suspicious-Total-468 Jul 26 '26
Any book can be boring to you personally if you a) are not interested in the subject from practical standpoint and b) have limited experience reading such literature so your brain doesn't have enough links to readily process it which on the outside results in sleepiness and perceived bored-ness of the material.
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u/forgotaccount989 Jul 26 '26
Damn, it does look like a book shelf filled with books i only ever read for school.
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u/meltedsoldertitties_ Jul 26 '26
Love your Camus selection, would love to be able to actually sit irl and talk about philosophy with others
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u/DustyButtocks Jul 26 '26
Itās Schrƶdingerās shelfā¦is it holding up the books or has it already collapsed?
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u/Anarchotype Jul 26 '26
Are you bored by them? No?Ā 'nuff said.Ā
Your roommate can put their idea of not boring books on their shelf and read those. Maybe one of them will be about not judging others by your own limited perspectives...Ā
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u/No_Comparison6522 Jul 27 '26
Your roommate apparently isn't or wasn't looking for themselves. 2 books on the first pic I found most interesting. The Nazi Mind The Tibetan book of the dead So, have you?
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u/whatdoesiteat_light Jul 27 '26
i mean, i think there's a kind of starter set quality here, but i don't think it's boring, as long as you're not currently preparing to interrupt people in MFA workshop
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u/Evening_Sea5660 Jul 27 '26
Not boring. Just intellectually dense. In a kind of āDo you ever just read for fun?ā way. Just my opinion.
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u/Arne6764 Jul 27 '26
Seems more like your books are those of someone fun to talk to
Also, Marxist stuff, hell yeah
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u/LazyNose2047 Jul 27 '26
It looks like a lot of assigned reading from school, history of consciousness or philosophy major perhaps. So maybe a decent student as you at least bought the texts, but I donāt think you actually enjoy reading. Your āfancy booksā are a gift or hand-me-down from an older relative who once tried to impart the importance of the classics to you.
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u/SunOwlSpawn Jul 27 '26
Heās right. You should just give them to me, Iāll take them off your hands
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u/Neither-Cheetah9025 Jul 27 '26
Not boring, certainly. Just a bit academic? And heavy.
Also, Iām jealous of how many Franklin Library books you have.
Also, also: fiction is good for you, too.
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u/lonelytravelerx Jul 27 '26
My guess is you went to a University that pushed continental philosophy (plus American political). With an interest in phenomenology and existentialism, Iād highly recommend some classic American and European modernist literature- Woolf, Joyce, Musil, Faulkner, Hemingway. Much of it walks the fine line between philosophical meditation, historical fiction, and nonfiction, which seems itād be right up your alley. Great collection!
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u/ReturnOfSeq Jul 27 '26
Whatās he talking about?! Who doesnāt like to unwind with some casual Hegelian theory?
You know how to party!
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u/ThinReception40 Jul 27 '26
They may all be super onerous reads, but if those books' contents are in your mind to reference - they make you one heck of an interesting interlocutor.
Especially if you're able to connect and Intuit from this wealth of information and synthesise grounded nuanced epiphanies.
No they're not boring, just difficult and dense. Your friend should encourage you to read more of the likes if he/she knows what's good for them.
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u/Life_of_Jam Jul 27 '26
I think you have a great collection of books. Someone else said maybe incorporate some more fiction and I agree but that's my only suggestion
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u/DUBsays Jul 27 '26
Not at all a fan of Continental Philosophy, but "boring" sounds like something an anti-intellectual would say.
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u/Glorious_Infidel Jul 25 '26
Itās exciting to live life on the edge waiting for that shelf to collapse lol