What does your bookcase say about you?

It was yet another dull day at work so I was browsing the New York Times and found this article which amused me. In a piece entitled "It’s Not You, It’s Your Books" in which Rachel Donadio writes about our reactions to the bookshelf choices of our new lovers and how their favourite authors can end up being a dealbreaker:

“I did have to break up with one guy because he was very keen on Ayn Rand,” said Laura Miller, a book critic for Salon. ““He was sweet and incredibly decent despite all the grandiosely heartless ‘philosophy’ he espoused, but it wasn’t even the ideology that did it. I just thought Rand was a hilariously bad writer, and past a certain point I couldn’t hide my amusement.”

You know, I do this all the time and, although I'm all for cultural diversity and I'm perfectly willing to overlook that someone doesn't know who Carson McCullers is, or has never read a book by E L Doctorow, I have to agree with Ms Miller for breaking up with someone just because they like Ayn Rand. It's quite right and quite proper! Although I'd like to think that I would've already recognised the tell-tale signs of self-absorbed melodrama and fascist tendencies without having to peruse their bookshelf.

Illustation: "Bookshelf" painting in acrylic by Jessica Gregory