Books as background cred

Bookshelves. Turns out more people have them than you might think. And it seems to be where everyone is setting up to give their video interviews. We have thousands of books around our house right now, all in no particular order, except that we tend to keep our friends’ books together in one case so we can find them easier to leave out on the table when they’re coming to to visit. If bookshelves are some measure of your intelligence/politics, it’s a wonder I became a writer at all. Growing up, my house had only one bookshelf with books on it (the others were chock full of chachkas and collectible plates with little cartoon naked people on them and some version of “Love Is…” at the top), and it was full of Stephen King and Dean Koontz (etc), as well as one row packed several layers deep with cheapo Harlequins. Would I want to conduct my BBC interview or Zoom meeting with a potential employer in front of those? Meh. I don’t really think about it. Maybe I should, though, because apparently curating your background has become quite the Covid-activity.

• On the “Credibility Bookcase”;
• The politics of what’s behind you;
• It’s like a backstage pass to famous people’s lives;
• Vogue getting in on the action;
• Even the National Post is trying to score points on Justin via this nonsense;