What does your bookcase say about you?

One thing that was obvious during 2020 was when people appeared on your screen, whether that was on Television or in a Zoom meeting, they loved to feature a bookshelf as the backdrop. Indeed, I often spent so much time trying to decern the titles displayed behind them that I was barely paying attention to them. Sometimes, I had to wonder if the selection of books behind them was a deliberate attempt to impress me. 

I asked myself if, as Einstein once said, a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, what, then is an empty desk a sign of. And does that apply to other workspace and living space choices? To be sure, and for the record, my desk and bookshelves are as cluttered as my mind. Which is to say complete chaos. As far as desks go, I know my messy desk puts me in better company. There is plenty of photographic evidence of famous people's messy desks. But their bookcases, not so much.

I see the appeal of an organized bookshelf.  Some people sort books by the author's name, by subject matter, or perhaps genre. I have four bookcases in my home. I would pose myself in front of any of them. They are hideously disorganized and appear to be a complete random dump of my current project needs transformed into something I couldn't even explain. There it is. I like to think I'm spontaneous rather than disorganized. The truth is that I'm closer to scatterbrained than anything. Doesn't always work for me, but it doesn't always work against me either. There is a certain kind of inspiration in my highly suspect worldview that can be gleaned from randomness.

So it is, I will have part of my bookcase devoted to magazines. Guitar magazines mostly. No need to complicate that section with, say, chronological order. Or acoustic vs. electric. I like to grab a random one from time to time and see what I missed the first, second, or even third time reading them. 

Part of my bookcase has become devoted to hats. Why? Because I pass that bookcase on the way out of the door. Same reason, a year ago, I placed hooks on the side of it for masks. Made sense to me.

Over the years, I made several valiant attempts to organize my bookshelves. I've often taken away that great feeling of accomplishment of having things neat and orderly. But, it never seems to last. Entropy happens! So without further explanation, here is my most used and very versatile bookcase.

 Feel free to express the outrage for this blasphemy in the comments. Or are you part of my tribe of scatterbrained mess organizers?