the secrets on the shelves

[dream_labyrinth]

A lot of things are supposed to tell others what sort of person you are.
The people you associate with, the things you wear, your hobbies.
For me, the best way to get to know a person is browsing their bookshelves.
A person who does not own any books, in my humble opinion, seriously lacks personality.

Now, considering that my predecessor for 30 years decided what was bought for the library, and that he served his own interest more than that of the institution, the bookshelves of the library can give quite a good impression of his personality.

I have gotten quite a good look so far into the stacks, and I can't say I like what I find overmuch.
His hobby was military music, so of course there are many books about this.
Secondly, I believe he is very much obsessed with conspiracy theories of any description. The bible code, how the evangelists anticipated everything from natural desasters to World War II - we have books about it. Just about every theory about 9/11? Certainly. The middle ages that were just an ínvention? Of course! Aliens who developed the earth, aliens at Area 51, some obscure power infiltrating our lives and stealing all our personal information? All there.
Lastly, he seems to be leaning quite close to the rather right-winged groups, politically. There are some books that would never ever make it into any bookshelve over which I have any sort of influence. (On the other hand, one of the books apparently blames the communist-fascist jewish corporations for 9/11...)

Personally, I have yet to find a conspiracy theory that sounds at all likely.
Not because I am so naive to believe that the press and TV tells us the truth and major corporations are benevolent and magnanimous, and governments are made up of truthful people with strong principles.
No, I simply don't believe in conspiracy theories because I don't see all the people involved as being able to work together so well to convincingly present a different reality.
My favorite example is the theory about the Middle Ages being invented, Charlemagne having never existed and all that. Because somebody found that if those years were indeed invented, they were invented all over the world. And of course, everybody knows that China, the Arabic world and Europe had well established lines of communication to pull this off...
*raises eyebrow*
Who believes those things???

But lets get back to the topic of bookshelves and their contents.
I suppose my own bookshelves show me as a person who reads mainly historical novels, with a tendency for historical romance, who loves fairy tales, but who also reads authors qualifying for "world literature". This selection interspersed with some non-fiction, selected with the aim to become a well-informed individual in every aspect of life, the sciences as well as history and politics. (We'll not discuss how much I succeed in that area...)
The nonfiction is all in German, but in the fiction there's quite a lot of English as well.
Pretty much all of the books have been read, I don't have books just for decoration.

Judging from my bookshelves, I seem like quite a nice, interesting person, actually.
So what's on your shelves?

Comments

[dream-labyrinth.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, because if you play the recordings of people walking on the moon with double speed, it looks just as if they are walking on earth, gravity and all that. So they can't possibly be on the moon.

It's so silly when people claim that manipulating pictures and recordings of events will reveal the truth that was hidden by manipulating the same pictures and recordings.

The director of the army libraries programme is probably part of the conspiracy. *looksaroundsuspiciously* They're everywhere...
;-)