Embarassing books?

amother

Mon, May 18 2009, 9:07 am

If you keep a well stocked bookshelf, are there some books you keep hidden from view because you don't want passersby to see that you own?
If so, what kind of books are those?
I have some nora roberts books. Should I keep them out of sight?
Also I have some books on the jewish view of intimacy. Is that something I should be embarassed to own? Also mars and venus in the bedroom.
Also, I have a book re dealing with difficult parents. Is that something you would hide?

IOW: what kind of books would you not want to be known that you own and hence you would hide?
Currently the only book I have that is hidden is one about female anatomy and sxuality, because the pics in it are REALLY inappropriate

mummy-bh

Mon, May 18 2009, 9:12 am

so why do you have such books if they are so inappropriate??

my taharas hamishpacha books are kept on a high shelf in the dining room.

Ruchel

Mon, May 18 2009, 9:14 am

The books I don't want in full view are in our room as opposed as the main bookshelves in the living room. I don't know what type is Nora Roberts, but basically anything you don't want to discuss or to have a guest pick up should be out of sight

catonmylap

Mon, May 18 2009, 9:15 am

The books in our living room are mostly sefarim and Jewish books. I would keep "jewish view of intimacy" there (I don't have that one, but anything we have of the Jewish genre is out there). There are some fiction books on the top shelf. And there are fiction books in the bedrooms. I'm not embarrassed to have Nora Roberts books in the house.

I keep books about conceiving and pregnancy in my bedroom. I felt uncomfortable with them anywhere else, especially before I was actually pregnant, and I didn't want someone to make assumptions from seeing I had a book.

amother

Mon, May 18 2009, 9:18 am

And I dont keep them in the living room/dining room. I keep them in another room, but if someone asks me to borrow some english books, I show them the shelf. Its not totally out of site, but not totally in sight that just someone that walks in to my house would be able to see them.

louche

Mon, May 18 2009, 9:40 am

Books on TM are in a drawer with other personal items such as feminine hygiene supplies and bedika cloths, just as cookbooks are in a kitchen cabinet. It's only logical, to say nothing of efficient, to store things where they're used.

Genre fiction isn't worth keeping. I read it and get rid of it. The only secular books I keep are nonfiction: reference works, how-to books or items I will not be able to find in the library, like song books. Maybe the odd Jewish history book or coffee-table book.

Space is too precious to waste it on Nora Roberts, or even Isaac Asimov.

louche

Mon, May 18 2009, 10:37 am

greenfire wrote:

unless it's [filth] what's your issue ...

I think Nora Roberts may be very "soft" [filth], but even if it isn't, it's nothing frum people would want on their public-access bookshelves. A series of made-for-TV movies of several of her novels is coming out now, and the posters are, shall we say, very not tzniusdik. I assume they reflect the tenor of her novels.

shabbatiscoming

Mon, May 18 2009, 2:50 pm

we have eVERYTHING on our book shelves in the living room from sifrei kodesh to my novels that I am sure people here would call "soft [filth]" but are just romance novels.
my thought is, if I am reading them, I am not embarrased for others to see that I am reading them.
the only books that I keep out of the living room are the books that I bought about infertility because I dont need the whole world to know that I had dificulty conceiving. that is nobodies business unless I tell them.
my TH books are in the living room as well as to me, all frum couples have such books so there is no reason to hide them.

amother

Coffee

Mon, May 18 2009, 3:02 pm

I know, a little off-topic, but...
Once, I stayed at someone's house, and the ONLY book on the shelf was a taharas hamishpacha sefer LOL

Back on topic, we keep our TH books on the shelf, where they fit - Hebrew ones with Hebrew ones, English ones with the English ones, etc. We do have some doors on the bottoms of our bookshelves, and "hide" books that are in cherem, and uni. text books. But lots of other things that are totally neutral go under there, too, like extra benchers, and some Jewish novels, and I don't know what else (guess it's time to go through that stuff, if I can't remember what's in there).

Last edited by amother on Sun, Oct 18 2020, 1:19 pm; edited 2 times in total

Clarissa

Mon, May 18 2009, 6:01 pm

I love my books. My bookshelves are my favorite place in the house. I also love perusing other peoples' bookshelves. What I hate is when my wealthy friends who used decorators have no books in view, because the decorator decided they're not aesthetically pleasing.

I can't think of anything I'd be embarrassed about.

Raisin

Mon, May 18 2009, 6:12 pm

Clarissa wrote:

I think some decoraters sell aesthetically pleasing looking books in leather bindings for people like that.

am I the only person who picks up the books in ikea and am disappointed that they are all in swedish?

I keep books that I don't want my kids picking up just yet in my room.

Clarissa

Mon, May 18 2009, 6:19 pm

Raisin wrote:

Clarissa wrote:

Nope, no leather bindings, as those look too old-fashioned and would clash with decor. No bookshelves of any kind.

Raisin

Mon, May 18 2009, 6:44 pm

Clarissa wrote:

Raisin wrote:

Clarissa wrote:

Nope, no leather bindings, as those look too old-fashioned and would clash with decor. No bookshelves of any kind.

how boring. my favourite houses are the ones with walls lined with bookshelves.