*Book Blogger Hop* 23 August 2017

Joood - Hooligan of Platypire Reviews told me that I'm not allowed to participate in this book blogger hop thing, so now I have to just to spite her. This hop is sponsored by the lovely folks over at Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer and basically the idea is that each week there will be a question for everyone to answer (if they so choose, I'm assuming I'm allowed to opt out of any questions that I don't want to answer). This weeks question is:

When you enter an unfamiliar house or apartment for the first time, do you feel disappointed if you don't see any bookshelves, or books on the coffee table? (submitted by Maria @ A Night's Dream of Books) 

This question has a complicated answer. I mean, I do feel a bit disappointed if I enter a house for the first time and see no books, but I don't automatically assume that means there aren't any in the house. I mean, some people have actual libraries in their houses. When I was a kid, we did. We had one room dedicated to books, and the average guest would never see it because it was on the second floor of the house where all the bedrooms were. And it's possible that one of us kids would have left whatever book we were currently reading sitting on the coffee table in the living room, but kids books don't really send the same message as a bookcase stuffed full of paperbacks. And now, as an adult, I currently have a very small library, and then bookcases in the dining room (it's where they fit), books on the shelves of both kids loft beds, I repurposed a linen closet to become a built-in bookcase, and I've got stacks of books on the floor in my office right now. But most guests would really only briefly notice the library (if they happen to glance that way on the way up the stairs to the living area of our house), and the books in the dining room (which are all books for kids), so without being shown/invited into the library (which is something I would gladly do if I thought the guest wanted to see it), they wouldn't really get a sense for what kinds of books I own (all kinds. I own all kinds of books).

With that in mind, I love it when someone shows me their bookshelves if they aren't in the guest portion of the house, because I think you can tell a lot about a person by what books they keep on their shelves. And I will study their shelves to get a sense of what types of books they like to read because then I can make better recommendations tailored to their tastes, which is something I always try to do. (I actually think it's weird when people just ask for book recommendations without any sort of guidelines because most people have far more selective taste in books than I do.)

So yeah, I'll feel a little disappointed if I don't see any books laying around a new to me house, but I try not to assume that it means they're not there somewhere.

What about you? Leave a comment with a link to your answer (or if you're not a blogger, just answer below). - Katie